<br><div class="gmail_quote">From Jim McDonald: <br><br><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><div><div><font color="#660000">Hi all... I'm going to be hosting a natural building workshop with Deanne Bednar, who's undoubtedly one of our bioregion's great natural resources. We'll be learning how to sculpt cob (a type of clay plaster) indoors, which makes this natural building technique a viable (and fun, and really darn cool) option for people who live in your average run of the mill houses and not limited to strawbale or other such earthy dwellings. It's </font><i><font color="#660000">really</font></i><font color="#660000"> cool thing to know how to do... I know, though, that this email list is specific for my herb classes and info, so please know that there'll certainly be time during the event to talk plants while we've got our hands in the earth (which seems rather fitting, no?) </font></div>
<div><font color="#660000"><br></font></div><div><font color="#660000">jim</font></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><br>
</span></div><img src="http://www.motherearthnews.com/uploadedImages/articles/issues/2007-10-01/Earth-Art1.jpg" alt="" border="0"><br>look here for many more cool pics of Deanne's work:</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://strawbale.pbworks.com/Earth-Plaster-and-Sculpting-at-Jim-McDonald%27s" style="color: rgb(71, 108, 142); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://strawbale.pbworks.com/Earth-Plaster-and-Sculpting-at-Jim-McDonald's</a> <br>
<br><b><font color="#660000">Earth Plaster & Sculpting Skillshop<br>at jim mcdonald's home herbal classroom in White Lake, MI<br>Saturday, May 29, 2010</font></b><br><br>Earth plaster is an incredible aesthetic as well as a highly functional and sustainable material. In this hands-on class learn the essentials to be comfortable using this medium many ways.<br>
<br>Earth is the basic material used in adobe, rammed earth & cob homes. And earth is the primary ingredient in strawbale wall plasters, earth ovens, earthen floors, benches and sculptures! When simple local ingredients (sand, clay and fiber) are mixed together, a very durable natural material is formed which you can use as a sculpting medium or plaster to "naturalize" your existing dwelling, or use in a future natural structure you will build.<br>
<br>In this workshop you will learn how to:<br><br>...Identify and locate the materials needed to make an earthen mix used in natural building<br>...Make a batch of earthen plaster<br>...Learn techniques for applying earthen mix as a plaster and as a sculpting medium.<br>
...Receive materials so you can make a small earthen model at the workshop ~ or at home.<br><br><br><b><font color="#660000">Schedule...</font></b><br>10:30 - 1 am Earth Plasters: how to identify soil, locate, mix, apply.<br>
lunch<br>1:30 - 5 'ish. Linger if you wish. Earth Sculpting. <br>
<br><b><font color="#660000">Costs & Discounts</font></b><br>$40 at the door (pre-register) or<br>$30 if <span style="text-decoration: underline;">PREPAID</span> by May 22, 2010<br><i><font color="#660000">Family or group discounts available, please ask.</font></i><br>
<br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">Online registration & payment </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">(<font color="#660000">Paypal is great</font>) <br>
<br><b><font color="#660000">What to remember...</font></b><br>Bring bag lunch to tide you over.<br>Wear clothes to get muddy in! <br> <br><b><font color="#660000">Contact...</font></b><br>
Call Deanne 248 628 1887 or email: <a href="mailto:ecoartdb@gmail.com" style="color: rgb(71, 108, 142); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ecoartdb@gmail.com</a><br>
<br><b><font color="#660000">Location...</font></b><br>White Lake, Michigan <br> <br><b><font color="#660000">More information on Earthen materials & natural building...</font></b><br>
<a href="http://strawbale.pbwiki.com/Natural+Building+Strategies" style="color: rgb(71, 108, 142); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://strawbale.pbwiki.com/Natural+Building+Strategies</a><br> <b><br></b><font color="#660000"><b>
Deanne Bednar</b></font> has been doing natural building since 1996, was a co-builder of the Strawbale Studio & the Kensington Kid's Cottage and other small structures. She has done construction with a variety of wall techniques: strawbale, wattle & daub, light clay & compressed earth blocks. Working with earth has been a focus of her work which includes many sculptural details ! <br>
<br>"Direct Connection" & "Re-skilling" are the themes of her work: Creating a joyful relationship with the earth, stones, trees & plants of this place to create buildings, soil for growing food ~ and coming together with the community & friends to learn skills and co-create a future that is fair & sustainable. She has a degree in Social Ecology, illustrated the "Hand-Sculpted House" & "The Natural Plaster Book" , authored numerous natural building articles, and taught art and sustainable future at the middle school level for 28 years and sculpts with earth. <br>
<br><b><font color="#660000">New words... </font></b><br><i>"Plerk"</i> (Play + work !) <br><i>"Skillshop"</i> (Skills learned in a workshop format...only its fun ~ not work)<br>
<i>"Cob"</i> (an old english word meaning "rounded lump or mass" used in natural building to refer to the shaping of clay, sand & straw into a loaf-sized mass that could be thrown to the people making the wall out of it) So cob is a shape, a building material & a wall construction technique. "We mixed cob to make cobs for the cob walls of the cob house." </span></div>
<div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><br></span></font><div>
<span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">Thus we can now say we are creating a new "Vo<i><font color="#660000"><b>cob</b></font></i>ulary" ! </span>
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<br></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Deanne Bednar<br>Natural Building <a href="http://www.strawbale.pbworks.com">www.strawbale.pbworks.com</a><br><br>248 628 1887<br><a href="mailto:ecoartdb@gmail.com">ecoartdb@gmail.com</a><br>
<br>Detroit Green Map<br><a href="http://www.opengreenmap.org/greenmap/detroit-metro">www.opengreenmap.org/greenmap/detroit-metro</a><br><br>"Reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility for our human place in nature and the whole." Earth Charter<br>
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