Mud Dauber School of Natural Building

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Snow Camp, NC
Mud Dauber School of Natural Building

Join our workshops to learn about natural building techniques like cob, strawbale, slip-straw, wattle-and-daub, roundwood framing, stonework, and more!

At the Mud Dauber School we explore with our students the craft of natural building. Join us in transforming mud, straw, trees, stones, and salvaged materials into magical structures. Our buildings are beautiful, non-toxic, thermally-efficient, locally-sourced, and handmade. What is healthy for the earth is intrinsically healthy for humans, and we allow this perspective to inform our work. Mortgag

es are disempowering, and conventional homes often lack vitality and are hosts to toxic materials and wasted space. Whether it is to save money, create a healthy space, realize a unique design, make something beautiful, or all of these things, building your own home is an option worth exploring. Thankfully, there is an abundance of undervalued resources that are inexpensive or free to acquire and wonderful to use – sometimes right underfoot! Everyone is a capable designer/builder and we host a variety of workshop and event offerings to engage all. Attend a workshop to begin your relationship with natural building, and share work, food, and fun with good people. Soon we will be offering apprenticeship opportunities, for those who are interested in incorporating natural building very fully into their lives, and may wish to work professionally and/or teach. If you can’t join us here as a student but are passionate about pursuing your own project, consider inviting us to instruct a workshop at your place.

08/12/2026

Just had a great 3-day workshop this past weekend, at the Deep River Folk School! We packed a lot of hands-on learning into a short amount of time: cob, wattle and daub (with split bamboo), slip-straw (AKA light straw clay), and base coat clay plaster! All of the cob, daub, and plaster was mixed by foot 🦶 💜 We also did a detailed overview of straw bale building concepts, with a slideshow presentation, plus showing various installation practices on a new, portable demo wall: re-tying, compression techniques, wiring, etc….

What a great group of students! It takes a lot of dedication and energy to be fully hands-on with natural building for 3 days straight in the middle of August in NC 🔥 And thanks to Deep River Folk School for hosting and taking photos along the way 🙏

08/05/2026

There’s still room to join us this fall! We have 3 spots left in our 1-Day Permitted Cob course, and also spots left in our Campus Tour and Pizza event 💜 🍕

Our Cob + Wattle and Daub workshop is full, but please reach out to be on the waitlist.

For anyone who is interested in natural building and our campus, but not ready to sign up for an intense, hands-on workshop, the Campus Tour + Pizza night is a perfect place to start. Hope to see you there!

All the details about our courses can be found on our website (link in bio) ✨

07/07/2026

If you missed our spring season, come join us in the fall! We’re running a small schedule of some of our most popular offerings. Hope to see you here 💜 ✨

(Link in bio)

Natural Building Workshops wattleanddaub

06/05/2026

It’s been a busy spring workshop season here! 💜

We’ve installed a lot of cob, wattle and daub, and straw bales! In the final May workshop, our students applied some gorgeous clay plaster on some of our natural walls. And in the days in between workshops, we even got to spend a couple mornings making cob fairy houses with some local elementary school students🥰

The cob oven here has seen a lot of use this spring, being fired up for 6 pizza party nights since the end of April. 🍕

Upon finally having a chance to reflect on these recent workshops, we’ve been appreciating everyone’s quality of work and dedication to doing things well. It’s inspiring to see how passionate our students are about natural building, and how quickly someone can pick up these skills when they care about their work, and just get a chance to do some hands on learning.

For anyone who missed this series and wants to attend, we have a small FALL workshop schedule that we just posted on our website (link in bio) ✨

01/02/2026

Our Spring/Summer 2026 Schedule is now live! Details are on our website (link in bio).

We’ve added some new offerings, plus repeating some of the same popular ones from past seasons. If you want an immersive introduction to straw bale walls, this is the first time since 2014 that we’re offering a dedicated straw bale course! If you’re curious about natural building, but not sure if you want to take a hands-on workshop, join us for our Campus Tour and Pizza event. And if you want to try out several different building techniques all in one weekend, our Cob Oven course at is great for that.

Sign up now to reserve your spot with early bird discounts! We hope to see you this spring 😊

07/24/2025

Join us to build a cob oven! We’ll be hosting people here on our Mud Dauber campus, and constructing the oven at .

You’ll get hands-on experience with all of the functional layers of the oven - from the initial insulation layer on top of the foundation, through the first layer of earthen plaster on the dome. Plus we’ll be simultaneously installing a connected countertop, using straw and cob.

Cob ovens are associated with pizza and bread, but can also be used to bake pretty much anything else that you’d bake in a conventional oven - veggies, meats, cookies... even overnight slow-baked beans. Cob oven pizza nights are such a fun way to share community!

Learn more details on our website (link in bio)

05/18/2025

05/17/2025

We just finished our first 6-Day Cob + Straw Immersion of the season. It was an absolute blast! There are still last-minute spots available in our second Immersion that starts next Tuesday (May 20-25th) - come join us for more natural building and shared community! All of the details are on our website (link in bio) ✨

04/30/2025

Join us for our 6-Day Cob + Straw Immersion! We just extended the early bird pricing (until May 10th) for our May 20-25th offering, and there are 5 spots left!

You’ll get an intensive, hands-on experience with cob, straw bale, slip-straw, wattle-and-daub, clay plasters and more... This is a great course for anyone who wants to take on their own natural building project, and is seeking in-depth learning + more information about different wall options.

All meals are provided, including a cob oven pizza party! And we have several tiny sleeping cabins that can be rented for a comfortable stay on campus (or free tent sites!). All details can be found on our website (link in bio) ✨

Address

Snow Camp, NC

Website

http://muddauberbuilding.com/

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