Glass Bottle Wall

The initial Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in India lasted from 24th March 2020 till 31st May 2020. During this period of strict lockdown, my father and I decided to undertake an upcycling/ recycling project, putting to use sundry glass bottles that had collected at home.

The project idea was to use these glass bottles to build a small wall, on the boundary of our rooftop verandah. We wanted this to be as ecologically friendly as possible, so in stead of using cement we decided to use mud mortar to hold the wall together.

While neither of us had any experience in using mud as a building material, but my grandfather had some knowledge, having grown up in rural India in the 1940’s and 50’s. With his basic guidance we started work in earnest!

The mud mortar was made by digging up dry earth from one corner of our garden, then sieving it to remove stones and clumps. For a sieve, we used a steel mesh from an old broken screen window, which we had lying at home. The traditional formula, called for us to mix in cattle dung and horse hair, but since we had neither we had to come up with substitutes. We used our own hair (collected by doing quick & dirty home haircuts on all the menfolk) and in stead of cattle dung, we added a generous portion of cow dung manure, which we store for use in the garden. Water was added and the entire concoction was thoroughly mixed using a hoe, till we got the thickness and consistency we though would work best.

Once we started laying in the bottles and applying the plaster, we realised that it wasn’t easy to keep everything in line, despite us building upon an existing brick wall. So we used a longish straight piece of wood, to constantly check and see that we were maintaining a straight line.

Also, our plaster kept drying out in the intense summer heat, so we had to constantly add small amounts of water to keep it from setting before we had a chance to apply it.

My father and I alternated between carrying materials and laying out the wall. It was hard work but we had a great time working together.

When I finally stepped back and saw the final product of our shared labour, I felt both pleasure and pride at us having created something beautiful out of what most people view as trash 🙂