This project was finished up last week in Fletcher, VT. The idea was to use locally sourced re-claimed antique bricks, and lay them on their skinny edge, or as "shiners", as opposed to "stretcher", which would be the typical style in which the broad surface is set horizontally. I had been messing around with this idea for a few months, and the client let me go for it. The other part of the idea was to lay the bricks with as little mortar as possible, and try to replicate with brick the "dry-lay" style of stonework that is very popular. The result is a fine line of chocolate tinted mortar between the bricks. These old bricks are fairly irregular, and so I let them feel like stone, and didn't obsess over level, etc. The result is a heater with a lot of feelingand funk. The bricks speak for themselves, and in the textures of the broad faces are found fingerprints, leaf and stick imprints, and cat tracks, all remnants from the original molding process which was done by hand about 150 years ago when these bricks were made. There is a lot to see when you get up close, and some nice little surprises.
