Natural Plasters & Earthen Floors

This is a great introductory course on the basics of how to use earthen finishes in your own home. We will be covering the essentials of clay plasters, from beginning to end of all steps involved with finishing interior and exterior walls. Most of the methods will be using clay/earth, but we will touch on how to plaster with lime, using pre-bagged tadelakt mix. These plaster mixes can be used on a variety of wall substrates, from bales, adobe & cob, and sheetrock. Each participant will have their own practice panel to learn these methods with ease and repetition.

We will cover:

• High-fibre Clay-rich Base-coat, used for leveling uneven wall substrates 
• Clay Mid-coat for further leveling, that can also be troweled finished
• Smoothed finish with clay and paper
• Earthen floors and sealants
• Water-resistant lime plaster – an introduction on how to plaster with pre-bagged tadelakt mix, appropriate for bathrooms

No previous experience or skill required. You will learn the basics, such as finding soil, how to compose a mix, applying that mix and the required tools. You will leave with a confidence and understanding of how to finish walls with beautiful, creative earth finishes. 

Clay plasters and floors in this workshop will be made from subsoil, water, and a fibrous organic material (typically straw) and used as the protective or decorative coating of walls. Contents of different local subsoils naturally vary, and can be modified with more sand or clay to create the desired balance.