Mikey Sklar (with the help of his partner Wendy) used his papercrete mixer to process his prickly pears.
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/01/prickly-harvest.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/01/prickly-mixer.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/01/prickly-strain.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/01/slimer.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/01/limeade.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/02/harvest.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/02/paint-day.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/02/rolling-paint.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/02/drying-paint.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/02/make-paint-from-cactus-juice-and-lime.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/02/white-wash.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/02/more-brown-paint.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/02/battery-room-second-coat.html
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2008/11/prickly-goo.html
It appears that Mikey's prickly pear paint lasted him about 4 years in the New Mexico Sunshine.
http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2012/10/annual-fall-clean-up.html
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "ken winston caine" <ken.winston.caine@...> wrote:
>
>
> For Dan Berry, who asked about cactus juice sealant:
>
> "If you have prickly pear cactus around they can be chopped up in a fifty-five gallon drum and left to percolate a bit. After a while a green sticky goo is produced that can be lifted out and added to mud to make a fairly waterproof plaster."
>
> -- http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/QandA/adobe/mixes.htm
>
>
> ""I would say that you might cut up purple and green cactus and put them in separate five-gallon buckets and cover them with water. After a week or ten days they should ferment and if you keep stirring daily it should turn into a gelatinous mess. Then you lift out the mess with some fork-like device and leave behind the spines. The gelatinous mess can then be used to make plaster and I think around a pint per wheelbarrow is a ratio for starting. Maybe a quart. Every soil is different in how it reacts to admixtures.
>
> "Then you just have to scientifically monkey around till you find a mixture that can be troweled, does not crack upon drying, and demonstrates an enhanced resistance to water erosion."
> -- ibid
>
>
> So there you have some basic instructions.
>
> Saw a video last year of someone -- maybe it was Mikey Skylar? -- spraying a cactus juice formula directly onto the exterior surface of a papercrete structure. So believe that that is an option as well. Not sure how much you would thin it with water, etc.
>
> Am sure that if you Google cactus juice sealant, cactus juice waterproofing, prickly pear cactus gel waterproofing, and similar search terms that you will come up with a lot of information.
>
> And undoubtedly there are people on this group who are experienced with using prickly pear juice and can add to this.
>
> -- ken winston caine
>
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