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 & Past Events
Natural Plasters with Athena Steen of the Canelo Project
In this 3-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
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.
High Desert Permaculture with Jerome Osentowski of Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute
Join us for a hands-on, two-day workshop focused on cultivating food forests, best practices for growing in a greenhouse, soil building and high-desert permaculture gardens. taught by Jerome Osentowski of Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute.
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.