Join us for a late afternoon dedicated to hands-on, earth-centered activities to commemorate the autumn season! Activities include earthen clay making with materials foraged from the local land such as a sand and straw mix, otherwise known as ‘cob.’ Building and sculpting with cob is a sensory and aesthetic experience similar to working with clay! This class will start with an inspirational tour of the cozy Strawbale Studio space that is built by Deanne and others, using cob and other natural elements from the local land. Other buildings onsite built using cob include a hobbit sauna, a 3-sided hut known as “middle-earth”, and walls within the main house that express creative works of the imagination. We will forage our earth and sculpting mix by digging and sifting local subsoil made of clay and sand. This preparation will set us up for the second gathering where we will add water and make it into a sculpting mix known as cob - similar to clay. In addition, we will take a walk around the scenic rural land to forage and identify in-season finds such as edible autumn olive, dogbane (historically used by people of the land to make cording), milkweed for the monarchs, and the potential for fall mushroom hunting! Please note, this class can be taken on its own without needing to attend the other 2.