User:Emcjagger/Mudgirls
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Mudgirls is a network of women who build natural structures for themselves and each other, as well as helping others build their own. They specialize in building with cob, but are also branching out into other natural materials such as strawbale, adobe brick, and cordwood. In addition, they offer courses and workshops to promote awareness of natural building. They couple their construction and training services with a strong environmental and social mandate that promotes sustainable building and living, and aims to improve the standing of women in the traditionally male-dominated discipline of construction. For this reason, the collective is officially female-only, although men are accepted as clients and participants in some of the Mudgirls' projects.
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[edit] History
Mudgirls is based on Lasqueti Island, B. C., Canada, and was founded in 2005 by Jen Gobby. Since that time, they have given many courses and seminars and have completed a variety of construction projects on Lasqueti and in other parts of the Canadian west coast, including a cookie stand, outhouses, workshop/studio/retreats, a house extension, plastering a pre-existing house, and earth ovens. Larger projects including a private dwelling are currently under construction.
[edit] Two Collectives
There are two overlapping collectives within the Mudgirls network – one, a bartering collective local to Lasqueti, and a second that is worker-run and for-hire which includes women in Courtenay, Nanaimo, and Saltspring Island, B. C.. The second collective is a consensus-based, non-hierarchical collective of women that support each other to gain training and employment. They offer assistance to owner-builders who are embarking on their own natural building projects.
[edit] Training
The Mudgirls organize workshops in which they share skills and facilitate the learning of natural building. These workshops are designed to be as accessible as possible; participants are charged only for direct costs of the course (primarily food), which keeps fees low. Childcare is provided on a sliding scale, and a variety of dietary needs are accommodated. Mudgirls also provide community outreach to help spread the natural building and sustainable living movement.
