The Picture Hall, at the Yakushiji temple complex
Here is part two of our book review and giveaway series, in collaboration with Tuttle Publishing. In this post, you’ll find my review of Azby Brown’s The Genius of Japanese Carpentry, and details for how you can enter to win your own copy. This is an engrossing book about traditional temple construction in Japan. Read ahead and enter!
After reading all of the comments on the review and giveaway post for Just Enough, I want to send everyone copies of the book to enjoy. Unfortunately, there’s only one… and the lucky winner is Nadine. Congratulations, Nadine!
Lucky for everyone else, we still have one more giveaway coming up soon! We’ve got a copy of The Genius of Japanese Carpentry to give away next week. This too is a really excellent, and inspiring book, full of information about traditional temple construction and timber framing techniques in Japan.
Please check back soon to enter. It will be just as simple as last time. The image to the right is a little sneak peak of what to expect from the book…
After reading all of the comments on the review and giveaway post for Just Enough, I want to send everyone copies of the book to enjoy. Unfortunately, there’s only one… and the lucky winner is Nadine. Congratulations, Nadine!
Lucky for everyone else, we still have one more giveaway coming up soon! We’ve got a copy of The Genius of Japanese Carpentry to give away next week. This too is a really excellent, and inspiring book, full of information about traditional temple construction and timber framing techniques in Japan.
Please check back soon to enter. It will be just as simple as last time. The image to the right is a little sneak peak of what to expect from the book…
Just when I thought things might be quiet for a while, I look at the calendar and take note that we are just a little more than a month away from our Cob Building Workshop. Yow!
Our 3 day Cob Building Workshop takes place from September 5-7 here outside Berea, Kentucky. There are still three spaces remaining, so if you’ve been waiting to register, I suggest you go ahead and do that soon, because the spaces are certain to fill up. You can also save a bit on the registration fee if you register within the week.
I’m personally very excited to get my hands (and feet) back in the mud, at what will no doubt be a beautiful time of year. If you want to get your cobbing on with us, go ahead and register today.
Our first pizzas ready for the hungry masses
Amidst all of our timber framing work, we have been chipping away at our cob oven construction. In fact, we deemed it ready enough for a big ol’ pizza party this past week. The oven needs some finish plaster, but why wait? It proved to be a real workhorse, as April and I churned out about 50 pizzas (really, we lost count) for a big group of 40 people at the Clear Creek Festival grounds.
Read ahead to enter your name in a giveaway for this book
Here is part one of our book review and giveaway series, in collaboration with Tuttle Publishing. In this post, you’ll find my review of the fascinating book, Just Enough, and details for how you can enter to win your own copy. It’s quite simple… read ahead for more!
Soon you’ll have the chance to win one of these books
I’m happy to announce that Tuttle Publishing has kindly donated two very sweet books to The Year of Mud, and a couple of lucky readers will have the chance to get a copy of their own in the coming two weeks. I’ve got sitting beside me here a copy of The Genius of Japanese Carpentry: Secrets of an Ancient Craft and Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green From Traditional Japan, two excellent book titles. The first explores the incredible craft and history of temple building in Japan, and the second is a portrayal of life in Edo Japan, when Japanese society learned to cope with ecological limits and live in better balance in all aspects of daily life.
Click ahead to find out how you can win a copy of either of these books!
The first bent goes into position in our new timber frame pavilion
We did it… our new timber frame pavilion has been successfully raised. All worries were put to rest once we had our rigging ready and the first bent went up as smooth as butter. Cutting a frame with a whole bunch of hand tools is fun, but seeing your work raise high into the sky is hard to beat on the excitement scale. Yow!
We’ve got some giveaways coming up… can you guess what?
I’m very pleased to announce that The Year of Mud will be having a few very sweet giveaways in the near future. If you’re a fan of Japanese woodworking and history, we’ll be giving away a couple of items that will be right up your alley. No details yet, just a little teaser for you… including this photo hint above.
Keep on coming back, and sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop of things. Yea!
Here’s one last round of photos of our 2014 Timber Frame Workshop that ended a couple short weeks ago. If you’re interested in getting a firsthand look at our finished pavilion, the building will be up and in use during the Clear Creek Festival from August 29-31. We’ll likely be making pizza during that same festival out of our new cob oven, too… so look out. Anyway, click ahead for the slideshow.
Photos of the completed structure should be up soon, too!
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This blog is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. Since 2012, we’ve been hosting Natural Building Workshops so you can learn essential skills to build your own natural home.
