Kleiwerks Collaborators
Collaborators are passionate, talented individuals who have worked with Kleiwerks through the years, mainly as instructors.  They are specialists in their fields who are dedicated to sustainable grassroots solutions and ecological and social justice.  They have a deep love for our beautiful living planet.  Collaborators are listed according to the country where they most often work.  Click on the links below for more details. 

North America: Natural Building
Janell Kapoor
Steveo Brodmerkel
Meka Bunch
Mollie Curry
Steve Kemble
Ira Friedrichs
Emily Hansgen
Kevin Rowell
Mark Mazziotti
Sarah Brooks
Lydia Doleman
Carol Stangler
North America: Permaculture
Patricia Allison
Shawn Jadrnicek
Brad Lancaster
Sandor Ellix Katz
Frank Cook
Chris Mathis
Rudy Ballentine

Janell Kapoor is founder and program coordinator of Kleiwerks International and the Ashevillage Institute. She is an avid mud mama, international activist and community organizer. Since 1997, she has shared the joy and art of earthen building with people from over 30 countries. Janell co-organized and taught the first earthen building trainings in Thailand and Argentina, which generated movements of tens of thousands of enthusiasts. Janell is dedicated to getting the word out about how easy, affordable and natural it can be to house ourselves. She is dedicated to the grassroots, to the champion within each of us and to the possibility that we may learn to live more balanced within ourselves, with eachother and with this most beautiful planet we are blessed to inhabit.

Janell's ventures include three seasons (2001-2003) in Thailand where she worked with NGOs and widespread networks of farmers, villagers, students, architects and foreigners. She helped organize the country's first Permaculture Certification Training in and the building of the first earthen village, plus a number of other community projects. She worked in Argentina for three seasons (2004-2006), where she led the building of a Waldorf Kindergarten and the initial structure at an eco-education center. Janell has also taught, presented and documented earthen building in Brazil, India and New Zealand. In the United States, she teaches and advocates for more natural ways of building and living through grassroots empowerment, including City Repair projects in Portland, Oregon; Earth Activist Trainings in California; to orgnaizing the first Ashevillage Building Convergence. Janell is currently based in Asheville, NC.

Steveo Brodmerkel has been in the carpentry trade for over 20 years. After conventionally re-modeling more houses than he cares to count, Steveo finally discovered the mud. He has recently been heard to say that all his future projects will include earth and straw. Steveo is in awe of the beauty, simplicity and possibilities that lie within earthen construction. He is an enthusiastic teacher, ready to share his discoveries of building in a way that is easy to understand and makes good sense. Steveo is based in Asheville, North Carolina and has instructed with Kleiwerks International since 2004.

Meka Bunch has been building with various natural building techniques since 1997. His first project was the creation of a gorgeous cob studio in Wolf Creek, Oregon. Ever since, Meka has been muddin’ it up, creating public community kiosks, benches, sweat lodges, wood-fired baking ovens and small living spaces. He has been involved with natural building projects in Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, Oregon, California and North Carolina. Meka loves working with others who are excited about implementing sustainable practices into their lives. Meka has worked with Kleiwerks International since 2003.

Mollie Curry co-founded MudStrawLove, a design/build company, with her partner, Steve Kemble. She works with cob, slipstraw, strawbale, earthen finishes, timber-framing, and other innovative techniques. Her love for, and connection with Earth, has led Mollie to the conscious use of natural materials to make beautiful homes. Mollie especially enjoysteaching natural building and permaculture, as well as doing professional earthen paint and plaster. Her life's purpose is to help people feel their connections with Earth, themselves and each other. Mollie has worked with Kleiwerks International since day one.

Steve Kemble

Emily Hansgen has been immersed in the art of fine natural wall finishes since 2004 when she interned with Kleiwerks. Since then, Emily was the project manager for Orit Yanai Inc., a natural finishes business in CA. She has worked with home-made earthen plasters and paints, as well as with pre-made finishes such as American Clay. Emily has also been the resource person for Eco Home Improvement in Berkeley, CA, one of the country's most extensive green home imrpovements stores.  

Kevin Rowell: Kevin has dedicated his adult life to investigating sustainable living through local organic food production and simple methods of housing. As a field manager at Green Gulch Farm and Zen center in Marin county, CA he received trainings in organic production scale Agriculture. He has worked in the field of urban agriculture installing gardens for the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG), Strybing Arboretum and school gardens around the Bay Area. His experiences as a farmer and Zen Monk inspired his move to leave monastic life to study and share simple construction and regenerative living systems around the world. Kevin's guiding belief is in our interconnectedness as beings and he strives to bring this out through work that promotes collaborations with people from around the world to create a simple living systems. Kevin has worked extensively in South East Asia initiating and supporting projects in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia focusing on the building of schools, cultural centers, seed banks and libraries. While working in foreign countries he promotes indigenous agricultural and construction methods and how they can be improved with modern knowledge rather than being overrun by it. Kevin is based out of El Cerrito California where he lives on a half acre organic farm. In addition he runs a design/build contracting firm: "The Natural Builders."

Mark Mazziotti was a natural builder trapped in a graphic designer's body. He worked for Public Media Center in San Francisco for 14 years where he learned everything about what's wrong with the world. These days however, he's more likely to be found in the mud trying to get it right. He apprenticed with Michael Smith and Darryl Berlin at Emerald Earth in California and has experience building with straw bale, cob, earthbag and natural plasters. He recently returned from teaching a workshop in South Africa with Builders Without Borders. Plagued by an unfailingly pessimistic attitude, Mark is amazed to report that things keep working out.

Sarah Brooks has had a heck of a good time slinging mud, straw, water and stone for a living since 1998. She has worked as an instructor, crew member and site supervisor on cob, strawbale and hybrid building sites, and was part of the team that created the first permitted load-bearing cob structure in the United States. She has worked in her home country of Canada, as well as in the United States, the southeastern Carribean, Argentina and Brazil. Sarah has a strong interest in natural building as a tool for self and community dignity. She lectures and presents at universities, communities and related events, and has consulted with various NGOs. She also writes on issues related to natural building, the broader movement, and on-site working relationships and communication. Sarah started working with Kleiwerks International in 2004.

Lydia Doleman,  has years of experience working with various methods of ecological construction. As founder of Flying Hammer, Lydia has helped bring natural construction to Portland, Oregon. She works with Dignity Village, a homeless tent city, demonstrating how to build low-cost, environmentally friendly housing. Lydia led the construction of their first strawbale house with scrap lumber and recycled windows that cost only $500USD. The City of Portland was so excited they officially declared Dignity Village a campground, allowing Lydia, Village residents, and suporters to build more straw & clay housing. Lydia loves working with community members in participatory processes that enable everyone to learn by doing while having a good time and meeting new people. She has been a lead instrucutor at Colorado's Solar Energy International, and worked with Kleiwerks International in Argentina in 2003.

Carol Stangler is author of The Craft and Art of Bamboo. As an environmental artist she started earnestly working with bamboo in 1991 when she received grants to experiment artistically with bamboo. Since then she has traveled to Japan, built distinctive fences, discovered and developed techniques and has researched sources for tools and materials...all for her love of bamboo. Along with workshops and residencies she also teaches at the School of Art and Design at Georgia State University in Atlanta. She has received numerous grants and honors, including the 1997 Georgia Arts Commission on Women Award for her "Outstanding Contribution to the Visual Arts." She currently lives and works in her "Bird Tribe Studio" in Asheville, NC, and has been a guest instructor with Kleiwerks International since the early days

Patricia Allison has been studying and practicing sustainability for over 25 years. In 1990, she found an integration of her diverse passions in deep ecology and Permaculture, and has been teaching Permaculture since 1994, and Consensus Decision-making since 1998. A mother and grandmother, Patricia has been a member of Earthaven Ecovillage – a Permaculture-based intentional community – for over 13 years. She daily attempts to practice what she preaches. She can be reached at http://www.patriciaallison.net

Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist, activist, and author, who travels widely teaching and sharing fermentation skills. His passion for fermentation developed out of his overlapping interests in food, nutrition, and gardening. His books are Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements. For more    information visit www.wildfermentation.com.

Frank Cook is a plant enthusiast who has spent the past twelve years following his passion for being a repository of plant knowledge. Studying with herbalists, shamen, doctors, professors, and medicine men around the world, he has been initiated into many ways of walking with plants. Frank has developed a deep-rooted network of people whose lives are consciously intermingled with plants, healing, and ways to create a better world. He leads a simple life, communicating, teaching, reflecting, and delving deeper into the mysteries of the plant kingdom and our place in the web of life.

Chris Mathis is an avid bee-keeper, bee-keeping educator, and building scientist based in Asheville, NC. He's been teaching bee-keeping fundamentals in WNC for the past six years, lecturing at the WNC Bee School, and with area bee-keeping organizations. He has published numerous articles on bee-keeping fundamentals. Chris maintains apiaries in four WNC counties and is president of The Spicewood Farm, a specialty honey gift producer. As a building scientist, he is also a student of the honey bee, noting their superior building science skills. Chris documented some of these observations in a recently published technical paper on “Building Science Lessons from the Bee Hive” at an international building science conference. Chris's website is TheSpicewoodFarm.com.

Rudy Ballentine was born in SC on his Grandfather's farm and, after practicing holistic medicine for 35 years, he returned to the south and now lives half time at Earthaven Ecovillage and teaches tantra and permaculture.  He is the past president of the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, and has authored or coauthored a number of books, including Diet & Nutrition, Radical Healing, and the forthcoming Kali Rising.  Rudy is also an avid supporter of the permaculture oriented farm run by his four children in Pennsylvania.

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