Do you dream of building your own eco-home someday?

Are you excited about building with straw bales, earthen plaster, lime plaster, and other natural materials?

Are you ready to sling mud with people who have built their own
sustainable homes out of clay, sand, and straw?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, we’d love to have you join us for our next natural building workshop!

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a natural builders’ paradise! Experienced builder Hassan Hall, one of Dancing Rabbit’s leading natural building artists, will lead this hands-on workshop focusing on techniques for creatively building straw bales, earthen plaster, and lime plaster.

During the workshop you’ll stack straw bale walls, and apply both lime and clay-based plasters. You’ll work with base coats, rough plasters, and finish plasters. You’ll also make clay and lime-base paints, and do a mosaic art installation. You’ll take away natural building knowledge and experience that can be applied anywhere, including an existing home. All of this, set in an ecovillage committed to learning, living, and sharing ways to live more lightly on the earth!

Also in this workshop, you’ll help create artful, affordable, and environmentally-sustainable shelter. You’ll take a tour of naturally-built homes at Dancing Rabbit, and learn what you need to consider when building or retrofitting your own sustainable home. You’ll see how earthen walls fit into the context of foundation, frame, and roof, and how to select appropriate materials for exterior and interior walls.

This one-of-a-kind workshop will provide you with:

• new insights into human shelter and a deep understanding of the important role natural building can play in these unpredictable climatic times
• an understanding of how a building’s foundation, frame, roof, and walls fit together in design and construction
• sensory experiences of natural material mixes and how to adapt them to your needs
• practice with a variety of building tools
• tips on what requires detailed attention, and what can be “quick and dirty,” so you can build both artfully and efficiently
• exercise, laughter, and a dozen new friends!

Most of the workshop will be experiential and hands-on, working with a variety of natural wall-building techniques:

• straw bales
• earthen plaster
• lime plaster
• tile/stained glass mosaic

If you want to have fun while getting messy, making new friends, and learning how to create sustainable, non-industrial, low-impact buildings, we invite you to register now, since this workshop is likely to sell out quickly. You’ll come away knowing how you can contribute to a healthier world with your new natural building skills.

Sign Up for the September Workshop Now!