TADELAKT workshop!

After only about a year and a half of intense learning in natural building, I decided to teach a workshop! Thanks to Tammy's encouragement in Bandon, Oregon, I just finished a very successful 5 days of tadelakt and lime plaster teaching :) 

If you missed my original posting and are wondering what Tadelakt is... click here!

The finished tadelakt shower. Great job on the workshop, team!

The first day was a one-day "Introduction to Tadelakt" workshop. It began with a thorough presentation and overview of tadelakt and lime plaster and then everyone applied a tadelakt finish to a "cobject."

Participants burnishing their tadelakt cobjects

The cobjects, color samples, and stones

Finished tadelakt cobjects!

Prior to the one-day workshop, my assistant Alexandra Nathan and I did a lot of preparation to get ready and make sure everything would go well... 

First we made samples of different lime plasters to use as our substrate and our tadelakt plaster. We varied the amount of sand and lime in each to find a good amount of strength, drying, and shine. Then we tested all the pigments that Tammy has purchased to see what colors we were most interested in. We added to and roughed up the earthen plaster (or brown coat) that had been applied over the cob and eventually applied the lime plaster substrate. We also had chosen some colors that we liked for the shower, so we added some "bubbles" to the interior of the bathhouse to test out the tadelakt.

Substrate and Tadelakt Lime Plaster Samples w/ cat prints!

Scratched up Earthen Plaster

Alex and I with Pigment Samples

Applying the Lime Plaster Substrate

Completed Substrate

Alex applying Lime Plaster for Tadelakt Bubbles

Finished Tadelakt "Bubbles" (the white substrate will be covered up later
when the cob walls are plastered) next to the many glass window bubbles

Pouring the tadelakt pigment into the lime plaster. Such a pretty color!

ooohhh... loving that mix :)

working with one of the workshop participants on lime plaster troweling

Applying the second layer of lime plaster for the tadelakt

The dry burnishing on the first day always
goes into the night.  We finished at 11 pm!

Amazing! We got 8 people in there burnishing! I "supervised" :) 

Here, I was repairing a little ding in the tadelakt. Good demo opportunity!

What a GREAT team! Thanks for an awesome workshop! 

This is darker than it will ultimately dry,
but it'll stay mottled. Isn't is gorgeous?

LOVE the variation!

Burnishing away... in the clouds? :)

We all LOVE tadelakt!

This amazing crew finished the very last of the burnishing

This is the largest of the stones that we used to
burnish the tadelakt.  Most are much smaller!

Tammy came up with a great invention!
A handle on that tiny stone!

As we were leaving, the tiny "microfissures" were just starting to appear.
You can see them, but can't feel them. They are so beautiful!

But that's not all! We also were able to lime plaster and burnish the bottom of the exterior of the shower building!

We gave these sea creatures a lime plaster update!

and Linda did a demonstration of her burnished fresco technique!

What an action packed and wonderful experience. I can't wait to do it again! Let me know if you know of a place to host another...