Hello, friends-

There is still space in both of my summer workshops: “Natural Plasters and Floors” at Wanosh Forest Gardens in July and “Natural Building with Clay, Stone and Wood” at Tan Oak Park in August.

This is the 4th year of natural plasters and floors intensives at Wanosh Forest Gardens. There is a lot of great finish work to see from previous years, and we will be adding a lot more beautiful finishes to several of the natural buildings there. My co-teacher Avani Patrick is just back from three months plastering in Japan and is excited to teach some of what she learned there, including the superfine lime Shikkui finish. This 9-day workshop includes a huge range of information and skill-building appropriate for everyone from beginning to experienced plasterers. Register at: https://wanosh.org/arts-of-natural-plasters

We’ve just finalized details with my longtime collaborator Colin Gillespie for our second workshop at Tan Oak Park, which is being developed into a demonstration center for ecological forest management and reciprocal culture building. This is a great first workshop for people new to natural building who want to learn not only healthy construction techniques but how to develop a more healthy relationship with the land. We will be emphasizing how to sustainably harvest building materials on site, with hands-on work focused on cob, stone foundations, round pole harvest and framing, and earthen plasters and floors. Register here: https://nm-era.org

Please share the word about both of these workshops, and I hope to see you at one of them. After this year, I will likely be taking a year or two off from teaching workshops to focus on building a straw bale home for my family.

cheers,
Michael