Basics of Clay Plastering #1: Understanding Clay and Making Mixes (age 16+)

Day 1 of our 3-part series with Simon Lovatt, learning the basics of clay plastering.

Dive into the foundations of clay plastering with Simon Lovatt. Learn how to test clay, understand the material you have, make different mixes accordingly, and discover the role of fibres and sand in plaster strength and texture. Learn hands-on tests like the ball, ribbon and sausage, how to with different substrates, and learn to create your own plaster batch which we’ll then use in the following days’ sessions. You'll also learn about the tools required to plaster with (which will be supplied for the sessions).

You’re welcome to join for the full three-day series, or for any of the days individually — each session will be tailored to accommodate both. However, we ask that you can commit for the full workshop time (11 - 4pm) for the days you sign up. This workshop is for anyone aged 16+. Sign up is required.

Lunch will be provided.

ABOUT SIMON LOVATT, OF CALCH A CHLAI CYMRU

Simon is originally a Welsh Vernacular building specialist from Aberystwyth. As all Welsh cottages used natural materials this led him down the path of modern natural building with a focus on Clay and Lime. He has been practicing the craft for 8 years, Calch a Chlai Cymru (Lime and Clay Wales) has been running since 2021. Simon works all over the UK laying earth and limecrete floors, plastering with clay and lime plasters as well as facilitating workshops.

IS THIS FOR ME?

If you haven't done anything like this before but are interested to participate, you are warmly welcome to join us. No previous experience is required — just an interest in working with those around you to shape your homes, streets, and neighbourhoods together in ways that support those who live there to thrive in balance with the natural world around them.

If you’re interested in how making and connecting with natural materials can deepen our relationship to the land and to each other, or how natural materials like clay can be understood, reused, and adapted to meet our big climate and ecological challenges, this is a great workshop for you.

If you have experience in clay, plastering, construction, or making, and want to explore how these skills can support regenerative neighbourhood projects, this is a space to connect, share knowledge, and build together.

We particularly welcome those who are based in or around Ladywood and interested to co-design and co-build the Neighbourhood Public Square together with us, are involved in the co-design and building of civic spaces in their own neighbourhoods, or are interested in retrofit at the street and neighbourhood scale.

These workshops are not suitable for children under 16 years of age, and children aged below 17 years old must be accompanied by an adult for the full duration of the activity. For safety, this will need to be one adult in attendance per young person on site.

ABOUT THE SITE

This session takes place in and around the polytunnel on the Neighbourhood Public Square site. As we prepare to begin the construction of Neighbourhood Public Square together, we are very committed and excited to keep the site as open as possible. In order to make this work, we invite you to adopt new postures together with us and adhere to some important principles for taking care and keeping each other safe on site.

— All activity on site is only open to adults and children over the age of 11

— Children aged 11—17 must be accompanied by an adult

— Please note the site currently has no toilet facilities*

— There is level access across the site, but the ground is uneven in places, so please do navigate this carefully, and look out for each other too

— Closed toed shoes must be worn on site for your safety

— We will also provide any additional safety equipment that is required on your arrival, including hi vis vests which are to be worn at all times on site

If further information would support your visit, please contact Emily on emilycz@civicsquare.cc.

You can also let us know about any specific access requirements you may have during the sign up process, and where possible we will of course seek to meet these, whilst also being honest about the limitations of the current infrastructure where needed to ensure you have any information you may need before attending.

*Toilets are available nearby at Ladywood Leisure Centre and Reservoir Cafe (subject to opening times). We are working to bring further infrastructure to support more visitors to the Neighbourhood Public Square site as soon as possible, including compost toilets, and acknowedge and appreciate your patience as these upgrades become possible.

We thank you for your understanding and collaboration whilst we hold the constraints and opportunities of working in close proximity to former industrial buildings which are currently undergoing surveys to gain a full picture of their condition, whilst we keep trying to practice as openly as possible together during this time, and throughout the construction stages to come.

ABOUT MATERIAL MATTER[S]

Material Matter[s] is an ongoing open enquiry into how we fundamentally reimagine our relationships with materials and the systems that shape how they are made, distributed, and considered at their ‘end-of-life’ through a lens of material justice.

As we develop the strategies, relationships and practical skills needed to manifest the regenerative design principles within the retrofit of the Neighbourhood Public Square, this enquiry opens out our material explorations into a site of shared (un)learning, reimagination and capacity building.

We invite you to join us on this journey and to bring your own enquiries, curiosities and skills, as we collectively grow our material literacy, hands-on skills and collective capacities to co-lead and steward a just material transition in our homes, streets and neighbourhoods.

If you're interested in reading more about this work so far, head to our recent research publication with Material Cultures — Building Skills: A Material Strategy for Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Open enquiries are one layer of Site As A Classroom, a long-term collective practice to ensure everyday phase of Neighbourhood Public Square is an opportunity to learn together.

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ABOUT SITE AS A CLASSROOM

Site As A Classroom is a long-term collective practice to ensure every phase of designing, building, repairing and stewarding the Neighbourhood Public Square site is an open, inclusive, and shared opportunity for learning together in our neighbourhood and beyond.

"Together, we are a commitment to this land as a site of reimagination, reuse and repair; a place to learn, build, eat, grow, care and organise; a home for the capacities, skills and relationships we need to face the challenges and possibilities ahead together, held in common for the neighbourhood for generations to come."

—Neighbourhood Public Square: The Land Story So Far

Our intention is for our team, the neighbourhood, and wider national and industrial scales to learn from the ongoing demonstration through Neighbourhood Public Square in real-time, as well as informing how we learn from what the site, ecoregion, neighbourhood, peers, and precedents can continue to teach us, without end.

This builds on so many experiences we have shared with you all so far including Doughnut Economics Peer-To-Peer Learning Journeys, Ecological Health in Neighbourhoods, Neighbourhood Trade School, Material Matter[s], Re:Builders, Retrofit Reimagined, learning from Centre For Alternative Technology, The Rediscovery Centre, Le Magasin Électrique, Ubele Initiative, Freedom & Balance, and countless others.

Launching more formally in May 2025, Site As A Classroom is an open invitation to bring the skills you have, your energy, curiosity, and lived wisdoms to help shape and co-produce this next phase of discovery and demonstration together through everyday participation, co-builds and a range of open enquiries that we are excited to share in together.

Find out more: bit.ly/PublicSquareDesign

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