Avalon Springs

Sept. 12-14  Earthen Plasters.  Learn natural, non-toxic finishes for your home with Tempe Sikora. 
 Cost $100


Sept. 22-26 Natural Building Week.  A hands-on natural building workshop with Virgil Ryon.
Cost $200


Oct. 10-12 Are You Prepared for the Drought and Stormwater Cycle?  A Permaculture workshop with John Valenzuela and Geoff Hall. 
Cost $290

Natural Plasters Workshop held at Avalon Springs

This weekend, Avalon Springs hosted a Natural Plasters workshop taught by Tempe Sikora, a natural finisher who has studied at esteemed natural building centers such as Emerald Earth and the Canelo Project.  

Avalon Springs is committed to using natural plasters and natural paints as an alternative to industrial products that are not only harmful to the earth, but that create an unhealthy indoor environment.  

Plasters and finishes for the home that are made of natural materials such as clay, sand, straw, and lime, provide a cheaper and healthier alternative to industrial paints and stucco plasters.  

Class participants and Avalon community members applied a final clay plaster and clay “Aliz” paint to the inside of our natural garden shed.  Because the building is small, we chose a light colored clay and pigment to brighten up the room and create a more spacious feeling.  

While we applied this natural plaster to existing walls made of straw bale and cob, one very exciting aspect of natural finishes is that it can be applied to industrial surfaces such as drywall, found in most homes.  The class also experimented with applying different paints and plasters to drywall surfaces.  

For natural paint and plaster recipes, and to learn more visit Tempe Sikora at http://www.rarestbloom.com .

Out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing
there is a field. I will meet you there. –Rumi

Be Present
My intent is to be myself, to be authentic, and to be fully present.

Be Centered
I will do my best to recognize when I am off center and to bring myself back into the integrity of my own center – the place of neutral, witness consciousness, or pure awareness.

Stay Awake
When I find myself going into ‘story’ or emotional reactivity I agree to become present and awake with my experience, and to explore feeling inward instead of leaning out, unconsciously defending myself or projecting onto others.

Intention for the Highest Good
I acknowledge and honor my primary intention for the Highest Good – concerning the Earth, All My Relations, and myself. I recognize that I may never know for certain what the “answers” are, but my intention is to move in the direction of the highest and best good for the whole.

Communicate with Integrity
I agree to be honest and compassionate with my communications – to speak from my heart, maintain connection, and to be true to my word.

Act with Integrity and Humility
I agree to keep my agreements, to negotiate changes if I need to, and to ask for help when I need it.

Listen Deeply
I agree to listen respectfully to the communication of others and tune into their deepest meaning, noticing any inner reactions and taking responsibility for my feelings while staying present to truly listen.

Honor One Another
I agree to come from a sense of cooperation and caring in my interactions with others, respecting that our objectives are often the same, although our positions and means may differ. I recognize that everyone is a unique expression of the divine, and I honor the intelligence of body, mind, and emotions as uniquely expressed through each of us.

Take Responsibility
I agree to take responsibility for my creations, my reactions, my experience and my relationships. Therefore, I recognize there is no one to blame, nothing to defend, only wisdom and compassion to embody.

Maintain Resonance
I agree to take the time to establish rapport and re-connect with anyone with whom I feel out of harmony.

Resolve Problems Constructively
I agree to take problems, complaints and upsets to the person(s) with whom I can resolve them, at the earliest opportunity. I agree not to criticize or complain to someone who cannot do something about my complaint, and I will redirect others to do the same.

Collaborate and Lead
I agree to foster an environment of genuine collaboration in which all people, including myself, feel empowered to express our individual and collective potential.

Keep My Commitment Fresh
I agree to choose and re-choose to participate in and co-create the field of consciousness that is Avalon Springs every day. I recognize my responsibility to contribute what is alive and true in my heart today.

Joyful Service
I am devoted in service to the greatest good for the whole, and I embrace the joy this brings me as a natural expression of my life’s purpose.

Come From My Resources
I agree to take care of myself and to honor my own sense of balance with conscious choice in areas like sleep, nutrition, exercise, and thinking, so that I may live from a place of resource.

Carpe Diem
I am committed to ‘seizing’ the day-- To do my best to be complete with each day—to live as though today is my first and my last day alive. I agree to LIVE this Field of Alliance to the best and fullest of my capacity.

-- Adapted from The Co-Creator's Handbook published by Global Family.