Join us for some hands-on earth-building experience while we learn to build an earthen oven together at Sims Hill Farm, Bristol!

This two-day workshop will be 80% practical learning- getting your hands and feet into that delicious mud as we sculpt the earthen oven and 20% theory learning- morning discussions, visual diagrams, Q&A and note-taking. We aim to accommodate all learning styles!

Earthen ovens are a great opportunity to introduce you to the fundamentals of natural construction, practising the same techniques needed for building a house, but just on a smaller scale. This workshop, aimed at beginners, will be an intimate and fun opportunity to learn in a beautiful city farm. No prior building experience needed!

You’ll leave knowing how to build your own functional oven and have experimented with some sculptural cob elements!

TOPICS COVERED:

-Using earth, straw and sand as building materials

-Soil and material selection

-Design and set-out of a cob oven

-How to make natural insulation and thermal mass

-Sculptural cob

While the focus of this workshop will be on creating an earthen oven, feel free to bring your more general natural building questions to discuss while we cob!

ABOUT THE TEACHER:

I am an earth craftsperson and community workshop facilitator from Aotearoa (New Zealand) who has been working with unfired clay as a building material for over six years!  It is my absolute passion, fuelled by a joy in sharing ways of building that empower everyday people with hands-on skills that also support us to foster a deeper connection with our earth.

I have a deep love for the breadth of ways earthen materials can be applied, and so have experience on a range of projects from decorative bowls to mud ovens to 6m tall sculptures to designing and constructing a 28m2 strawbale roundhouse to plastering a 150m2 common house.

I studied a Bachelor of Architecture in Aotearoa and am now studying part-time doing a Master’s of Sustainable Architecture at the Centre of Alternative Technology while working solely as an earth builder, clay plasterer and workshop facilitator to fund my studies.

You can check out more of my work @izathomson on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/izathomson

LOCATION:

Sims Hill Shared Harvest

181 Frenchay Park Rd, Bristol BS16 1EL

Sims Hill is a community-supported agriculture project that grows agroecological vegetables for the people of Bristol. They also run events, share growing knowledge, work with people affected by the asylum system and have celebratory meals!

COST:

The cost is £200 for 2 days.

However, my earth building journey has benefited greatly from people being flexible with costs, so it feels good to be able to pass that on now.

So, if you are unable to afford this, there is a self-assigned sliding scale from £110 to £200.

There are also concession tickets available for £65 for the two days.

If this is still inaccessible for you, email me at izamthomson@gmail.com and we can work something else out. If someone feels called to come, it is important to me that they be able 🙂

BYO lunch and snacks.

ACCESSIBILITY:

Unfortunately, the site is not wheelchair accessible.

This workshop is for 18+ only.

It’s really meaningful for me to offer more accessible building workshops that (hopefully) feel welcoming to people who don’t always feel comfortable in the construction industry (as a queer person of colour who has spent lots of time on them myself).