The Art of Natural Plasters

Located 20 minutes from Willits in the heart of Mendocino County, Abuela Gardens is a working demonstration site dedicated to helping the growth and healing of all beings through a continued dialogue with nature, water, food, and medicine. This approach is accomplished by incorporating community, music, healing arts, and silence within a multidimensional design strategy. Our action plan is to communally care for the Earth by growing as much of our own food and medicine as possible, regenerating the forest and aquifer we depend on, building with earth and regeneratively harvested materials as well as developing habitat for a diverse interface of wild and domestic creatures including bees and hummingbirds. This workshop will enhance the infrastructure of the center by constructing a focal point for meeting and eating as well as cold storage for seeds, fermentations, roots and other food.

Three meals a day will be prepared on site, largely from local organic ingredients. Camping is also available on site. Access to the land is somewhat challenging due to our steep unpaved road. Participants will park nearby and be shuttled to the site. Guided morning yoga asana practice will be offered 2-3 times a week, with space available for your own practice the remaining mornings.

Register at https://www.abuelagardens.com/services.

Questions? email Blair at info@abuelagardens.com

Athena Steen was one of the pioneers of the straw bale revival, building her first straw bale home at the age of 19. In 1989, with husband Bill, she founded The Canelo Project, a center for natural building and cultural revival in southern Arizona. Together they have developed many innovations in straw and clay construction, ranging from simple straw bale pinning techniques to high-fiber “light adobes” to a revival of poured adobe floors. They emphasize everyone’s capacity to house themselves beautifully and inexpensively, using local natural materials and innate wisdom. They have worked extensively on low-income husing projects in Mexico and traveled and taught all over the world. Athena and Bill have also written half a dozen books, including “The Straw Bale House” (Chelsea Green, 1994). Well known for her artistry with natural finishes, Athena has collaborated on art museum installations at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. and several other museums. Learn more here: http://www.caneloproject.com

Michael G. Smith co-founded the Cob Cottage Company, along with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley, in Oregon in 1993. He helped organize the first Natural Building Colloquium in 1994. He wrote “The Cobber’s Companion” in 1996 and co-authored “The Hand-Sculpted House” (Chelsea Green, 2002) and “The Art of Natural Building (2nd edition, New Society, 2015).” He has experience with a wide range of effective low-cost, low-tech building techniques including cob, straw bale, and many lightweight natural infill systems. He has taught hundreds of hands-on natural building workshops, ranging from one-day earthen oven builds for children to 12-week professional trainings. He enjoys consulting with owner builders to help them design and build successful energy-efficient natural homes. He is also on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Cob Research Institute, which wrote the first building code for cob in the world and successfully advocated for its adoption into the 2021 International Residential Code. With his partner and children, he stewards a 20-acre organic farm in Yolo County. Learn more at strawclaywood.com.