Come and visit the stunning Forest of Dean and learn a range of eco building skills.
This three day course will showcase the wonderfully diverse material of cob and how to build an oven using it.
During this course you will get the chance to learn the history and future of cob building through hands on making.
This course is an ideal introduction into eco-building, where you can take home the skills you have learned and apply them to your personal projects, for example pizza ovens and tiny home builds.
The Workshop
During these three days, we… We invite to you arrive half an hour early so you can grab a cup of something warm and get settled in. This is a great time to connect with like minded people and learn more about the project.
The workshop will start at 10:00am on each of the days
Day one: Building the base
Here, you will learn what is required for a strong base to build your oven on. Rosie will then support you in constructing the base and then you will build a frame for the oven.
Day two: Making Cob
With the guidance of Rosie you will learn what is required for a good cob mix. You will investigate how to find the best soils for your mix and where to source other local materials. You will make a cob mix and start to explore how cob can be used when fitting it around a frame.
Day Three: Finishing off
On day three you will finish off the oven.
Throughout the three days, we will break for a nutritious pot luck shared lunch. Please bring something to share with the group, or cash to contribute to our volunteer kitchen crew and local organic and wild ingredients.
Please note that this workshop will be run outside so make sure to wear weather appropriate clothing that you don’t mind getting mucky and sturdy shoes.
About Rosie
After discovering her passion for heritage crafts during her degree, Rosie started to share her skills with others in her community. She has turned the skills she has learned and taught herself into paid work and commissions with a special focus on using materials such as cob.
Rosie has a strong interest in eco architecture and permaculture. She is particularly inspired by Cob building, Straw bale building, market gardening, composting and other land-based practices. She believes that these traditional crafts aren’t just fossils from the past but sparks for the future to ignite new ideas and an interest in traditional making practices.
For more of Rosie’s work check out her website here.
The Venue
This course is set at our off-grid woodland craft centre, Kensley Sheds, right in the heart of the beautiful Forest of Dean, situated on the famous Sculpture Trail, close to the Stained Glass Window and Wildlife Trust reserve ‘Woorgreen Lake’
Kensley Sheds is the home of our Social Forestry Project ‘New Leaf’. Here, local adults who are struggling with social issues come learn & practice new skills. We follow regenerative woodland management practices, to extract and process wood from disused Forestry England coppiced woodland. Here the wood is turned it into functional items, firewood and charcoal, giving people access to new careers and a sense of real community.
Kensley sheds has running water, a flushing disabled access toilet, onsite parking and is heated by a wood-burner. You will be able to peruse our extensive library of eco / craft / alternative living books throughout the day
Profits
The Rewild Project is a Not for Profit, Community Interest Company, and Social Enterprise. It is our mission to support local craftspeople and promote heritage craft skills. We Rewild People by teaching these skills of self reliance and resilience for an uncertain future.
After the craftspeople are paid, and costs are covered we put any profits back in to the community with our ‘weekday sessions for disadvantaged groups’ a lifeline for many local people who we pick up each day and bring to Kensley Sheds and others sites to build community, skills, and share nutritious hot, locally produced food.