🧪 Material Experiments

Turning seafood waste into building material

In coastal Louisiana, oysters are more than food. They are culture, economy, and ecology. But what happens to the shells after the meal? Typically, they end up in landfills. In collaboration with local seafood purveyors COGO's and The FACTS, we collected hundreds of oyster shells and asked a different question: Could we turn them into lime for plaster?

Led by artist and educator Cassidy Creek, we washed, cooked, and ground the shells, transforming them through fire into a usable building material. The resulting lime plaster was applied to test surfaces on the Earth Church, demonstrating a closed loop system where waste from the fishing industry becomes a resource for natural building.

What we learned:

Oyster shells, when heated, break down into calcium oxide (quicklime), which can be slaked to create lime putty for plaster.

The process is energy intensive but achievable at a small scale with a kiln.

This experiment points toward a larger vision: regional building materials sourced from regional waste streams.

Why it matters:
Coastal communities face both industrial pollution and the loss of traditional livelihoods. By connecting the region's fishing heritage to its building future, we create new economies and new reasons to protect the water.

Strengthening cob with agricultural byproduct

Cob, a mixture of clay, sand, and straw, has been used for centuries to build durable, beautiful structures. But what if the fiber doesn't have to travel from faraway farms? In Southwest Louisiana, corn is everywhere. After Maury Johnson of the Ponca Tribe brought his family's 137 year old Seeds of Resistance corn to the Earth Church, we were left with a question: What can we build with the husks?

We dried the corn husks and incorporated them into experimental cob mixes as a replacement for traditional straw fiber. The result was a lighter, locally sourced cob with a texture and story unique to place.

What we learned:

Dried corn husks can successfully replace straw as a fiber in cob, though they require different preparation and handling.

The husks carry meaning. Grown from seeds that traveled from the Great Plains to resist a pipeline, they now help build a sanctuary in Louisiana.

Local materials are not just practical. They are narrative. Every handful of cob contains a story.

Why it matters:
Industrial agriculture and petrochemical infrastructure are deeply intertwined in the Gulf South. By using agricultural byproducts in construction, we model a different relationship to the land, one based on care, not extraction.

From bottle to brick to building

Glass Half Full is a New Orleans based company turning recycled glass into sand for coastal restoration, flood protection, and yes, building. When they offered us cobalt blue sand, crushed from blue glass bottles, we saw an opportunity.

We mixed the vibrant blue sand into experimental plasters, testing its workability, colorfastness, and structural integrity. The result was a striking, pigmented plaster that requires no synthetic dyes or industrial pigments. The blue echoes the water, the sky, and the glass bottles that once held medicine, wine, and hope.

What we learned:

Crushed glass sand can be successfully incorporated into earthen plasters, adding color and sparkle without compromising performance.

The circularity is poetic: glass made from sand returns to sand, then becomes wall.

Working with upcycled materials invites play and possibility. The blue wall at the Earth Church is a reminder that waste is just material waiting for a better question.

Why it matters:
The chemical industry has given us plastics that never degrade and pigments that poison. By turning to recycled glass, we choose materials that honor their own lifecycle and ours.