Providence Clay Plaster Workshops – Last Chance

Last weekend we were blessed with the most beautiful spring days for the first or two clay plaster workshops in Providence! Next weekend, join us for the final installment.

Tickets Available for April 25-26: Finish Clay Plaster over Straw Panels.

In the first workshop, a group of wonderful workshoppers, plus our hosts, powerhouse owner-builders Jeff and Aisha, learned to apply the slip coat and base coat over EcoCocon compressed-straw panels.

We started with making the slip coat: a mix of clay and water to “prime” the straw for plaster.

Then we learned to mix clay plaster from clay, sand, and straw, both by foot in a tarp, and with a mixer. Team Humanpower beat out the mixer every time!

Then of course… Plastering! We learned to apply plaster with hands, trowels, and floats. Homeowner (and woodworker) Jeff even made a whole flock of wood hawks for us to use.

People got more comfortable plastering as the weekend went on, and soon enough, we were ready for the Screed of Truth to tell us how flat our walls were. But as our homeowners pointed out… they didn’t necessarily need all parts of the wall to be perfectly flat. That’s the beauty of DIY with natural materials: you have the freedom to choose so many things, instead of just buying a product off a shelf.

Kids and adults alike got to play in the mud and marvel at this space.

You can join us next weekend April 25-26 for the final plastering workshop at this location: Finish Clay Plaster! This is truly a can’t-miss opportunity to experience this incredible build and have some good old mud time in the city.

While the fundamentals of clay plaster are the same, the finish plaster workshop will be more refined, with more focus on plastering technique. It’ll be less about getting a thick layer of plaster to stick to a straw wall, and more about finessing a finer layer of pudding-like finish plaster into a smooth, seamless finish.

This is especially relevant for those interested in plastering over other various substrates like drywall and wood lath. We’ll also discuss options for the finish, like textures, pigments, and fibrous additives like cellulose, wheatpaste, and cattail fluff.

There may even be some celebratory surprises for those who hang around Sunday evening too! More to come on that soon…