About Us

Jackie Abey and Jill Smallcombe are artists who have collaborated for over ten years specialising in the use of cob in art and architecture. Cob is a mixture of subsoil, straw and water and is a traditional building material used in the South West of England for centuries.

They have designed and constructed cob buildings for public places including the Eden Project, Sustrans Cycle Routes, Somerset College of Arts and Technology, SW Lakes Trust and the National Trust and have also created many earth sculptures, which have been exhibited all over the country.

They also run increasingly popular cob workshops teaching planners, architects, builders, artists etc. Education and the dissemination of information is an important part of Abey Smallcombe’s philosophy and they are regularly involved with sustainable groups such as SPAB, Devon Earth Building Association, Earth Building UK, AECB, and Rural Skills Trust.

Not only do they teach hands-on skills, they also give talks about traditional and contemporary earth building in the South West of England and worldwide. With help and support from The Arts Council, The Princes’s Foundation and the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, they have made research trips to India, USA and Africa.

Many schools have benefited from their experiences both through their talks and workshop, theses include Farms For City Children, Landscore Primary School, Stoke Hill Primary, Bovey Tracey Primary, Broadwoodwidger Primary.

3 Little Pigs is a recent enterprise, developing Abey Smallcombe’s inspiring educational work by bringing mud into schools.

The picture above shows a recent project at Landscore Primary, Crediton, where a sustainable outdoor timber and earth structure with a turf roof was built. All 230 children in the school attended a talk about earth constructions. History, geography, culture, art and the environment were all covered and through the project these aspects have been fed directly into the schools curriculum.

Over three days each child had time mixing cob, making cob blocks and helping to build two curved cob seats inside the shelter. With the mud blocks, year 6 built a traditional domed bread oven which is situated by the shelter and has already been lit for baking.

Abey Smallcombe's 3 little pig sustainable courses are also run for team building / fun days for businesses / organisations.