There is a small category of materials that are not assembled from anything, and felt is the oldest of them.
Almost every fabric is made of threads. Spinning turns loose…
There is a common assumption about layered rocks that slate steadily breaks.
The assumption is that a rock which splits into sheets does so along the layers in which it…
There is an image that makes most people wince the first time they see it: a hammer driving nails into a horse's foot.
The reaction is reasonable, and it rests…
For most of the history of keeping bees, getting honey meant damaging the colony that produced it.
Bees build comb attached to whatever surfaces are available, fused to the walls…
There is an assumption about mosaic that treats it as decoration applied to a finished surface — small pieces stuck onto a floor or a wall, like tiles.
That is…
There is a category of traditional building technique that looks primitive and turns out to be doing something subtle, and thatch is the clearest example available.
The appearance suggests a…