Natural Building courses in 2014

Do you do a lot of sculptural work, installations, land art or outdoor work? Ever thought of using natural building techniques as part of your creative work? Well, if you're interested, here is your chance to learn some of the techniques you can use!

Natural Building Collective
Peter McIntosh will be hosting a series of courses at Magic Mountains, near Barrydale. These will include:

21 – 23 March: Compost toilet workshop
10 – 18 May: Natural building course: materials and techniques
9 – 11 August: Pizza oven workshop
18 – 25 October: Natural building course: materials and techniques

For more information email naturalbuildingcollective@gmail.com

Stone Paper - is the writing on the wall?

ZHANG JIANJUN

Existence Series, 1989

Acrylic, Chinese ink, Xuan paper, wood, stone, paper mache on canvas 
84 × 75 × 8 cm

“stone papers” contain 80% Calcium Carbonate (basically pulverized marble or limestone) and 20% High Density Polyethylene (HDPE—the same plastic that’s used in milk jugs and plastic bags).

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While there's not yet a lot of reviews about the paper, and whether it's really as environmentally friendly as it claims to be, it seems to be a good option when you look at the water consumption and energy savings in its production. They are said to use no water, no toxic chemical bleaches and use far less energy.  They are recyclable as well. (Read more)

From the Sketchy Musings Blog

I have also read that the paper is made from the waste product in quarries from the building and construction industry. If this is the case, and if the sludge from mining dumps could also be used, then this paper has my vote.

Read up, find out and speak up! What do you think - is this tree free paper a wonderful new innovation or just another gimmick tapping into a green consumerism market? Leave a comment, or email your thoughts to artlovenature@gmail.com

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