Chris

Brickwork designed by Anne Nov '10

Photo taken 4th Nov '10

The first few courses were laid, taking particular care
with the length and the gauge

Photo taken 12th Nov '10

Blocks were used for the back of the panel
These were bonded into the brick pillars

Photo taken 14th Nov '10

Because the design is quite complicated, a full-scale template was drawn onto a piece of plywood.
My kitchen table was used as a work-bench ...

Photo taken 14th Nov '10

...but the cat kept getting in the way!

Photo taken 15th Nov '10

Each brick was then cut according to the template

Photo taken 17th Nov '10

String lines were set up for the diagonals and the arris of each brick was laid to these lines. An additional line was attached to check Face Plane Deviation

Photo taken 18th Nov '10

Chris is a Level 1 Student and has only been laying bricks for 3 months

A Brickwork Essay

I am really enjoying my brickwork course. At the moment, I am doing a decorative wall panel. It is very time-consuming and quite a challenge

To start with, Anne had to cut a lot of bricks into different shapes and sizes. While Anne was doing that, I got to work on my side walls. I think I put them up quite well considering I have very limited space to work with.

I also had to put up a support wall of concrete blocks at the back of my decorative wall. When I had finished with the support wall and side walls, the hard part started.

I had to put up three lines for guidance, which was hard in itself. Next to do was the cuts. It took time to do, but it is almost complete now

Looking at my work now, I think it looks quite good. I feel that I must have done okay, as lots of students have made positive comments about it, but I do know that I can do a lot better.

For one thing, it could have been a lot cleaner and I made one or maybe two big joints, which left a little problem on the right-hand side.

But in the coming months, I want to give it another go and I will improve as I want to be a professional bricklayer. If I was to mark my work so far, I would give myself 6 out of 10

Chris Meli
17. 12. 10

Unfortunately, this work was demolished before any more photos were taken