COB BUSINESSES
The Cob Cottage Company www.cobcottage.com in Coquille, OR. Trainings, apprenticeships, workshops…the cob originals!
Mudd Bums https://www.facebook.com/MuddBums?fref=ts in Santa Cruz, California (USA). Two former students, Miles Taylor and Tree Rozelle have formed their new small cob building and teaching business focused on Central California. A great team, wonderful people, committed and real!
Mud Girls www.mudgirls.ca British Columbia, Canada. A network of cobbing goddesses that are also a company that come and build your projects for/with you, teach, and organize all sorts of cool free events to feed your Soul
Vertical Clay www.verticalclay.com Berkeley, CA. Two fine cobbing ladies doing the whole gamut of natural building education and services in the Bay Area
Living Earth Structures www.livingearthstructures.com Petaluma, CA. Miguel Elliott has done some of the most beautiful benches I have ever seen, combining them with an oven or a gazebo roof, in addition to many first-time cob attempts, like a nightclub, a yoga studio and sculptures on conventional walls. He definitely takes cob to a new level of beauty combined with function
Peace on EarthBench Movement www.bottlebrick.com Davis, CA. Brennan Blazer Bird is doing great service and education building plastic garbage-filled bottles into cob walls and benches as bricks, mummifying them as is since plastic in degraded bits becomes more dangerous to our planet..especially in southern hemisphere
Clayworks www.clay-works.com Most advanced unfired clay plaster company I’ve seen with lots of knowledge and experience, also offers trainings, based in UK
Kleiwerks www.kleiwerks.org Asheville, NC center for cob education and sustainable living skills, lots of workshops including a one month internship for female carpentry education
Michael Smith www.strawclaywood.com Michael is now based in northern California near Clear Lake with his family and is still one of the few reigning cob and natural building experts in the world, not to mention conventional building. I learned with Michael…check out his workshops for an experience you will be utterly grateful for!
Misha Rauchwerger www.builtinbliss.com Misha is another reigning expert and loooooves to share his knowledge and experience, especially when it comes to the “Code”. Very talented builder and teacher!
Kindra Welch and John Curry of Austin, Texas have created a high-end cob and straw bale construction business called www.claysandstraw.com, bringing more awareness about green building to the center of the country. Their buildings have beautiful finishes in lime and earth and they even do tadelakt!
COB WORKSHOPS /JOBS WEBSITES
Cob Workshops www.cobworkshops.org Best website for finding workshops nearest you and posting your events!
Natural Building Network www.nbnetwork.org Best website for multi-faceted information on natural building, workshops and events, classifieds, and newest developments…information clearinghouse and networking site for natural builders
Eartheborne Artisans www.eartheborneartisans.com New Website for Cob and other related areas like Natural Building and Permaculture, listings for jobs, workshops, volunteering all over the world!
The Poosh www.thepoosh.org Global listings for volunteering or working on cob and other natural building job sites
Natural Homes www.naturalhomes.org Created by a very productive and committed Englishman living in Lithuania, Oliver Swann, this website and the related Facebook Page Talking Natural Homes are chock full of a huge expanse of articles, books, workshops, jobs happening all over the planet. This guy knows his stuff and is letting the world know too!
SOLAR
Solar Energy International www.solarenergy.org in Carbondale,CO. (everything you want to know and do in natural building , solar, wind, geothermal and solar business)
Solar Living Institute www.solarliving.org in Hopland, CA. (even more all-inclusive workshop schedule to become a natural low-carbon low-footprint living jack or jill-of-all-trades)
SUSTAINABLE LIVING SKILLS
The Ecology Center www.ecologycenter.org in Berkeley, CA. (classes and workshops on sustainable living skills for home residents)
Regenerative Design Institute www.regenerativedesign.org in Bolinas, CA. (One of the best and original campuses for permaculture and leadership in the world of living in harmony with the Earth)
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center www.oaec.org in Occidental, CA. (many useful classes and workshops on creating and running intentional communities as well as farming, natural building, art and cooking….great Permaculture Design Certificate program)
Solar Energy International www.solarenergy.org in Carbondale. CO. (courses and workshops on all aspects of solar and installation, energy efficiency, renewable energy hands-on education, natural building and loacted in the US and Central America, students from all over, great women’s solar installation course!)
OUTDOOR SCHOOLS
Headwaters Outdoors School www.hwos.com in Mount Shasta, CA. (Tim Corcoran is the mountain man, teacher, shaman, guide and mentor extraordinaire who will support you in your quest to better know yourself and feel at home in the wilderness everywhere! You leave a different person.)
GREEN HOME RESOURCE GUIDE
This is a wonderful new resource someone turned me on to with a diversity of information for setting up a perfectly sustainable lifestyle from all aspects: building, cleaning, waste, food, health, etc. Visit: www.reviewlab.com/green-home-guide/.
PODCASTS
I am new to podcasts and have been very thankful to have discovered a cob colleague’s year-old series on a wide-range of Permaculture & Natural Building topics bringing in great interviewees every week like Joel Salatin, Matt Powers, Lydia Doleman and many more. Biking five hours a day has become more enjoyable as I get to enjoy these discussions and learn more while pedaling. Oliver Goshey’s Abundant Edge website and podcast can be found here: https://www.abundantedge.com/abundantedge/
