The (previous) picture includes a tile on top of the dome which I used simply to make the outer surface smooth. Other posts will tell you to put on newspaper on top of this dome, if I did it again I'd use a plastic bag, as its probably easier for pulling out the sand later on. Anyway, to the rest of it: I then dug out clay from garden. Here, its virtually all clay. How to tell: it doesn't break up. You can mold it if you wish. So a few sackfulls of clay with all the other crap that came with it. This then needs to be mixed with sand. The ratio I used varied considerably as frankly I wasn't very confident, but I think I was about 50% sand and 50% mud. I mixed it more or less as you would a cement, i.e. using a spade to chop, then turn, then mix into the middle, then chop then turn again. Water added to make it mix up, and make it malleable.
So lots lof mixing. But I didn't use the paddling or puddling technique described in the other sites, just normal cement mixing technique. However, when I handled it, I did give it a good squidge around with my hands. Then this goes round the whole structure, in a spiral, and aiming to push down against the floor rather than against the sand dome. So, up and up, until the whole thing is covered. I think the wall thickness at this point was roughly across my knuckles and then some, i.e. 3 to 4 inches.
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