Workshops | CASA

Thank you to the 2024 participants!

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TESTIMONIALS

Thank you Anita, the CASA Team, and everyone involved in this beautiful workshop. It took me a few days to muster up the words to express my gratitude, my love, and my heartfelt appreciation for your time and energy. I have always relayed mud, adobe, plaster, ovens, to my relationship with my grandmother, not fully understanding why. She did this work fluidly, without second guessing, and I never asked questions, just watched in awe. These ladies were next level hardcore. The CASA Team, Angela, blasted me back in time. Made me think of our special soil, and my relationship with my past. Helped me figure solutions, answered questions, and build confidence in the way of mud and my traditional family home. Not only reminding myself but so I can teach my family of girls, to reclaim a centuries old tradition of community and love. I can't wait to teach. I can't wait to learn more. Thank you. Thank you Anita for pushing this into possibility and Creator bless all your helpers, movers and shakers, those adobe makers.. thank you, for this beautiful week of sisterhood, friendship, compassion, and most of all, connection." Sheryl

"So fulfilling to learn from all the CASA team and each one of you. Acknowledge our cultures have so much in common and that we can all work together building earth bonds to keep our traditions alive for a better future.Saludos y abrazos fraternales" Jessica

"I’m so grateful to be connected with you all. If anyone has a project they’re working on and want some extra hands, please reach out. I’d love to work together again." Stephanie

We delivered three workshops in 2024

HYPERADOBE

In partnership with our friends at Veterans Off Grid we offer workshops in a contemporary earth building technology, Hyperadobe. Hyperadobe uses mesh bags or tubes filled with earth, instead of adobe bricks. The bags are often layered in a circular shape. Hyperadobe can be appropriate for larger structures. You will learn:

Understanding the equipment

Filling the tubing
Stabilizing the courses
Aligning the courses
Tamping the courses

The physical demands of these workshops are significant. They involve heavy lifting, bending, kneeling and hours in the hot New Mexico sun. Bring gloves, a long sleeve shirt, hat, sunglasses and shoes for construction. No sandals or flip flops.

off grid oven installation

This workshop teaches how to construct an off grid cooking: the traditional horno (or oven), a firebrick lined fire pit, or an Egyptian horno (with a separate firebox). This workshop includes:

Project planning

Tools and equipment
Safety on the job site

Laying bricks

Understanding masonry tools
How to handle adobes
Mixing adobe mortar
Laying adobes
Laying firebrick
Building an arch
Building a dome

How to plaster

Preparing plaster materials
Mixing the plaster
Applying the plaster
Maintaining the plaster

To be notified when the next workshop is scheduled, use the form at the bottom of this page to join our mailing list.

This workshop, is the perfect foundation for your adobe practice. It includes demonstrations about custom form building so that your adobes always suit your project.

You will learn soil testing to ensure your adobes are strong and long lasting
You will learn different methods of mixing mud
- the old way of dancing in a pit
- using a tarp to mix
- using a hoe and a wheelbarrow
- using a cement mixer.
You will learn about how to use and care for the tools and how important even a bucket is.
You will take turns at the different stations
- sifting the soil
- mixing the mud
- filling the forms
- cleaning station