Earth plaster by another name would be…clay. Stuff it. Muck it. Stick it. Clay. Just like your kid’s play dough, but clay is the real deal, or should we say, the real dirt, for those playful architects among us. Long considered a “primitive” building material by many Euro-Westerners, earthen structures have enjoyed a renaissance during the last 30 years. You call it brown. I call it red. They call it yellow. Umber, burnt sienna, and ochre dominate the clay soil palette, but rich grays and deep burgundies can also be found.

The word sustainable almost always accompanies a discussion of clay as the primary or finish element in building materials. During my recent introduction to clay veneers on straw bales, the discussion included a running commentary on contemporary philosophical, ethical, and moral choices, without being pointedly focused on any one. For example, clay and straw structures can be built by unskilled labor with minimal tools or direction. It’s possible to use on-site clay if it’s strong enough. If you use on-site clay to build, you certainly will make every effort not to poison it with chemicals or other toxic materials. Clay can be re-used. It can also be eaten.

Our pigments instructor likes found and recycled materials. Whenever possible, she takes advantage of modern earth disturbances—road cuts or graded areas—to harvest exposed earth for mineral aggregates that can be used and/or ground into pigments. No specialized mining is necessary. She brought and used a stunning blood red pigment that she found on the way to our workshop! We added it to one wall to deepen the clay color. To a different wall, we stapled a recycled bamboo shade screen, then filled the narrow spaces between the bamboo slats with clay.

The two clay plaster instructors, each having about thirty years experience with clay and straw building in southern Arizona and Mexico, were even more inspiring and generous with their thoughts, process, and tools. Their long experience with straw bale and earth plasters has shown them the wisdom of artful simplicity. This direction led them to work with Japanese masters of clay walls who in turn were informed by Japanese aesthetics in clay and pottery practices.

Under the guidance of our American instructors, our discussions focused on clay as a living and beautiful material for the buildings we inhabit. Even as it hardens over time, the clay wall retains a breathability inside to outside, outside to inside. The wall is never sealed from its other side.

The notion of breath brought color back into our stream of thoughts. We finished applying and troweling an orange oxide earthen wall with short ochre rice straw highlights. Longer wooden trowels evened out low areas left by our small steel trowels. The wall became flat, dense, alive in its solid quiet surface. Whether to use a translucent glaze to keep the “wet clay” look or let it dry without embellishment was a question for group discussion.

The question drifted away unanswered.

In just one week, my familiarity with non-commercial building and pigment sources expanded exponentially. Getting back to basics polished dusty reference points and set me on a new course of play dough—to simple materials, refined surfaces, sculptural possibilities, mineral pigment harvesting, new hand tools, and friendly collaborations. Welcome to the feast of clay!

Elizabeth Johnson is a visual artist who offers color consulting services for the interior and exterior, new construction or remodel of your home.