You’ve probably seen the intriguing, organic, red bay at the main entrance of the ReBuilding Center that we call the "Community Trees.” You may have asked yourself how these walls and trees were built? The answer is cob, a traditional building technique using earth mixed with water, straw, and sand. The Community Trees are in desperate need of repair and we need your help to fix them! Learn valuable skills on how to mix, build, repair, and plaster with cob while building community!
The ReBuilding Center is sponsoring a two-day workshop to learn about making and using cob to repair the Community Trees.
Saturday, April 8th & Sunday, April 9th
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. all day drop-in
1-hour lunch at noon
All are welcome! This cob workshop is intended to be accessible for all from children to elders. This is a family-friendly event.
Drop-ins welcomed within these times:
Saturday, April 8th
10am - Opening Circle
10am to Noon - "Classroom" Conversation
12pm to 1pm - Lunch
1pm to 4pm - Mixing Structural Cob, Mixing Plaster Cob, Cob Application
4pm to 5pm - CleanUp, Closing Circle
Sunday, April 9th
10am - Opening Circle
10am to Noon - Cob & Plaster Application
12om to 1pm - Lunch
1pm to 4pm - Cob & Plaster Application
4pm to 5pm - Wrap Up, CleanUp, and Closing Circle
Instructors will discuss the a history of the practice and its resilience to earthquakes.
Instructors:
Seed was born in Duwamish Coast Salish territory, Seattle, and grew up in Multnomah Chinook territory, Portland. He has traveled around Turtle Island trading work for skills like cob building, gardening, and ecological restoration, with a focus of supporting indigenous sovereignty projects—a core foundation of ecology in every region. He teaches and works with cob as a material for building sound structures, community, and metaphors for his own and our collective volition. Learning and growing through leading workshops past, including the Village Building Convergence, Seed hopes to facilitate a conversation of resilience skills, applied practice, and collective Spirit. Aho!
Sharky is a free spirit, born and raised playing in the mud of Kalapuya territory aka Eugene, OR. For the past 5 years, Sharky has traveled across Turtle Island studying off-grid living, natural building, farming, and passive solar construction. After building with different styles including earthships, earthbag construction, and cob, Sharky prefers cobbing because it is free-form, soul-soothing, accessible and fun for everyone. Sharky hopes to empower others to create autonomous buildings and community that, with a little TLC, will last a millennia.
The Community Trees all dressed up for an episode of Grimm