In 2011, I taught a 3 week workshop and gave a presentation at the Natural Building Extravaganza in NC. A student in the course, Max Livingstone, was intrigued by the pallet building projects I had worked on and consulted with me on how to build his own.
In 2015, after Livingstone had completed the main construction, I was hired to plaster the building. The initial plaster coat on a pallet building is an important step, as you need to build out the wall surface. I always choose a straw clay plaster for this initial coat. I worked with the builder Max Livingstone and Bethanie Ruffo, along with Emily Jantzen to make clay slip, chop straw, put up trim, make niches and bringing this pallet building to the next level.
So often in my work, I get hired to teach workshops. Workshops are a time for me to share the techniques of what I love to do. I always meet a few people in each workshop who I continue to work with. Thanks for this wonderful opportunity Max Livingstone, and thanks to my friends and family who stopped by to help! Chad Gaetz, Sebastian Collet, Eli Edleson Stein, Kat Jank. The first photos show the base coat plaster and the latter show the interior finish and the earthen floor I completed with Maeve Riley.
Discarded pallets are a great source of free wood and they make for what I feel is an easy and low cost construction technique. Hopefully you will find inspiration in these photos to build your own!
Further Reading:
- The Fuddy – a passive solar studio I constructed using salvaged pallets
- A Straw Clay Retrofit of a conventionally framed home
