This workshop will be an immersion into the craft of straw bale building and will include a home tour of some of Crestone's best straw bale homes.  This workshop will include plenty of discussion, but in the process we will be building a north wall to a commercial kitchen.  Topics covered will include foundations and roofs, compression systems, window and door bucks, plaster preparation, finish details, common pitfalls, and overall how to build an efficient, comfortable, and beautiful earthen home.  This is a unique opportunity to learn directly from one of Crestone's best, don't miss it!

Paul Koppana is a professional straw bale construction contractor in Crestone, CO.  He has been in residential construction as a general contractor for 20 years and for the last 11 years has been building strawbale homes and spiritual retreat centers in Crestone.  He is an internationally-recognized strawbale builder and a past member of Builders Without Borders.  He has assisted with a straw bale community center in Anapra, Mexico and helped run 2 straw bale workshops in south central Siberia in 2005 and 2008.  SkyHawk Construction homes have been published in ‘The New Strawbale Home’ by Catherine Wanek and ‘Small Strawbale’ by Bill and Athena Steen.  Paul has a BS in Engineering Colorado School of Mines,1986.

This workshop will be part two of the straw bale construction workshop where we will plaster the newly constructed straw bale wall.  There will be plenty of direct one on one with the instructor to get enough practice to learn the techniques and skills to efficiently and effectively encase a straw bale wall in protective plaster.  We will do an earthen adobe plaster on the exterior and a lime plaster on the interior.  Topics will include bale prep, mixes and recipes, multi-coat techniques, bull noses, finish details, polishing, and much more.  This course offers the fundamentals of what makes a straw bale house last a long time.

Anikke Storm has worked in construction for 18 years.  In 1997 she met Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley from the Cob Cottage Company and the rest is history. “Once I discovered what we can do with the Earth, I was hooked!” Anikke worked on  Cob houses and got into Natural Plasters and Earthen Floors. When she moved to Crestone, there was an abundant amount of strawbale homes that needed plasters, thus she and her husband Steve started Stormworks, a small company offering Natural Interior and Exterior finishes, Earthen floors, Masonry, Timberframing, Cabinets and Natural Building. Over the years she has worked all over the state, bringing beautiful finishes to  strawbale homes and consulting and teaching home owner/builders in this process. “Mud is my passion. I believe in its simplicity and versatility.”

Talmath has been professionally installing renewable energy systems in the San Luis Valley for over 13 years.  He has also built numerous custom, alternative homes as a contractor and has provided consulting work for designing passive solar high-efficiency homes.  He has also traveled from Carbondale to Santa Fe installing his high-quality trademark adobe floors.  He and his family happily live off-grid with their chickens and ducks, and he enjoys gardening, making beer, and teaching his sons how to cut copper pipe.