Ongoing Education
In addition to our annual, weekend-long festival, The Crestone Energy Fair Ongoing Education series offers hands-on education in different building techniques, gardening practices or homesteading skills over the course of a single or multi-day workshop.
Our goal is to facilitate growth, education and connection throughout the year, and to empower our community to try something new.
The money raised from our Ongoing Education series is distributed to educators and serves as a fundraiser for The Crestone Energy Fair.
Upcoming Events
Earthen Floors with Jess Michelle
August 7-9, 2027
10am - 6pm
Saguache, CO
Join us for a hands-on, three-day community workshop in the art of Earthen Floors, taught by Jess Michelle, hosted by Santi Phillips at Moon Valley Retreat in Saguache, CO.
Participants will learn the traditional, sustainable art of crafting beautiful and durable earthen floors. Together, we’ll discover how to mix natural materials like clay, sand, and straw to create a stunning, non-toxic, and breathable floor finishes. This intentional hands-on community workshop covers:
Material selection and sourcing
Proper mixing techniques
Application and troweling
Curing and natural finishing/sealing
This workshop will be hosted at Moon Valley Retreat, an off-grid community space (in the making) tucked into the rolling green foothills of the San Juan Mountains. Come and enjoy the 360 mountain views, scattered pines, wildlife and serenity of our sweet home.
Lunch is included in the workshop price.
Accommodation upgrades: Moon Valley has 8 beds available in shared glamping tents with full bedding available for an additional $150 per person (3nights stay) and our near by neighbors may have glamping sites available as well. Light electricity and wifi are available on site for charing phones or other small devices.
Email OESDirector@CrestoneEnergyFair.Org or call Goldie at 303-903-0968 with any questions.
Community Price: $300
For low-income participants
Supporter Price: $400
Pay for yourself
Sustainer Price: $500
Support low-income participants & pay it forward
Jess Michelle, Teacher
With a background in Environmental Geoscience from Texas A&M University, Jess spent five years as a field biologist before discovering a profound calling in the world of natural building. Her journey took her across the United States and Mexico, where she’s gained hands-on expertise in a diverse range of sustainable techniques, including adobe, strawbale, hempcrete, papercrete, and clay and lime plasters. This practical experience in regenerative architecture has now evolved into her most ambitious project yet: the creation of her own sustainable eco-village. Driven by a commitment to holistic living, she is currently deepening her knowledge of permaculture and local food production to develop a truly resilient, self-sufficient community.
Santi Phillips, Host
With a listening heart and a series of serendipitous, divinely guided alignments, Santi became the steward of this land alongside her brother Thomas in 2022. After many visits spent camping, praying, and listening deeply to the land, the vision for Moon Valley began to emerge—an off-grid retreat space built through community connection and for community connection.
Moon Valley is a place to slow down, remember our truth, and reconnect—back to ourselves, to Spirit, to the land, and to one another. It welcomes the full spectrum of the human experience, inviting us to rediscover our aliveness and remember how to move from love. With devotion, grit, and countless helping hands, this dream has been steadily taking form over the past two years, proving to be one of the greatest undertakings of Santi’s life—and also the most rewarding.
Hide Tanning with Nick Parker
Join us for a hands-on, three-day workshop in hair-on sheep hide tanning using the traditional method of brain tanning. Participants will each be provided with a sheep hide to work on and take home. Taught by Nick Parker.
Screen Printing with Chris Manfield
Join us for a hands-on, one-day workshop on screen printing. Participants will learn how to burn screens and print with ink on a variety of different fabrics. Participants are welcome to bring a blank t-shirt, tote bag or other item to print on in order to take a printed item home. Learn the essentials to unite your art and activism into actions! No fancy studio required! Taught by Chris Manfield, hosted by the Crestone Energy Fair and the Community Art Benefit Project.
Earth Bag Greenhouse Construction with Dana Oglesby
In this workshop we will be laying the foundation for a 500 sq. ft greenhouse with scoria filled earth bags. You will learn the fundamentals of interlocking these bags together while creating a curved shape, pre-site excavation prep design, as well as the logistics and science behind earth battery design and implementation.
Natural Plasters with Athena Steen of the Canelo Project - SOLD OUT
THIS WORKSHOP IS SOLD OUT.
In this three-day, hands-on workshop, you will learn some of the most essential and easy-to-master interior finishes. A range of plasters will be covered including ¼” thick clay-straw plasters, ⅛” thick paper reinforced clay plasters, and thin wheat paste clay paints. All plasters work well when for applied over sheetrock, plywood and other flat substrates, including latex painted walls.
Join us to learn:
How to adhere clay finishes to sheetrock and other dissimilar materials.
How to use your own local clays
How to improve your plastering skills
What tools to use when
Clay Plasters
September 21 & 22, 9am - 4pm
Finish Clay Plasters workshop taught by Tim White, President of Texas Healthy Homes. Clay, as a building material, has a lot of amazing properties from negative ions to no VOC’s and everything in between. We will cover what substrates you can go over, different binders, and what to look for when making clay plaster and natural binders from scratch. The main finish clay plaster we will be working with is American Clay earthen plaster finishes and the different finishes that can be achieved with their products. This will be a comprehensive course on clay plasters, so get ready to learn the tricks of the trade. Clay plasters can be applied over all substrates. In this class you will learn how to use clay plasters over all wall substrates, including walls that have latex paint on them.
Bottle walls
Join us to learn how to enhance any space with the stunning, jewel-like bottle walls. This form of building is applicable in so many building methods, including interior and exterior walls. This will be a fun, one day workshop led by Goldie Mariola who has spent years working with bottles in various different mortars, learning the ins and outs of the trade. Participants will have the opportunity for hands-on experience in every step of the process as we construct bottle walls as part of a scoria bag constructed home.
Adobe floors
The most ancient buildings in the San Luis Valley have been built with “adobe.” This is a local term for the material used for building that is made from a mix of sand, clay, straw and water. The techniques for building with adobe are simple, yet require a level of relationship to the dirt. The beauty of adobe is that it is extremely forgiving, flexible and resilient. It is also one of the cheapest building techniques, as it is (almost) always available locally.
This workshop will cover all the steps involved in an adobe floor. From finding our ideal mix, “pouring” the floor, smoothing and burnishing, and sealing.
EarthShips and Hempcrete
The first workshop of the season will be focused on EarthShip design as well as hempcrete construction. Earthships are the brainchild of architect Michael Reynolds out of Taos, New Mexico. He has been perfecting the design of these homes over the last four decades and has been able to showcase their practicality in various environments all over the world.
Hempcrete sequesters carbon from the environment for 60 years. It petrifies into a monolith of limestone growing lighter and stronger each year. It is not only breathable, it is hygroscopic, regulating moisture in the building. It is mold, mildew and pest proof after three years of curing. Over time it becomes fireproof, waterproof and earthquake proof.