Thanks to all of you who came out to the free plastering workshop last weekend. We got a lot accomplished and I’m happy that you all learned a bunch. I was bummed that we never got a chance to take a group photo. Oh well, I guess it was not meant to be. Thanks for traveling as far as you did and from coming from as close as you did (depending on who you are!). We got a lot accomplished, but did not finish the buildings.

I may teach another workshop in the next few weeks using a spray gun to apply the plaster! Stay tuned.

To be continued…….

I can’t believe it, but I have been converted! I never thought I would stand on the side of spraying plaster as I have always believed that hand troweling is better; however, I was convinced of it this last week. After talking with Steven, a master lime plasterer from Scotland, I am fully convinced that spraying is the way to go. As you may know, Scotland is known for having very old buildings, castles like the one above even, that have been plastered and mortared with lime for centuries. The knowledge that Steven shared with us has been passed down for generations and is something I could easily understand through his teaching.
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One of the cool things I learned this last week about lime plaster is the use of “pressing it back.” I had never heard this term, nor had I heard of the concept. It is quite simple and yet creates a very powerful effect on the strength and quality of the plaster.
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I just got an email from someone who plans to install his windows and doors the following way. I think it is an interesting idea as it will provide for very good compression of the bales and a very quick construction of the walls. This is in line with how additions can be added to existing straw bale homes. I always suggest that if people have specific intentions to expand later on down the line that they plan for the expansion by leaving electrical out of the area where they plan to cut in the new hallway.
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What an amazing week this was. We just finished a seven day intensive workshop in Williams, Oregon with great success. As always, I feel like I have a whole new group of friends from all over the world. There were people from Oregon, California, Washington, Wisconsin, Illinois, Scotland and London (soon to be back home in Israel). What an amazing group of people!!!

We finished up ahead of schedule on this cute little building and managed to throw in some acid staining on the concrete floors Sunday morning! The food was great and the company even better. We were even blessed to have a master lime plasterer in the group all the way from Scotland. I have never learned so much about the science and art of this great material as I did this last week. Thank you Steven!

This was the first workshop of the summer for me and I am fully charged and ready to go with the rest of my workshops. I am super excited to teach people the new information I gained about lime plaster and the ever growing wealth of information I hold around straw bale construction. I always learn something new at every workshop, and this was no different (even beyond the lime plaster information).

I have 4 more seven day intensive straw bale workshops planned for this summer. The next workshop is June 15-21 near Willow Creek, California. I really hope that you will join me. You can learn more about what I teach and sign up at www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com.

I guess the trowels were just a sign of more to come in regards to baling and Japan. Below are the details of a workshop being held in Japan. I am not the one teaching the workshop, nonetheless I wanted to let you all know about it in case you have always wanted to learn straw bale AND have always wanted to go to Japan. How about doing both at the same time?!
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I got an email the other day from a company that works with Japanese trowels. These trowels are amazing, especially for detail work. The shape and flexibility of the trowels makes them perfect for working with detailed plaster jobs.
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For some reason, I did not get the people signing up for the plastering workshop that I had planned. My guess is that most of you plan to hire someone to plaster your house, so why bother taking a class to learn how to do it. I get that, yet I can’t seem to jive that with the number of plastering DVDs I sell. So, the next idea is that the cost of the workshop is too much for you all during these hard times. Well, how does FREE sound?
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Getting a straw bale home appraised is one of the harder aspects of construction. Why? Because there are not very many, if any, comparable sales of straw bale homes out there. So how do you jump this hurdle? There are a couple ways to do it.
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