Welcome to the STRAWBALE STUDIO
Outside Oxford, MI. 1 hr north of Detroit ! Joyfully reweaving people and nature.
Come . . . build skills, harvest & use local resources, network & learn !
All EVENTS
Full Calendar of Workshops, Community Gatherings & Tours
Media & Videos Rocket Stoves & Earth Ovens
EARTH PLASTER & SCULPTING Workshop
2019 INTERNSHIP & WORKTRADE
.Other EVENTS Full Calendar including the Full Moon Potlucks !
Natural Building helps us connect again to our local natural environment, to our own intuitive and innate creativity, and to each other. It helps us to shift from an industrial, and often toxic building process to one that is affordable, empowering, community-building and life-affirming. We are co-creating ~ learning to dance in balance with nature
Help Sustain this work ~ Yes, I would love to DONATE !
Additional Opportunities around the world
October 25 – 31, 2018. 7 Day Plaster Course by expert in Japanese plastering ~ Kyle Holtzhueter ! Held at Emerald Earth Community, Boonville, CA.
The The Endeavour Centre in Ontario, Canada, is offering 2 outstanding programs in 2018:
- Natural Building Intensive – Though we do lots of work with natural materials, this is the first time we’re offering a natural building intensive. This one-month course will give participants a chance to construct two small buildings from foundation to finish, and gain experience with just about every natural material/strategy available in this part of the world. http://endeavourcentre.org/
2018/01/natural-building- intensive/ - Sustainable Renovations – We’re expanding the successful model of our five-month, full-time Sustainable New Construction program, but giving participants the chance to focus on making a net zero energy, net zero carbon, zero toxin and zero waste renovation to an urban lane way garage to turn it into healthy and efficient living space. http://endeavourcentre.org/
programs/sustainable- renovations-course/
- Summ
er 2018~ Ionia Community in ALASKA is seeking 8 dedicated volunteers:
We can fly folks up here to work on our epic barn project in the early Summer of 2018. Currently, we need volunteers eager to be a part of this effort in May and June. Please feel free to share this invitation with anyone you think my be a good fit for our project.The barn has been slowly building for 8 years, and we are hopefully in the last year of construction. It is 12,000 square foot three story building with a steel foundation, post and beam frame and straw clay insulated walls. We’ve been figuring out the best mixtures and methods for our weather – plenty of rain and snow – as we build. This year we’ll doing lots of finish woodwork, building big barn doors, and applying finish plasters. The builders work hard for 5 or 6 hours a day but at the same time are very flexible about everyone’s needs and desires and we have lots of fun every day. In exchange for tickets, we expect you to make a significant contribution to the barn but once we pick our team, we will trust them to figure out their own pace and find their own niche in the project. The barn, when finished, will hold carpentry shop, mechanics shop, bicycle shop, pottery shop, metal working shop and space to store farm equipment and vehicles. It will be a Folk Center for Village Crafts, including a step-by-step natural home building shop.Our macrobiotic peer support community is thirty years old and has lots going on all the time: gardens, babies, hiking, fermenting, firewood, teenagers, dancing, yoga, etc. Volunteers will most likely be staying in a shared cabin near our big Longhouse Community Center, which has phones and internet, movie theater, library, music corner, 3 meals a day and all the comforts of home. If you need more privacy, a tent can be pitched. Bathing and outhouses are outdoors. Town and grocery stores are a 30 minutes drive which happens almost every day. We ask that the property stay sugar, weed and animal-food free.If you are available and interested in this opportunity to join us in Alaska, please email to gregeller@gmail.com or call (907) 252-2314.With gratitude,Gregory Eller
Cob and Natural Building Extravaganza!
Cob Building Project in Spain, spring & summer 2016 (2017 and 2018, too?): Call for volunteers
Contact Robert ralcock at clientes.euskaltel.es.
Building balecob in Vermont… summer, 2017 (2018, too?)Mark Bowers writes: We finally acquired some land in Bridgewater, Vermont, and will be building our cozy balecob cottage this summer. We are completely off-grid, but will have some solar power available. Composting toilets, clean spring water, 30+ acres of our land abutting 100’s of acres of woods, hills, mountains?, streams, etc. Camping available on site and limited space in the home we’re renting (10-12 minutes from build site). Most of our food is local from the Rutland Farmers Market–raw milk, fresh cheese, eggs, and everything else including chaga. If you want more details, email me or check out our build on http://www.thepoosh.org/buildprojectmap (hint: we’re the only project in Vermont, “Bowers Homestead 2017”).Mark Bowers
Gregg Brazel is offering an apprenticeship in Detroit starting in May 2018 if possible. Help building a Tori Gateway for a charitable group and learn Japanese timber frame techniques and conventional carpentry and tool sharpening. Details.
