Cob: Cob Cottage apprenticeships

[Susan Kleihauer]

Thought some folks might also be interested in this opportunity:

COB COTTAGE CO. OFFERS APPRENTICESHIPS 
IN COB AND NATURAL BUILDING SPRING 2001

PART 1  Six week Start to Finish Course May 9-June 17

PART II  Following the course, an optional ongoing training in Natural
Building June-November. Certificates of competency will be awarded to
students completing the training successfully.

FOR WHOM?  (a) Persons making Natural Building their livelihood;
potential contractors, builders, researchers and teachers of Natural
Building. (b) Owner-builders. A carefully selected group of eight people
only, to ensure very personal attention.

INTENT Natural Building is a new profession in North America, though
there is increasing public demand for competent craftspeople,
particularly in cob. Opportunities for training are still very limited.
CCC brought cob back to North America in the late 1980s after 150 years
of neglect. We’re now the senior facility for training, with over 1,000
alumni. The apprenticeship is a first step in becoming a competent professional.

PART 1 PROGRAM Will take students through the entire building process,
from foundations to roof. We’ll cover site selection, design, human
comfort, finding and making materials, joining dissimilar media, and use
of cob, roundwood, native stone, etc. The program includes a seven-day
Basics of Cob Workshop. Expect long days, mostly hands-on practicals
with technical explanations and some lectures. Evenings and weekends
there will be optional programs on ecological gardening, permaculture,
and the ecology of natural buildings, with time for reading and field
trips. We have an excellent building library. Students may also enroll
in CCC weekend courses at half price.

PART II PROGRAM  CCC will help with placement of students on job sites. 
Several options:
	(a) Ongoing work on buildings at CCC sites, some of which may have been
part of the six-		     	week program.
	(b) Assisting owner-builders and other natural builders with
construction projects. 			     	Following a period of practice, there’s
a chance of paid work.
	(c) Continuing with CCC as trainee/assistant, helping organize course
sites, preparing 		     	foundations, roofs, and drainage, and
collecting tools and materials.
	(d) Helping CCC with public information by assisting the office manager
answer phone 		     	and mail inquiries, learning the business side of a
Natural Building information service.

FEES 	The fee for both Parts I and II is $2,600 US. For Part I this
includes tuition, a main meal daily, basic food supplies, camping and
use of facilities. $1,000 deposit reserves a place; total fee payable by
April 15. Food vegetarian, mostly organic, partly from our own garden.

INSTRUCTORS  Ianto Evans is a landscape architect, applied ecologist,
inventor, writer and teacher with building experience on six continents.
Cob is traditional in Wales, his homeland. He teaches ecological
building and has consulted to USAID, World Bank, Peace Corps and several
foreign governments. 
	
	Linda Smiley is a therapeutic recreation specialist and natural
builder. She teaches cob construction, earthen plasters and finishes,
sculpting of cob sanctuary courtyards and sacred spaces.

	Other specialist instructors may include: Michael Smith, author of The
Cobber’s Companion;  Elke Cole,  German/Canadian architect/Natural
Builder; Mark Lamberth, Natural Builder with substantial cob experience;
Rob Bolman, contractor in straw bale, cob, earthen floors, etc.; Dana
Gaab, fine woodworker and tools specialist. Other colleagues may take part.

Contact Cob Cottage Co., P.O. Box 123, Cottage Grove, OR 97424
541/942-2005 (phone/fax)

Susan Kleihauer