Taos Plastering Workshop Part I

We went to a plastering workshop given by Carole, the queen of plastering.  She built this adobe house and uses it as a workshop for students.  We spent three days here learning how to make different plasters and which type of plaster to use where.

The kitchen

Building a bottle wall.

The wall is being built just high enough to keep the weather out of an outdoor room.

Galen helping with the finishing touches.

The first layers of plaster have a lot of straw in them.

This is a sample of our soil and it shows a very fine clay that is perfect for a finishing indoor plaster.

One of the students in the class and her husband are building an earthbag home not too far away so we went to see it after the workshop one day.

Galen repairing a window.

A close up of the earthbag construction.  Galen is talking to Joe, the owner, about how much work this was.

Back to Carole's place.  This is the hot tub area at the end of the outdoor room.

Another view of the hot tub.  It is heated by a wood fire.

A sleeping nook inside the house.

A bathroom across the road from the house.