Intro to Plastering

Number of Students: 10

Cost: $150

​Overview of the Day

This is a hands-on class designed to get you fluent in basic earthen plastering so you can take on projects in your conventional home, a natural building, or for art projects. You’ll learn how to source, mix, make, and properly apply base and finish coat plasters from local/native sources as well as purchased materials. We’ll also make and use clay paints from natural materials.

About the Site

The Be the Change Project is our half-acre urban homestead in Reno where we have offered classes, tours, and workshops since 2011. That year we were able to buy what was a run down and neglected house on a half-acre through fundraising and crowdfunding. Since then we have enjoyed living an alternative and off-the-grid lifestyle while transforming the property into a verdant oasis. It has become a center for neighborhood uplift as well as a model for simpler living in the urban/suburban context. We were a Mother Earth News Magazine Homestead of the Year in 2013.

Reno is in the high desert on the western edge of the Great Basin. The weather in May is usually warm, clear, and sunny during the days with cooler nights. It can get hot, and rain is unlikely but not impossible.

Along with earthen cabins, landscape walls, ovens, and different plaster types on site, we’ve developed and use many systems for living more sustainably in town about which we’ll share during the day.

• Solar cooking and wall heaters

• Small scale solar PV

• Wood stove and solar thermosiphon water heating

• Composting - vermicomposting and conventional aerobic piles

• Alternative septic system - the Watson Wick

• Basic principles and practices of Permaculture

• Organic small plot intensive gardening including season extenders like hoop houses, root cellaring and solar dehydrating

• ScAvenging! - upcycling and salvaging materials from the urban waste stream

• Living with little electricity or fossil fuels

• Wood-fired hot tub

Lodging

Inquire about lodging if you’re coming from out of town.

Registration, Payment, & Refunds

This workshop requires a $150 payment to reserve your spot. Once a payment is made, Kyle will reach out to you, welcome you to the course, and get you in the email loop with all the details.

Go here to pay with Venmo or send a check for $150 made out to “Cobitat” and mailed to 2055 McCloud Avenue, Reno, NV 89512.

Payment is refundable until 6 weeks before the start of the class. If you cancel with less than six weeks before the start of the class and your spot can be filled, we will issue a full refund. If it can’t be filled, we’ll refund $100.