WORKSHOPS
The 2025 workshops will provide opportunities for pigment hunting, paint making, plastering, hempcrete and natural building. I'll be adding more workshops in the near future, but for now there are a diversity of workshop opportunities that are available to sign up below. So please scroll down to learn more about these opportunities and send me an email if you have any questions.
WILD PIGMENTS WORKSHOPWild Pigments Workshop in collaboration with Texas Cob Co will happen in Kingsbury, TX for three days from May 30 - June 1st, 2025. We will explore the local geological landscape and collect a diversity of minerals from various lithological layers for use as a pigment in paints and plasters on natural building projects at the Realness Preserve! This workshop will be a collaboration with Simon whose knowledge and skills in lime plaster and other natural building techniques has been passed down through three generations! Ill be teaching with Simon and we will be collect materials on the first day from nearby to use on various projects that are currently being created on their land! Simon and Arielle will be hosting the workshop on their land with healthy meals provided as part of the workshop and camping available on their property or lodging nearby if needed. If you would like to register for the workshop follow the link to Texas Cob Co website page where you can sign up as well as learn more details about their other amazing workshops and vision they are creating with their own hands and natural materials in Kingsbury! LEARN MORE AT TEXAS COB CO Event Address: The Realness Preserve, Kingsbury TX Contact: team@texascob.com AFFORDABLE ACCOMMODATIONS NEARBY: 1. Son's Blue River, Kingsbury TX: bluerivercamp.com 2. Habitable Spaces, Kingsbury TX: email alison@habitablespaces.org 3. Tiny Texas Houses, Luling TX: www.airbnb.com/users/show/58077788 FOOD & WATER: 1. Farm to table lunch will be served daily. Please note any dietary restrictions during registration below. 3. Drinking water will be provided. UTILITIES: 1. Bathroom & shower on site. 2. Electricity available at "center camp" for charging devices. 3. Starlink wifi available. |
WILD PIGMENTS WORKSHOP$750.00 - EARLY BIRD RATE
$900.00 - AFTER APRIL 20, 2025 REGISTER HEREDATE : MAY 30TH - JUNE 1ST
LOCATION : KINGSBURY, TX |
NATURAL COLORS WORKSHOPNatural Colors weekend workshop will explore a variety of processes using natural minerals and plants for to make paints & inks with different binders. Ill be providing a diversity of minerals and plant materials from my personal collection that will be processed into a pigment with mortar and pestles as well as ball mills then sifted with a screen or levigated in water to further refine the materials for making paints and inks with.
We will make paints using mineral and plant based pigments along with various mediums such as watercolor, egg tempera, and oil paint. The inks will also be composed of a variety of plant materials and modifiers to create a diversity of natural colors. Other mediums will be explored depending on the interests of the workshop participants and the binders that are used in their own artistic practices. Feel free to bring your own watercolor sketchbook to make swatches of color with the pigments and paints as well as to take notes about the places and geological layers from which the originate from. This weekend workshop will be limited to 13 people due to space and equipment limitations. The cost of the workshop will also be non-refundable. If you need to cancel for some reason then you can receive credit for a future workshop date! I will be offering three spots during each of the weekend workshops that can receive a scholarship. If your interested in the possibility of receiving a scholarship based on financial restrictions please send me an email with more details about you and your situation. |
NATURAL COLORSDATE : JUNE 14TH & 15TH, 2025 TIME : 10AM-5PM LOCATION : TAOS, NM |
HEMPCRETE BASICSThis Hempcrete Building Basics weekend workshop will be an introduction to hempcrete and how it can be used in various forms from making precast blocks or the infilling of forms around existing timber framework.
Hempcrete also known as hemp-lime is a combination of the hurd derived from the woody core of the industrial hemp plant. The hurd is mixed with water along with a mineral binder composed of a high calcium hydrated lime and a pozzolan in the form of volcanic ash. Hempcrete is an incredible material which is breathable and has the ability to absorb CO2 out of the air where it is sequestered into the lime binder of the walls. The hempcrete can also act as a thermal mass along with good insulation properties that range from R2.0-2.5 depending on the mixture of hurd to binder as well as how densely it is tamped into the forms. A house built with hempcrete is also resistant to fire, mold, and insects. Hempcrete is not a structural material so a building needs to be constructed with traditional 2x4 or 2x6 framing to support the roof which forms can be applied to and infilled with hempcrete. Another option is to build a post and beam or timber frame structure which hempcrete blocks can be stacked and mortared around the structural frame. This workshop will focus on the proper mixing of hemp hurds and the mineral binder to create a material that can be tamped into forms for making hempcrete blocks or around framing of a wall system. The workshop will also include the different design options for framing out a wall with 2x3, 2x4, or 2x6 lumber depending on the desired outcome. Sources of local and regional materials for hemp hurds and the lime binder will also be provided to workshop participants. If your interested applying hempcrete on an actual building project visit the next workshop for more information. The cost of the workshop will also be non-refundable! So please only sign up if you are committed to attending during this weekend. |
HEMPCRETE BASICSDATE : JUNE 21ST & 22ND, 2025 LOCATION : CERRO, NM |
HEMPCRETE BUILDINGThe Hempcrete Building weekend workshop will provide an opportunity for a hands on experience to apply hempcrete techniques onto an actual building project with both blocks and cast in place methods. The workshop will also provide knowledge on a diversity of techniques for framing a structure or retrofitting an existing structure to be infilled with hempcrete.
This workshop will utilize the hempcrete blocks after they have cured for a month which will be created during the Hempcrete Basics workshop that is happening on May 18th & 19th. The hempcrete blocks wills be used to create a wall around a timber frame / post & beam structure. Another structure will be composed of traditional stud framing with forms that will be infilled with hempcrete to be cast in place. The two day workshop will occur outside of Taos at an off grid site located on 40 acres that borders the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument near Cerro, NM. The cost of the workshop will not include meals so you will need to provide your own food. We can cook together and share meals created with local produce grown in the area if so desired. In terms of accommodations for places to stay - if your traveling from out of town or even if you live in Taos County there are plenty of places to pitch a tent or camp in your vehicle on the property. There are also official camping spots with a shade structure, picnic table, water and bathrooms in the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument. Other options for places to stay are at local vacation rentals near Cerro, Questa, Sunshine Valley, and El Rito if so desired. The instructor, Scott Sutton has designed and built a hempcrete tinyhouse on a trailer in 2017 and other site specific hempcrete projects in Oregon and New Mexico. Scott has also been active on numerous hempcrete building projects and workshops with Hempitecture at Idaho Basecamp, Hemp Eco System Hopland Hemphouse, and Starseed Creative Hempcrete Roundhouse. The cost of the workshop will also be non-refundable! So please only sign up if you are committed to attending during this weekend. |
HEMPCRETE BUILDINGDATE : JUNE 28TH & 29TH, 2025 LOCATION : CERRO, NM |
ART OF PIGMENT HUNTINGThe Art of Pigment Hunting workshop during the Silver City Clay Festival will occur prior to the Clay Carving & Painting workshop by Athena Steen of the Canelo Project at Whiskey Creek Zocalo!
Ill be teaching the Art of Pigment Hunting where we will spend time out in the geological landscape around Silver City. We will use maps of the surrounding geology to help us learn about the unique aspects of this beautiful place revealing the types and locations of minerals and their formations. The materials will be collected in an environmentally responsible manner and processed through the use of levigation, sifting, and milling to prepare for their use in the clay carving and painting workshop. The clay plasters and mineral pigments will be used to collaboratively create a work of art on an existing adobe wall at Whiskey Creek Zocalo where these workshops are being held. The Silver City Clay Festival will occur during the week of July 14th - 20th, 2025. Las year I taught a collaborative workshop with Canelo Project. It was an honor to collect and process materials that were used in the Clay Carving and Painting with Athena who created a work of art on an adobe wall located at Whiskey Creek Zocalo. The workshop participants pigment hunted in the surrounding geological landscape and the materials we collected were processed for use in the clay carving and painting on a wall at Zocalo creating a beautiful low relief mural! |
ART OF PIGMENT HUNTINGI am hoping to return to Whiskey Creek Zocalo in July to offer workshops as part of the Clay Festival..
Stay Tuned.. Dates : July 14th-20th, 2025 Location : Whiskey Creek Zocalo - Silver City, NM |
CUSTOM WORKSHOPS
If you would like to organize or host a workshop in a geological landscape where you call home at your art studio or at a community or educational space please send me an email to discuss the possibilities.