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LAST DAY! The Mud Mixtures course price doubles at midnight tomorrow (Thursday 20th). If you’ve been sitting on the (woven willow) fence about learning how to understand and use cob, adobe, mud mortars, wattle and daub, earthen floors and light clay straw, this is your last chance to grab my new online course for just £52.80. At midnight on 20^th the price goes up to £105 (plus your local VAT).

See the Mud Mixtures course

Use code SPECIALINTRO50 at checkout. After today, the intro price is gone for good.

This course is fully downloadable: videos, lectures, and illustrated PDFs you can refer back to for years.

You can go straight to the discounted price at the checkout here.

I guarantee you will find it incredibly useful. Here’s an excerpt from the course.

Bulgarian Mud Brick

I’m off to Bulgaria again for another foray into mud. Bulgaria is the land of opportunity if you want an adobe renovation project. There’s such an abundance of mud brick structures there, and here’s the thing: A lot of them haven’t been messed up with concrete.

Mud Bricks Have Passed the Test of Time

The good old adobe brick has been around a long while. It’s one of humanity’s oldest building materials, dating back at least 10,000 years. The word “adobe” comes from the Arabic “al-tob” (the brick), passed through Spanish and then into English. But this technique has been (and still is) used all over the world, in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and even Australia.

If you want some proof that mud building lasts, take a look at this brick from Ancient Egypt. I can tell you now, a modern cement breeze block won’t be holding its form like this after a few thousand years. It will be dust.

The earliest adobe construction that we’re currently aware of happened in ancient Mesopotamia around 8000 BCE. Sun-dried mud bricks formed the walls of cities like Uruk and Ur. Mud bricks produced iconic structures like the Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali, which is still restored annually by the community. Ancient Egypt used adobe extensively for homes, granaries, and even some pyramid interiors.

The reason it’s so ubiquitous is because it has one very exciting advantage over cob. You can make the bricks while its hot, and then you can store them for later use.

How to Make Mud Bricks with Jon Jandai

We go on a wonderful mud brick journey here in this video by Jon Jandai. There’s a lot of real world wisdom being taught here, so it’s worth the watch.

I teach all this and so much more in that Mud Mixtures for Construction course:) Just sayin’.

See the Mud Mixtures Course

HALF PRICE COUPON CODE: SPECIALINTRO50

This introductory price ends 20th August at midnight.

As we East Anglians sit slap bang in the middle of summer, like 99 Flakes in blobs of Mr Whippy ice-cream, the mud goes on. I’ve just finished leading a group of mud enthusiasts in the joyful task of pimping up a composting toilet at Orchard Barn. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing how three simple ingredients - clay, straw and sand - can create so many incredible construction materials.

Cob, adobe brick, earthen floors, mud mortars, daubs for wattles, light Clay Straw, and all manner of plasters and renders are just a few of the options! We used three different mixtures for the Orchard Barn toilet, adding a daub, a plaster and an earthen floor. Lucky toilet!

So, what is the difference between all the clay construction methods?

Here’s a quick cheat-sheet-style summary.

• Cob is a load-bearing material used to build houses.

• Adobe bricks are mud bricks and probably one of the oldest building methods. They have been used all over the world.

• A mud mortar is the mortar that sticks bricks and stones together.

• Wattle and daub is a technique whereby you weave willow or hazel whips into a fence and then coat it in a clayey daub.

• Light Clay Straw is an incredibly easy way of creating insulating walls.

You can read my more in depth article on different types of mud building here:

One Earth, Many Mixtures

Building with the earth beneath your feet is one of the most empowering, satisfying, and affordable ways to build. So why don’t more people do it?

Two reasons:

1. Because people just can’t imagine how strong clay based construction is until they see it.

2. Most people never learn the fundamentals of how earth building ingredients actually work.

You can hear me yabber about it in the video below:)

ONLY THIS WEEK! My brand new fully downloadable course is now out for the very special introductory sale price of just £52.80. After19th August the price doubles.

See the course

COUPON CODE: SPECIALINTRO50

Learn exactly how to make cob, adobe bricks, mud mortars and fillers, wattle and daub, earthen floors and Light Clay Straw insulation from the earth beneath your feet. Clay is one of the most abundant materials on the planet, and it’s there in your back yard. You will be amazed how easy it is to build with your own soil.

As with all my courses, there are plenty of videos, lectures and the whole course is also distilled into illustrated PDFs for you to refer to quickly later. Everything is downloadable.

This course is for you if you’re:

• Planning to build your own home, studio, or outbuilding using some sort of mud building technique, and don’t know where to start

• Already building and want to actually understand your mixtures instead of guessing

• Restoring an old cob, adobe, or timber-framed building

• A homesteader, permaculture nut, or heritage-building geek who just loves this stuff

• An artist who’d like to start working with cob, adobe or wattle and daub.

Only for THIS WEEK, this fully downloadable new course is half price.

It’s just £52.80 (plus your local digital VAT). This is a very special introductory price.

Look at the course

Coupon code: SPECIALINTRO50

Offer ends 19^th August. After that, the course goes up to full price (£105) and you’re back to guessing:)

Have fun with the dirt!

Atulya

1. Personal update, losing the Mud Home email address, and The Mud Home website

2. Back at Orchard Barn. This time we’re plastering a toilet, but there are different ideas about how it should be done:)

3. Perfectionism versus bodging.

4. The road to creation. I discuss Erin’s winding road to building a mud studio.

5. The importance of hol…

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First, a million thanks to everyone who stepped in to support The Mud Home on Patreon this month. We’re not out of the woods yet, but it’s a definite step in the right direction, and it’s heart-warming to see that people do value The Mud Home and would like it to continue. A special thank you to Matt S, Ruth C, Jami F, Jonathan J, and Kaiolu who stepped up this month or came back into the fold. Your contributions are much appreciated.

I’m currently in East Anglia, but not for long. My goodness, we’ve tipped over into August already. The fields are rolling in golden waves under uncharacteristically blue skies. Lammas (or loaf mass) is here, and the wheat fields have been harvested. But in a couple of weeks I’ll be back in Bulgaria for my final workshop of 2026. Hope to see some of you there!

The Cob Workshop - Last Chance!

Cob is how humans have built for thousands of years, and it still beats concrete. Just earth, water, and straw. No cement trucks, no toxic materials, no massive carbon footprint. Just the ground beneath your feet, shaped by hand into walls that last centuries.

Sound too good to be true? Come find out for yourself.

Join natural building expert Atulya K Bingham for a hands-on 3-day Cob Building Workshop at RisingSoul Retreat Centre in the gorgeous Bulgarian countryside.

27–30 August 2026, RisingSoul Retreat Centre, Tryavna, Bulgaria

No experience needed, just curiosity and a willingness to get your hands dirty. You’ll work on a real restoration project on-site, with daily Q&A to help with your own building dreams.

“In a small group I was able to make connections to like-minded people who I will stay in touch with... Everyone worked together and we enjoyed as we learned how to make our natural living dreams come true.” — Sara F., 2026 participant

£260 Early Bird price, just two early bird tickets left.

Book your spot: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/atulyakbingham/2261669

Accommodation booked separately with RisingSoul, camping from 152 EUR/week (breakfast & dinner included).

1. Sieving Dirt

Talking of workshops. Here’s the story of the clay plaster masterclass a few weeks ago. I had six capable participants, but there was one recurring issue that persistently slowed us down. The sieve.

You can read the full story here:

The Nature of Freedom

Sieving Dirt

The weather had undergone an entire personality change by the time the clay plaster workshop began. The dark rain clouds that had hung over us so obstinately the previous week had been replaced by thick white clots of cumulus. Now that the sun had a horse in the game, it was suddenly rather hot…

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a month ago · 4 likes · Atulya K Bingham

2. The Journey to Creating a Gorgeous Pallet Cob Studio

It’s rare for me to watch a YouTube video on normal speed, but I did this one. This is a beautiful short documentary on creating a pallet cob studio in California. So often when we hear or watch someone else’s story, we imagine they simply made a plan and then executed it. This is never what happens in real life. It’s often more about holding onto a vision through thick and thin, than following a plan. Because the road to creation is winding, uneven, and littered with strange road blocks and fate twists. It tests us. For Erin and Gilberto the place was imperfect (next to a highway). The timing was slow. Plenty of shit happened. But it was all leading somewhere. As Erin says, “I created a portal to the place I dreamed of.”

If you’re looking for a bunch of how to you’ll be disappointed with this video. If you want a true story of what happens when we undertake a larger-than-us project – the time scales that can be involved and the ebbs and flows of motivation, this is as good as it gets.

3. How to Make a Reciprocal Roof

The reciprocal roof is one of the most drooled over pieces of construction in the natural building catalogue. Everyone wants one, including me. My next house will have one. But how do you make a reciprocal roof? Well, it’s not as tricky as you might think. Here are a few decent guides to add to your research if you’re interested.

1. The Year of Mud: How to Build a Reciprocal Roof.

The indefatigable Ziggy is still at it. This is a nice clear written guide for beginners. https://theyearofmud.com/2008/11/26/how-to-build-a-reciprocal-roof-frame/

2. Tony Wrench gives an old school demo here:

3. Kris Harbour, one of my favourite YouTube off-gridders, takes it to another level.

Earthbag House with Reciprocal Roof

One more thing…

I need your help to keep The Mud Home alive.

For 14 years I’ve given almost away everything I know about natural building and off-grid living for free (30,000+ downloads of my Mud Earthbag PDF alone!) But like Wikipedia, the Mud Home runs on support from people like you, not ads or sponsors. And that support appears to be dwindling.

If The Mud Home has ever helped or inspired you, join me on Patreon (or become a paid subscriber here on Substack). You’ll get the Mud Home Podcast, direct access to ask me anything, exclusive videos, and more — and you’ll be keeping the Mud Home open source for everyone in the world.

Support The Mud Home

The Mud Home website holds hundreds of articles on natural building and sustainable living.

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Foraging: A Skill Everyone Should Learn

Foraging is right up there with mud building for me in terms of usefulness. It’s such an old, practical skill that connects us back to the land in a way that no supermarket ever will. And it’s bonkers because no one, I repeat no one, is doing it! So there’s free food everywhere. Foraged weeds haven’t been manipulated the way our modern veg have, so they contain special nutritional keys to our health. Here are my top 9 easy plants to forage.

You can also watch my 2020 video of foraging in northern Spain here (from the archives).

The thing is, however, foraging is very region dependent. It’s a wonderfully localised sport. What grows in Asturias might not grow in Japan.

More Worldwide Foraging Resources

So here are are some other superb resources for anyone who wants to start getting healthy food for free.

The Woodland Trust’s foraging guide is a lovely place to start if you’re in the UK. It breaks things down month by month, so you always know what’s actually in season.

If your foraging takes you further afield, this piece on foraging in Japan is a fascinating read. Sansai, or mountain vegetables, have been gathered there since the Jomon period, and the article walks through classics like mugwort, butterbur and bracken.

Over to Vermont in the U.S. For the list-lovers among us, Practical Self Reliance’s forager’s bucket list is an enormous resource.

For those down under, this documentary on Australian bush tucker is well worth your time, and fascinating even if you’re not Australian. Australia is home to thousands of native edible species, and the film does a beautiful job of showing how that knowledge fed people for 60,000 years, and why it still matters now.

2. Orchard Barn: Clay Plastering and Nettle Weaving

Last week I was back at my favourite place in Suffolk, working with some volunteers to finish the final parts of plasterwork in the barn. Wow, what an incredible project this has been. I take my hat off to Sarah and the gang for this brave rebuild of a collapsed Tudor longhouse. If you haven’t seen the video I shot last year which outlines this project, you can see it below.

Orchard Barn is an amazing local resource and teaches such a range of ancient skills from timber framing to how to turn nettles into twine.

They are currently on a fundraising mission and offering a bunch of very inexpensive courses as part of the campaign. So if you are in the area and want a guided tour of this wonderful site, or want to learn how to make nettle string, take a look!

3. Waterproofing Cob, the Old-Fashioned Way

For all my fellow mud builders, this video from Ontario Permaculture is a gem. Bryce and Misty walk through waterproofing a cob surface using hardening linseed oil, beeswax, and a baked earth ochre paint. This is probably the best video on this subject I’ve found.

Final note: I’ll be honest, I need your help to keep this place alive.

For 14 years I’ve given almost away everything I know about natural building and off-grid living for free (30,000+ downloads of my Mud Earthbag PDF alone!) But like Wikipedia, the Mud Home runs on support from people like you, not ads or sponsors. And that support appears to be dwindling.

If The Mud Home has ever helped or inspired you, join me on Patreon (or become a paid subscriber here on Substack). You’ll get the Mud Home Podcast, direct access to ask me anything, exclusive videos, and more — and you’ll be keeping the Mud Home open source for everyone in the world.

Chip in on Patreon

1. Leading volunteers and finally completing the plaster mission at Orchard Barn

2. Learning and doing.

3. What does it take to build a house/create a permie world? Having met so many amazing creators over the past three years, I’ve been studying what they have in c…

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I’ve returned from my cob and clay plaster quest in Bulgaria. You can read how that went here. Cobbing in the pouring rain is never really recommended, but hey, sometimes you just have to get on with it, whatever the weather. He he…

Inevitably, at the end of these workshops, certain questions stay with me and resound inside my noodle. This time, it’s the strength of cob that’s reverberating. No one believes it until they experience it firsthand.

In certain very important ways, cob is stronger than concrete. On my courses, I prove it to people.

“But concrete is the material of skyscrapers and motorways. Cob is the stuff of mud huts and pizza ovens. Surely concrete wins?”

Nope. It doesn’t win in quite a few departments.

Here are three of the top structural reasons cob outperforms concrete in a building.

1. Toughness and fracture resistance

Architects and engineers are trained to focus on compressive strength in building materials. For those of us not versed in construction lingo, this means how much weight the material can bear before it squishes. Fair enough, concrete wins that particular strength contest, but that’s not the only kind of strength that matters in building. It’s not even the kind of strength that determines whether a wall survives the next 100 years.

There’s another kind of strength that matters: fracture resistance.

Concrete is brittle. Crack it, and that crack runs fast and often without warning.

Cob resists impact. Get the mix right, and you can hit a cob wall with a hammer, and it sort of goes “boing.” Cracks stay small, local, and not in any way structural.

2. Durability

Concrete comes with a long shopping list of insidious ways it can fail you when you least expect it: carbonation, chloride ingress, sulphate attack, alkali-silica reaction, corroding rebar you can’t see until the spalling starts. Most of these are built into the material itself, a bomb ticking away regardless of how well you look after the structure. And before you know it, boom! An entire bridge has collapsed.

Cob is simple. It has just one enemy: staying soaking wet for too long will weaken it dramatically. If you avoid that one mishap, that wall is going to last hundreds of years.

3. Repairability

Concrete is built to be ignored for a few decades, then fail expensively all at once. Cob was never built that way. A crack in cob is a Tuesday afternoon job, not a crisis. That’s how cottages in Devon have stood for five hundred years. Repairs are mostly small, quick, and not structurally significant.

The Upshot

So... if someone churns out the classic half-truth that concrete is stronger than cob, I know they don’t really understand structural strength holistically. They are referring to a specific stress test, not how the material actually performs in a building.

You can read more about cob in my COB HUB over at The Mud Home

Seeing It Work in Practice

As one part of my cob workshops, students make a lot of different types of cob bricks using different materials. We then let them cure. Once the bricks have dried thoroughly, I get people to try and break them. It usually takes a zealous, muscled young person with a large hammer pounding for a while to break the thing.

If you’d like to see this for yourself and understand firsthand how strong cob really is if you get the mixture right, come to my next workshop in Bulgaria!

Cob Building Workshop: 27th to 30th August, Bulgaria.

Join my next cob building workshop

"I attended Atulya’s cob workshop in Bulgaria and want to rave about it in words. I learned so much and was able to ask many questions and gain perspective that was invaluable to me. In a small group I was able to make connections to like-minded people who I will stay in touch with, not to mention the location and place who hosted us was fantastic in their own merit. Everyone worked together and we enjoyed as we learned how to make our natural living dreams come true. I would recommend to anyone wherever you are in your journey. Atulya thank you for putting up with all my questions and curiosities. It is so important to have a good teacher to truly connect with the material being taught and I am 100% happy to have had this experience and was terribly sad when it was over. If there is a plaster course coming I will be in line to go to that too!" Sara Farooq, course participant in Bulgaria 2026

I hope you enjoy this entertaining summary of our rather wet cob workshop in Bulgaria last …

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There’s something electric about realising that the ground you walk on can become the walls of a home. Warm in winter, cool in summer, sculpted by hand, and built for centuries.

Due to popular demand, this August in the forested hills of Bulgaria, I’m holding the last cob workshop of the year. Come and find out what the fuss is about.

DATES: 27-30 AUGUST 2026

Cob building is a total game changer and mind blowing if you’ve never come across it. In this course you will learn how cob outperforms concrete and how to use it as a construction material. By the end of the workshop you will understand if your soil is suitable for building, how to turn it into a cob, and how to build with it. You will learn the foundations necessary for cob buildings, how to attach roof timbers to cob walls, and basic cob house design. This is going to be a very informative and empowering course.

Who is this course for?

• Anyone considering building a natural home and wondering if cob has a place in their project.

• Anyone who wants to know what cob building entails.

• If you would like to know whether you would actually enjoy building your own mud home, this is for you.

• People who’d like to know how to build structures using the earth beneath their feet.

• Artists and creatives who’d like to know the sculpting potential of cob.

• People who want to connect with other natural builders and be part of a team.

• People with questions about their own projects. I have a Q & A in the lunch breaks.

“Atulya’s Workshop in Bulgaria at the end of May 2026 was my first natural building course and I absolutely loved it. From the start we were learning hands-on skills, getting practical experience. The Q&A sessions over lunch really helped to drill in the knowledge. We learned so much over just a few days!

And we had a huge amount of fun. Atulya is a great teacher and made sure we were laughing and relaxed. And our small group therefore really bonded - getting to know our international team-mates was part of the fun...I whole-heartedly recommend the course. Staying at the Rising Soul centre in forest-covered hills also made it very special, with great yoga sessions and amazing food from the international team there. Thanks for all of it!” Jen Barclay, course participant in Bulgaria, 2026

For the practical hands on elements of this workshop we will be building up the cob wall of a large restoration project at RisingSoul Retreat Centre, and installing a window into that wall.

What exactly will you learn in this workshop?

• Where to find clayey soil on your land, and how to turn it into a usable building material.

• How to test your cob mixture for strength.

• The function of each ingredient in the cob mixture, and how to tweak it for your own land/project.

• How to build a cob wall. The dos and don’ts.

• How to keep the wall plumb, and how to trim it.

• The correct foundation method for cob buildings.

• Stem walls, their purpose and design.

• How to install windows and doors into cob walls.

• How to install plumbing and wiring into cob buildings.

• How to lay roof timbers onto a cob wall.

• What is thermal mass, and how to use it to your advantage.

• Constructing cob homes in different climates.

• Basic cob house design.

• How to repair and maintain cob.

• Sculpting cob; tips and tricks.

PRICES

Workshop prices:

• First off the blocks: £235

• Early Birds: £260

• Standard Ticket: £290

Enrol in the workshop

Important! Your accommodation is booked separately.
Accommodation prices are reasonable and include delicious hearty breakfast and dinner for the whole workshop.

• Bring your own tent or campervan: 152 EUROS (for the 3 nights and four days).

• Rent a tent 182 EUROS (for 3 nights and 4 days). Price includes delicious and hearty breakfast and dinner for the whole workshop.

• Glamping options are also available.

  Reserve Your Accommodation

  
  Camping accommodation at Rising Soul Retreat Centre. All prices include a plentiful, delicious home cooked breakfast and dinner each day. Bear in mind this is a simple eco retreat with composting toilets, not a luxury resort. But it is a beautiful cared for space, and the food is plentiful and high quality.
  
  Free Yoga and Meditation included: For the duration of the workshop, you will have the chance to join a daily meditation and yoga classes if you like. It’s a free and entirely optional bonus of staying at RisingSoul Retreat Centre

  Please note: Rising Soul Retreat centre is plant based and a drug and alcohol free space.

Reserve Your Place

The button takes you to RisingSoul Retreat website. You book your accommodation first and then you’ll be directed to pay for the workshop. If you have any trouble with the booking form, get right back to me: atulyakbingham@themudhome.com

DATES AND TIMES

​27 -30 August 2026
Start time 4 pm on the 27th August
Finish 3pm on the 30th August

Travelling to RisingSoul Retreat Centre

RisingSoul Retreat Centre is in a small village called Belitsa, about 20 mins drive from the town of Tryavna (or Trjavna).

How to get there:
1. Fly to Sofia or Plovdiv
2. Get to Tryavna (usually about a 4 hour journey from Sofia or Plovdiv)
3. Grab a taxi (about 12 Euros) to RisingSoul Retreat centre.

Flying into Sofia or Plovdiv
We say it every time, and every time someone misses the memo. Don’t leave your travel arrangements until the last minute as flights and buses fill up.

From Sofia

• Bus from Sofia to Tryavna can be booked here: https://union-ivkoni.com/en

The bus is direct and takes approx 4 hours. It needs to be booked well in advance as it can sell out.

• Train from Sofia to Trjavna can be booked at Bulgarian Railways (BDZ) https://www.bdz.bg/en .

Be aware, the BDZ website doesn’t work well on mobile phone. The train is slower and can sometimes run a bit late. It takes a good 5 hours but is scenic, reasonably comfortable, has toilets (though not romantic ones) and offers an authentic Bulgarian experience. Train tickets rarely sell out unless it’s a public holiday and you can buy in the station if you prefer. If you buy on the BDZ website, the spelling of the town is Trjavna. You don’t need to print the ticket, just show the electronic version on your phone.

• Taxi from Sofia to Tryavna costs about 180 Euro (though prices are hard to pin down and can change, so this is a rough figure only).

• Car hire. Alternatively, you can hire a car from the usual suspects.

From Plovdiv
If you get a chance to fly into Plovdiv, it’s a bit closer to the workshop venue, and very worthwhile. Plovdiv is a fascinating ancient town full of great eateries and a boho vibe. Ryanair runs regular flights from London Stansted, Milan and a few other destinations.

• The train from Plovdiv can be booked here: Bulgarian Railways (BDZ) https://www.bdz.bg/en​

Be aware, the BDZ website doesn’t work well on mobile phone. The train can sometimes run late. It takes about 4 hours to get to Trjavna, but the journey is very scenic. The train has toilets (though not romantic ones) but not air con, and offers an authentic Bulgarian experience.

Please be aware, Bulgaria isn’t Germany. Trains plod. Buses meander. That’s just how it is. Leave decent margins for flights and connections.

RISINGSOUL RETREAT CENTRE ON GOOGLE MAPS: https://maps.app.goo.gl/CZjyuvmEP2yG8Rtx7​

​Workshop Requirements
This is a hands on workshop and you will get dirty. For those willing to muck in and go for it, this will be an incredibly empowering experience. People’s lives or life perspective can be changed in these workshops.

My workshops are always very eclectic and I welcome everyone from everywhere. You don’t need to have prior building knowledge, but if you do I will build upon it. What you do need both for building a mud home and this workshop is a positive attitude, and willingness to get involved.
​
If you want to genuinely understand what natural building entails and get a proper grasp of the technique (rather than just look at pretty pictures), you are whole-heartedly invited into this course. My pledge to you in return is to empower you to build from the earth beneath your feet.

What participants have said about my previous workshops:
​
“Atulya’s courses were an absolute game changer! She is full of magic and this truly was one of the highlights of my year.” Leo.

“The teacher (Atulya) was amazing and so positive and full of knowledge, she made the workshop run so smoothly.” Annie.

“The atmosphere was great and I couldn’t ask for a better group of participants, or a more energetic environment. Loved every minute of it. Can’t wait to use my new skills!” Mik.

“Atulya is a brilliant teacher...I returned home with a sparkle in my spirit and a deep appreciation that I was in a position to attend.” Alana

1. Bulgaria. The place. The rain and a slew of no shows.

2. How we coped with four cancellations.

3. Who turned up to Bulgaria and what they contributed.

4. Organising a workshop. How long it takes and what’s involved. The pain and the gain.

5. Why this particular venue worked for me (but might not for everyone).

6. The jeopardy of a workshop in a site that’s not your own. The death trap!

7. Why you don’t cob in the rain.

8. How mud bonds people.

9. How these workshops differed from previous ones.

10. Mud Mixtures: Understanding the difference between cob and plaster and other mud applications.

11. Understanding cob. What exactly is it, and what does it do?

12. What’s the function of plaster?

13. Plastering on wood.

14. The paint that messes it all up.

15. The strength and weakness of cob and lime.

16. My next workshop…

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The cause was a workshop. I was teaching cob building to an eclectic crowd of hopefuls who had come from all corners of the planet. I think most of those participants would agree: over the coming days, time expanded like clay in the rain. A week felt like a month, two weeks felt like a season. We bonded, we changed, we learned and we grew. Mostly though we roared with laughter. What a blessing it is to be a part of these things!

A Secret World

I will report on the workshops themselves later. Today it’s all about the venues, the gardens and buildings that held us. Sometimes we enter a landscape and feel tension or darkness. Sometimes we feel unwelcome. Sometimes we can’t wait to get away.

Other times however, we walk into a space and feel immense joy, peace or enchantment. RisingSoul Retreat Centre is one such space, or should I say a multitude of spaces, because there are so many nooks to turn into and be quiet, and equally many areas to chat and connect.

RisingSoul sports some beautiful old natural buildings and features: the courtyard is encircled by stone walls with the original mud mortar still intact. There’s a limewashed old mud brick meditation room where ancient clay plaster still clings to the walls. An old but majestic wooden barn now doubles as a yoga space. Amazingly, Rowena has had the wisdom to leave all of this well enough alone.

Rowena’s Story

How did any of this even begin? Well, Rowena’s father died when she was in her early twenties and she inherited some money. She came across a listing for a Bulgarian property online in the early 2000s and fell in love with on sight. At just 23 years old, going on nothing more than an online listing, Rowena travelled to Bulgaria to buy her dream house. Despite looking at tens of other properties at the same time, she kept returning to the original property. Eventually she bought it and restored it. That property is now RisingSoul Retreat Centre. Thus the story begins.

Rowena’s place is so beautiful and blooms with such spirit, it’s hard not to be affected. Her land backs onto the most gorgeous forest with a stream running through it and birds chirping and twittering non stop. It’s also incredibly well placed, with the attractive ancient town of Tryavna next door, and the cultural fortress town of Veliko Tarnovo about 25 minutes away.

But of course, just like many a visionary before her, Rowena won’t be standing still. Wanting to get her teeth into something new, she has recently bought yet another massive ruin and acreage just up the road, which will one day become an eco community. For now though, let’s just say it needs a bit of work. It was this second property that was the site for our cob workshop. And what a workshop that was!

So for paid subscribers, the first part of my latest muddy adventure in Bulgaria is in the video above. Come and have a look round. And for everyone else, more on the workshop story is coming before too long.

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Thank you to all those who support The Mud Home in which ever way. I’m always amazed at just how far round the world it has reached, and how many people are inspired.

Want to throw mud at RisingSoul?

If you happen to be in the area, Rowena and the gang are running a four day Mud and Magic workshop at RisingSoul Retreat centre. You can see all about it here.

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1. Personal Update: Eastern Europe, the hidden gem for nature and reno projects.

2. Fear of travel, the great illusion.

3. AI and house building.

4. The most common mistakes owner builders make and why we just can’t seem to avoid…

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I hope you are having a wonderfully muddy time wherever you are in the world. This month I’ve been thinking a lot about floors, specifically earthen ones. I’m also looking at how we test soil, and whether all those tests are really worth the bother. Spoiler alert: Some of them aren’t. Let’s get into the thick of it, eh?

Get Grounded on an Earthen Floor

Ah who doesn’t love an earthen floor? Earthen floors have been loitering humbly under human foot for thousands of years. They’re warm, beautiful, durable when properly sealed, and you can make them yourself from what’s right under your nose. They’re also one of the most satisfying natural building projects to undertake and give results that make visitors stop and stare.

If you’ve been curious about earthen floors: how to make the mix, how thick to pour it, how to seal it so it actually lasts: you’ll want to take a look at my new How to Make an Earthen Floor ebook.

The 38 page PDF is full of photos, diagrams and illustrations. It includes a cheat sheet to refer to later as well. It walks you through the whole process, step by step, from testing your soil to considering your subfloor, from trowelling the base layer to polishing it.

Just for this week only The PDF is going at the special introductory price of £8.99. After May 11 it goes up to £16.99.

Grab Your Copy Now

Get the Earthen Floor Ebook with Cheat Sheet at the discounted intro price!

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Earthen Floors

Earthen floors are not that hard, but there are an amazing amount of myths floating around about them.

1. Did you know... that just three quarters of an inch of earthen floor mix on a solid base is strong enough to walk on? Most people assume you need a thick slab, but a well-made clay mix under compression is far stronger than it looks if you get your mixture right.

2. Did you know... that the biggest cause of earthen floor failure isn’t the structure. It’s the mixture? Get the mix wrong and the floor cracks and shrinks back from the walls. Get it right and you have a surface that lasts decades.

3. Did you know... that an earthen floor can take up to three months to cure? It doesn’t usually take quite this long. Curing times depend on climate and room ventilation. Your floor could cure in as little as three weeks. But people vastly underestimate the curing time, and it’s fundamental. Walk on it too soon, or oil it before it’s ready, and you’ll undo all your hard work.

4. Did you know... that earthen floors and underfloor heating are a perfect match? The thermal mass of the clay slowly absorbs heat from the pipes and releases it evenly for hours, which is exactly what a hydronic underfloor heating system is designed for.

5. Did you know... that your standard cob mix, which many natural builders already know how to make, probably isn’t the most appropriate mixture for an earthen floor? I explain all about this in the book (or, if you’re in my Mud Friends group on Patreon, it’s in the Mud Mixtures course as well).

   I teach all these things and many more in How to Make an Earthen Floor.

   

   ---

Soil Tests and Why We Hate the Jar Test

As you know, I am generally of the opinion that people overthink in natural building. Or perhaps I should say they overthink the wrong things. One thing that I overthought at the beginning, and that most of us do, is the whole clay content of your soil malarkey.

Before you get lost in all the geeky stuff below, I really want to hammer home one thing:

If your soil sticks together when wet, you’ve got clay in it. Only clay can do that.

But of course we moderns love to scientificise everything. Sometimes it’s useful, sometimes not. In that vein, here are three tests you can do on your soil or clay, all giving slightly different information.

The Jar Test

You’ve probably seen this one. You put your soil in a jar with water, shake it, and let it settle in layers. The idea is that you can measure the clay layer at the top and calculate your clay percentage. In theory: fine. In practice the results can be somewhat murky.

The clay layer is often hard to read, results vary depending on how vigorously you shook the jar, and by the time you’ve waited 24–48 hours for it to settle, you could have just made a test batch and had actual useful information. Still, if you love a bit of jar-gazing, here’s how it goes.

The Cigar Test

Now this one I actually like. It’s quick, tactile, and tells you something in minutes. Roll a bit of your damp soil into a cigar shape and see how long you can make it before it cracks or breaks. The longer and better it holds together, the more clay you’ve got. Have a look at this short video for a demo.

The Shrinkage Test

This one measures how much your clay-soil mix shrinks as it dries — which tells you a lot about how rich it is in clay (and how much sand you might want to add). Useful for mixes you’re planning to use for plaster or earthen floors especially. Here’s a video to show you how it’s done.

The Upshot?

Honestly, the best, safest and most reliable way to test your soil for any particular job is to create test batches of the mix (sand, straw, and your clayey soil). You’ll probably learn more from that than a thousand YouTube videos. Get your hands muddy. That’s where the real information lives.

Do you enjoy The Mud Home? Have you benefitted from the open-source information here or on the mother site? It’s only possible because of wonderful people supporting on Patreon. If you’d like to help keep the mud flowing, please do consider making a pledge. You’ll be privy to the Mud Home Podcast, hundreds of posts, and email priority.

Join me on Patreon

Best wishes,

Atulya K Bingham

P.S Next time I’ll be writing from Bulgaria at my next batch of cob and plaster workshops. If you’re some of the lucky few joining, see you there!

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Wow, I can’t get over the progress that’s been made at Orchard Barn in just over a year. It was only back in February last year (2025) that they started adding the wooden flooring on the second floor. The shingles on the roof were only half complete at that stage. It looked like such a massive undertaking.

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We have two wonderful additions to the Mud Home this month — a deeply considered hempcrete home rising out of snow and ice of a Vermont winter, and a remarkable one-woman universe of natural building from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Pour yourself something warm and settle in.

Building a Hempcrete Home in Vermont: Lessons Learned and Rewards Reaped

Susan and David wanted to build a home that reflected the way they’d always lived — close to the land, organically, with as light a footprint as possible. What they got was all of that, plus a crash course in timing, trust, and choosing the right people. Welcome to the world of the owner builder!

Read the full article here: https://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/building-a-hempcrete-home-in-vermont-lessons-learned-and-rewards-reaped

Natural Materials Suppliers

Now, I’m mostly a fan of not buying materials but foraging for them in the locale. However, even I the stubborn mud haggette will purchase a building material every now and again. You definitely don’t need to buy clay plasters. If you understand your soil and how the Big Three (sand, straw and clay) work, you can whip up a plaster pretty much anywhere. But when it comes to pigments, lime, and natural insulation, you will need a supplier.

Europe wins hands down

After a lot of research what I notice is that the U.S. and Australia are really lagging behind Europe in terms of natural materials outlets in terms of quality, price, availability and genuine natural sustainability. Anyway, I’ve updated the Mud Home resources page with some of my go-to suppliers (and yes they ship). Take a look.

Mud Home Resource Page

Fiona’s One-Woman Off-Grid Mud World in KwaZulu-Natal

Remember Fiona? She built a mud universe in South Africa using four different natural techniques: earthbag, adobe brick, cob, and lime. Each structure tells its own story, and together they form a complete, deeply personal off-grid world. This is the kind of project that reminds you what is truly possible when someone commits fully to the natural building path.

This video went out to Patrons in January (with some extra videos as well), and I’m now sharing it publicly. But if you enjoyed it, consider becoming part of my Mud Community on Patreon. You help sustain The Mud Home and also gain access to the Mud Home podcast and Q & A, videos like this, and have a place to ask questions.

Join my Mud Community

There’s so much to see here. Sit and enjoy all her hard work!

Watch the video here:

Until next time, keep on building with the earth beneath your feet!

With muddy hands, Atulya

MY UPCOMING IN-PERSON WORKSHOPS

SEE WORKSHOPS

P.S. Do you find the Mud Home valuable?
It takes a lot of time and effort to write these articles and unfortunately tech platforms don’t accept foraged dandelions for payment.

If you benefit from these articles and would like The Mud Home to continue, it needs support. Please consider contributing and joining our special mud community on Patreon.

You will have access to a massive archive of updates, videos, and audio. At the moment all 57 videos of my off-grid barn rebuild in Spain are also part of the package.

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COURSES • PATREON • BOOKS • GALLERIES • BUILDING PDFs • PODCAST

1. Why I returned to Mud Mountain this month.

2. Earth Whispering and ideas on the wind.

3. Who is the first participant in the Earth Whispering Circle?

4. Looking back and taking stock. Gratitude aplenty.

5. When I first ran into Shagun Singh.

6. A copyright infringement that turned into something else.

7. When I lost my confidence, and why I near…

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Hello all you Mud Movers and Dirt Shakers!

April is upon us and here in the north the earth is doing what she does best: The buds are bursting, the frogs are at it, and somewhere out there a natural builder is standing in a field looking at a pile of subsoil wondering what on earth (quite literally) to do next. And hey! That’s exactly where all the best stories start.

This month I’ve got plenty of dirt to dish you. I discuss uncertainty in the world, a rather gorgeous cob and cedar courtyard from a Canadian island, and the perennial question: what exactly can you shove in an earthbag?

Let’s get into it.

The Doorway of Uncertainty

Over on my other Substack — The Nature of Freedom — I’ve been writing about something that I think many natural builders will recognise: the moment when everything falls apart, and later turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to you.

Back in 2011, I found myself on a Turkish mountainside with a Carrefour tent, a spade I didn’t know how to use, and not much else. No house. No plan. No idea. It was what many might call a crisis. And yet it was the beginning of something incredible that ended up inspiring many many people.

If you’re feeling rattled by the times, or you’re hovering on the threshold of a big decision (like, say, whether to actually build that natural home you’ve been dreaming about for years), go and have a read. It might just give you the nudge you need.

Read: The Doorway of Uncertainty

Read The Doorway of Uncertainty

A Courtyard Worth Drooling Over

There is an awful lot you can learn from a well built wall. I love this next project because it’s whimsical and fun, yet also very educational.

Colin Hamilton of Thuja Wood Art on Pender Island, British Columbia, has built a cob and cedar courtyard created from properly thought out cob walls. What do I mean by that?

1. First they built a decent stem wall out of stone to protect the cob footings.

2. Next they created a gorgeous cob wall on top.

3. Finally, they topped the wall with a hand-split cedar shake mini roof running along the curves of the cob.

A properly constructed cob wall always follows this format. Cob walls that fail, usually miss one of these steps. If you follow this process for any type of clay based construction, you’ll be doing yourself a massive favour.

What I love about this project is the demonstration that cob isn’t just for houses. It’s for courtyards, benches, walls, garden rooms. As long as you follow the rules: Stem wall - cob wall - protective roof, you can use cob almost anywhere.

When you combine logic, a bit of whimsical flair and some local salvaged wood and stone, something rather magical happens. Structures seem to have extra dimensions to them.

See the full Cob and Cedar Courtyard

Clay Plaster Masterclass in Bulgaria - One Seat Left

My Advanced Clay Plaster Workshop in May/June has almost sold out. There is just one seat left. So if you’d like to learn this timeless craft, jump aboard! In this three-day clay plaster masterclass we’ll be exploring and perfecting clay finishes. We’ll learn how to test and apply clay renders to different surfaces. We’ll also practice some of the more advanced clay plastering techniques like burnishing, sculpting and carving. LEARN MORE…

Reserve Your Place

What Can I Put in My Earthbags? (The Question That Never Dies)

This one is from the archives, but hey it never seems to get old. Good Lord! The things people try and shove in an earthbag truly makes me wince at times. If you want earthbag building to work, there is a limit to what you should try and stuff in the sacks.

Let me give you the executive summary here.

The classic earthbag fill is damp, clayey earth — something in the region of 20-25% clay content. This is what gives the building its strength once compacted and dried. It’s why the earthbag method is also called superadobe.

What you generally want to avoid is material that’s going to decompose, compress unpredictably, or introduce water retention problems. Organic material like straw or woodchip is a no for earthbag.

My full article goes into much more detail — including the question of pumice, lime and other alternatives people try to use in places where good clay soil is scarce. Go and have a look if earthbag is on your radar.

Read: What Can I Put in my Earthbags?

A Note from Mud Woman

In case you missed the memo…

I have a very special Earth Whispering retreat organised with the amazing Kim Fraser, founder of the award-winning Hideaway Under the Stars.

There are only four places and tickets are already selling, so if you’d like to join this very unique circle in September, don’t hang about.

Learn About the Earth Whispering Circle

Wishing you all an uplifting journey through April.

Onwards and earthwards, as they say!

Atulya

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