So the originally Moroccan natural building material and process of Tadelakt is something I have recently come across while volunteering to build a house in the Beira Baixa province of Portugal. I have never heard it mentioned in England before so it feels very exciting to discover a potential new sculptural material that I don’t think many artist in the UK have explored.

“The word Tadelakt comes from the verb “dalaka”, which in Arabic means to rub, to caress, to massage or to flatten. In addition, Tadelakt is the Berber pronunciation of the name Dalk”

So Tadelakt is water proof, natural and can be moulded and shaped around anything and in any shape which just instantly makes me think of how much of an amazing potential this material could have for sculptures, rather than using say metal or concrete or something that won’t decompose plus it can be an outdoor sculpture because it won’t get destroyed in the rain or wind or snow. Also if it does get damaged it could be interesting to sea the change in the colour and weathering it faces especially in a wet place like England opposed to Morocco where it originated!

Often used in bathrooms because it is water proof.
Made from natural hydraulic lime, quartz and marble. Tadelakt is naturally  white in color and can be pigmented to varying  intensities using natural colour earth pigments  creating   spectacular intense patinas .
Like the building below you can see how glass bottles have been incorporated in the walls made from cob plus other materials like wood have been merged into the walls and building – I could easily do this with sculptures that incorporate other organic matte or waste materials in them, could even hold candles or be used and designed as fire pits or wash bowls.

From what I could find on a quick google search for artists using Tadelakt the below forms were the old art like sculptures that I found! All otherwise were examples of how the material has been used practically with bathrooms and in interior design which suggests that it would be quite an individual material to use for sculpture and art works, plus I believe it is probably easy to paint on.

Things I could make from Tadelakt:

Bowls, plates, cups, mugs, spoons (done around cheap wooden spoons) washing up bowls, extravagant arty bowls and vessels
sinks, baths, general interior
general organic blobby arty sculptures that incorporate glass and wood etc. anything I find
candle holders, extravagant large candle holders

furniture like tables and chairs just by building around existing cheap second hand/found furniture stuff with interesting organic additional shapes or whatever – just be experimental with it!

Organic and interesting shaped plinths for art galleries and artists like those in the image above

Notes:
The natural colour of tadelakt is white and looks quite rustic
You will need natural colour pigments to die the tadelakt mixture which could be found in local clay quarries and I could make my own natural pigments from beetroot or paprika, clay, seaweed etc.
It is a long process so cost a lot of time and effort which means can be sold at high price
I could collect and use clay and mud for the first under layers of cob from local quarries – could be serious part of context and process linking it to Cornwall.
It is a technique that I could become a master of and run workshops in – it is something different that I haven’t heard of sculptural workshops being done in it before!

So in light of this material discovery: yesterday I was to be flying back to England next week, and today I think I might stop in Marrakech for a few days for some photographing, spice hauling and tadelakt researching!