the Strawbale Studio

          One of the instructors at the cob workshop that I took is Deanne Bednar. Deanne is an amazing artist and has done illustrations for books like The Hand-Sculpted House .  I was impressed to hear that she is building cob and strawbale houses in the midwest. Previously I had heard that people in the midwest had all kinds of mold problems with cob because of our high humidity.  THEN I head that Deanne was building a hobbit sauna! I had to get in on that, as any sustainable building sci-fi geek would . . .

          I made a visit to Deanne's Strawbale Studio in Oxford, Michigan. My Phoenix, my friend Lexi, and her daughter willow came along. We all mixed cob together. One thing I love about a cob construction site is that kids are always welcome.

         Deanne also thatches roofs (as seen on the Strawbale Studio roof) and builds Rumford fireplaces, has a beautiful outdoor cob fire oven, and a rocket stove too.  Because I am learning about rocket stoves right now (and building my first one) my favorite part of the visit was talking about rocket stoves, watching the Ernie & Erica & Paul Wheaton's rocket stove DVD, and talking about Deanne's upcoming rocket stove workshop. My other favorite part was just spending time with Deanne's creative and lively personality (we practiced NVC too). 

 Picture below of a traditional wall plastered over with an earthen/clay based plaster and rocks to look like a rock wall. I plan to do this in my retrofit. 

outdoor cob fire oven, hand-sculpted

Living roof

Farm shed on the outside

cozy on the inside. A Rumford fireplace built by Deanne

More to come on The Strawbale Studio and Deanne's Hobbit Sauna in the next post