Clayfest 2015 - Errol, Scotland: 08 - 13 June
22nd March 2015
Last year, a group of Earth Building UK directors headed to the Festival Grains d'Isère in France - an annual gathering of national and international earth builders who spend a week playing and experimenting with earth as a building material. The festival has been going for 12 years now and what they achieve is truly inspiring. Take a look here, here and here. In fact, the directors were so inspired, they decided to try to bring some of the ideas back to the UK. And so the seed for Clayfest 2015 was planted.
Every year EBUK (Earth Building UK) organises a conference and tour. This year, as well as hosting the conference and tour (Friday and Saturday), there will be 4 days of workshops beforehand (Monday - Thursday). So you can really get to grips with earth building, which, as far as I'm concerned, can only be truly understood by handling and working with the material itself.
There are lots of different workshops to choose from and lots of different earth construction techniques to explore - from cob to rammed earth, from plasters to turf building, from conservation repairs to mass stove construction and the very funky clay and fibre workshop.
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This year's special guest speakers and workshop leaders are Bill and Athena Steen, world renowned straw bale and earth building experts.
Between them, they have authored six books and have been running natural building workshops in Arizona and around the world since 1989.
They will teach Beginners and Advanced Earth Plastering at Clayfest, a rare chance to learn from true masters of the technique.
Book here. |
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Mud and Wood (that's us!)will be teaching a 1-day Intro to Cob, 2-day Scaling Up Cob (using formwork and diggers) and 1-day Advanced Cob Workshop (openings, connections with other building elements ...) Book here. |
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Cob Workshop Info |
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Rowland Keable, who built the rammed earth walls at the Eden Project and at CAT's lecture theatre, will teach three 1-day workshops. Each group will build a new rammed earth column. How tall they get is up to you.
Book here. |
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Plasters Workshop Info
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Rammed Earth Info |
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Becky Little and Tom Morton will run two 1-day workshops on the technical challenges associated with conservation repairs to old mudwall buildings. The morning presentation will be followed by a tour of live projects in the area. Book here. |
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With a different leader every day, you can take a 1-day workshop or stick around for all 4 days for this innovative and exciting way of creating funky sculptures using natural fabrics, fibres and clay. Where will your imagination take you? Book here. |
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Mudwall Repairs Info |
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Clay and Fibres Info |
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Johannes Riesterer is an expert mass oven builder from Sweden. Over 3 days, he will take you step by step through the design and construction of an earthen mass oven in the very real setting of one of the homes in the village of Errol.
Book here. |
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You may be familiar with the turf houses of Iceland. In the past, this building method was common in the UK too and the skills are being revived. Learn how to "fillet" the ground, cut sods to a variety of shapes and create a building.
Book here. |
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Mass Oven Workshop Info |
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Turf Workshop Info |
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Thanks to Icelandic knowledge sharing, turf building is enjoying a revival. On this 1-day symposium, speakers from home and abroad share their experiences and envision the future for both old and new turf-built projects.
Book here. |
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The annual EBUK Conference will take place on Friday 12th June. The theme is "The Culture of Earth Building", with speakers hailing from as far afield as the U.S. and Malawi .. and someone you may know from Co. Sligo.
Book here. |
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Turf Symposium Info |
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EBUK Conference Info |
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If you make it Scotland for the full week of workshops, or even just for the conference itself, you know that at the end of it all earth builders like to let their hair down. After a bit of cob stomping or earth ramming, why not join us on Friday evening for a meal and a few jigs and reels at the Clayleidh.
Book here.
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As with all of the EBUK conferences, the self-guided tour of earth buildings in the area will take place the following day (Saturday 13th June). Maps will be distributed with directions and approximate times for visiting a number of interesting properties.
This year, there is also the option to hang on in Errol, where there will be a free community day from 11am - 4pm. There will be a tour of the village (which has many, many earth buildings), story telling, the local school's earth project, an exhibition and an opportunity to see the results of all the earth building workshops.
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So ... there really is something for everyone. Camping is available at the Clayfest site, Errol's village hall. Click here to book your pitch. That's where we'll be!
Click on this link and scroll down to the bottom for other local accommodation options.
A huge thanks goes out to our Scottish EBUK director, Tom Morton, who is very much the driving force behind this epic undertaking. His staff at Arc Architects have been doing great work too, along with Becky Little. And also a shout out to the team at Historic Scotland and the Tay Landscape Partnership.
It's shaping up to be a great event. Hope to see you there ... for a day, for a week or even just for a dance!
Copyright 2015, Féile Butler - Mud and Wood
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