Enduit finition en terre (final earth render)

I have recently started to do the finishing earth renders in the house.  Traditionally there are three coats of earth render - the first is a thick slip, the second is made with coarse sand, earth and sometimes fibres and the final coat that I have chosen to do is just sand (sable de Bayeux) and clay earth.

The first step was to do test patches of various mixes of the sand and earth to find a recipe that didn't crack ....  the earth is filtered through a large sieve placed over an old bath and allowed to soak in water for at least a day or two before being filtered again through a fine sieve.  I also filtered the sand as I found it had little stones that made applying the render difficult .... the recipe I found that worked for the earth that I have here is one volume of earth to two sand applied at a thickness of about 0,7cm.  Some images:


Various combination of earth and sand to see which
one would not crack ....
 

The earth is left to soak in the bath
after being sieved to break up the
clods



The earth is left to soak in the bath for at least
24 hours


 

I filter the sand through a fine sieve to remove some
of the bigger stones
 



The soaked earth is sieved into the bucket on the left and
will be mixed with the Bayeux
sand (one volume of earth to two vlumes of sand).  I've been
doing it by hand but with some helpers it will be
quicker in the concrete mixer
 

 

The finishing earth render on a section
of wall inside the house
 



The back wall with its final coat
of earth