Why do we love clay?
We favor clay based materials because unprocessed clay breathes. Raw clay contributes to a healthy indoor atmosphere. Raw clay has outstanding vapor-diffusion capacities, absorbs odors, does not collect static and dander, has an extremely low embodied energy, and is locally available in abundance.
Warm in winter and cool in summer, clay based plasters also provide acoustic insulation, sculptural dynamism, and the potential of mixed-media walls.
Textures and depths created with clay plasters offer an unsually warm elegance that transform spaces into unique places. We are enamored with clay’s unsurpassed simple sophistication.
Anna understands that being surrounded by ground is grounding. Humans are deeply influenced by their environment. Making a conscious choice to dwell in a healthy creative space empowers people to flourish. For these reasons, Anna began Wolfson Earthen Finishes, a small company that is dedicated to natural building implementation and education, in 2006.
Her reverence for nature combined with her need for artistic expression led her to explore innovative ways of integrating organic elements to create a harmonious environment. Anna collaborates with unprocessed natural materials in the creation of vibrant artwork and architectural elements. She utilizes natural fibers, clays, aggregates, pigments and dyes to create warmth, beauty and a healthy atmosphere.
As one of a few Natural builders in the Chicago area, Wolfson teaches seminars on Natural Building, holds monthly Natural Building Meetups, hosts workshops, and contributes her skills as a contractor and artist on residential and commercial projects.
Wolfson also builds wood-fired earthen bread ovens, all natural garden architecture, and straw bale/ adobe playhouses, gazebos, and auxiliary buildings for private and public use.
What do you want to learn? Where? When? Alongside whom? Your family, co-workers, friends, students, neighbors? Let’s talk. We would love to further your experiences in Natural Art and Construction.
Would you like to get your girlfriends together and sit in a vat of clay? Would you like to build a house? Just a bird house? Hows about a back yard meditation or yoga sanctuary? Gazebo with seats heated from the cob oven sculpted into graceful forms… no dream is too outlandish, small, or large for us to entertain. Please, get your drawing book out, pour a glass of wine or tea, and get thinking! Then call!
If your are planning a Natural Building project of your own, and would like W.E. Artisans to lead a workshop for any portion of it, we would love to help. Straw baling, cob mixing, finishing interior or exterior coats on your walls, are all examples of workshops we can lead. We can lead the design charette with your family, organization, or friends at the onset of your project as well.
Please Contact Us with your idea and your visions of a workshop, and the dialogue shall begin.
If you’re interested in attending a public workshop of ours to gain more experience in Natural Building, please sign up for our RSS Feed on the Contact Us page.
Earth Bag building is an amazingly sturdy system with which we can create beautiful garden architecture like walls, gazebos, benches, flower beds, and small studios.
Chicago’s own Howard Alan, accomplished solar architect, re-configured the roof of his home to create a studio workshop with three banks of clerestory windows that allow the southern light to flow over curved earthen plaster surfaces in the ceiling and walls. Continue reading ‘Solar Design Earthen Ceiling’
