July 23, 2007

Our natural building workshop was amazing! Michael Smith, Janine Björnson, Ambrose Desmond, Erin O’Reilly & Penny Livingston Stark inspired us with their incredible depth of knowledge and instruction in a myriad of natural building techniques – including cord wood, straw bale, straw light clay, straw wattle, cob, and timber frame construction which utilized eucalyptus poles harvested from our land – as well as natural plaster and paint finishes. Take a look at these beautiful structures in progress: slideshow.

We had a wonderful day of Bamboo building with Martin and Grace Coto from Costa Rica. It was truly a pleasure to watch Martin demonstrate his mastery with bamboo joinery. Darrel Deboer, bamboo architect, Kevin Rowell and Marisha Farnsworth of Kleiwerks International West also came and shared their work and vision with us. Course participants got to try their hands at constructing some basic bamboo joints, and the yurt now has a beautiful bamboo shelving system!

Get involved!

We know many of you wanted to attend this Natural Building workshop but couldn’t make it. There are still opportunities to get involved, so we invite you to come and get your hands dirty! This month we will be plastering, building cob and light straw clay walls, as well as finishing the roofs on two of the structures. Join us on Fridays during July and August, from 10:30am – 5:30pm. We will also be working on most Saturdays through the end of August – check in with the office if you are interested in coming on by.