Hyperadobe Home

My first pot was twelve feet tall.

Before I was making vessels I could hold in my hands, I was building a home from the earth beneath my feet. Fifteen feet wide, with walls sixteen inches thick, it was a form I could stand inside.

Several hundred volunteers came together to help build it, gathering to learn how to work with the materials around us. Together, we were making a place intended to last for hundreds of years, something that could outlive all of us who had a hand in it.

We sifted the clay by hand, mixed it with sand and a little cement for stability, then packed it into Hyperadobe bags. Layer by layer, the walls rose around us. Every part of that process brought us into physical contact with the material and into shared work with one another.

Looking back, I can see the beginnings of my relationship with clay in that work. I was learning how earth behaves, what it can support, and how much care goes into giving it a lasting form.

Today, I work at a scale I can turn in my hands. The relationship with the material continues. I’m still paying attention to what it can do, what it asks of me, and what happens as we shape one another.