Shawn and Melissa Rae King have been building with earth, demonstrating, and teaching others in earth building and earthen plasters for more than four years. Projects include multiple earthen ovens, earth benches, and tiny earthen houses. Shawn has trained both at Cob Cottage Company and at Cal Earth. Both Melissa and Shawn are instructors with Cob Cottage Company and have worked closely with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley as well as other members of the Cob Cottage Company teaching community.Why Cob? Why natural building? Once upon a time, human shelter was hand-made individual expression, communally realized. It was in relation to the life around it, human and other, and to the natural features and forces of place, often including traditional culture. For us, natural building is the process and practice of sheltering oneself, of foraging for and harvesting materials, of fitting the shelter to the self so that it is snug to the life of its maker. It’s the inhabitant as builder, architect, and sculptor joined as if such endeavors were never separate.
At its best, natural building can be a cure to the common modern experiences of anxiety, restlessness, compulsive consumerism, chronic dissatisfaction, and alienation.
Come dance in the mud and discover this for yourself!
