Natural Builders Directory
We bring different perspectives to the table, but we’re united by a love for purposeful work, thoughtful design, and real connection to our built environments.
Amanda Fischer
Nevada County, California
Creator of Muddy Hands & Healthy Home Artisans Inc. a licensed contracting construction company specializing in natural building materials.
Amanda is a designer, drafter, teacher, builder, project manager, adventurer, traveler and avid learner! Amanda has been designing, building and teaching conscious and sustainable structures for over 10 years. Amanda holds a Masters of Architecture-Interior Architecture and a minor in Business. Amanda’s passion focuses on the art of empowerment through the use of natural and renewable materials to create spaces. As an ever evolving teacher, builder and designer Amanda focuses on creating built environments that inspire deeper relationships with the land, habitat and home by utilizing natural and locally sourced materials to create spirit filled spaces! Education and community are extremely important to her; she continues to teach workshops in California and beyond spreading the love and knowledge that reconnects us and home.She is also a doula supporting pregnancy, birth and postpartum. And facilitates women’s circles and rituals.
www.muddyhands.org
ig: _muddyhands_
www.healthyhomeartisans.com
ig: healthyhomeartisans
www.butterflywaters.com
Founder
Myles Danforth
Nevada County, California
Myles is co-creator of Healthy Home Artisans Inc. a licensed contracting construction company specializing in natural building materials. He is our main General Contractor, the builder, engineer and runs the show on site. He is an artist and carpenter working with salvaged and reclaimed materials, restorations and specializes in fine woodworking and finishes. Myles is inspired by intentional space that deepens our connection with nature.
It is said that life and love begin at home, a place of safety and wellness, a temple to you and yours; should this place not only keep you sheltered but also healthy and with a sense of well being that comes from being surrounded in materials that come to us from the natural world with minimal processing so that we may live closer to harmony with nature.
General Contractor
Maryland
Blain has a long history in farming and land-based organizing both domestic and internationally. Blain is a dedicated craftsman, and member of the Timber Framer's Guild.
He specializes in Timber Framing using Traditional Joinery, General Carpentry including Tiny Home Construction, and Natural Building methods such as Straw Bale Insulation, Clay Plasters, and Cob Construction.
Beyond constructing ecological buildings, he is deeply committed to the principles of Cooperative Economics and Just Transition. He believes in supporting our communities by offering sustainable building solutions that respect the earth and foster a deeper connection to the natural world.
www.earthboundbuilding.com
ig: earthboundbuilding
Natural Builder, Timber Framer, Teacher
Blain Snipstal
Nevada County, California
Zeb Sweesy has been an avid mud enthusiast and member of the natural building movement for 14 years. He's an advocate to bring back traditional skills of building with the earth. Zeb specializes in cob, strawbale, and light straw clay construction, as well as natural plasters and finishes. He enjoys working with clients to create unique and artistic spaces, utilizing salvaged and reused materials when possible.
Following his studies in art, animation, and film in both Detroit and San Francisco, he left screen-based mediums to pursue a more hands-on career path. After several years of traveling to live and work at intentional communities and organic farms, Zeb apprenticed and worked with different natural building contractors in the mid west and along the west coast before starting his own business.
Zeb lives in Nevada City, CA, where he likes to explore the outdoors, meditate, spend time with his family and friends, and swim at the Yuba River.
www.ReclaimedEarth.org
Instagram: reclaimedearth_naturalbuilding
Zeb Sweesy
Natural Builder, Educator
Washington State
James builds high performance natural homes which include Lime and Clay plasters. Growing up in Australia, James started out in conventional construction before moving into Natural Building. Moving to the USA in 2003 James started plastering Straw Bale, Light Straw Clay, Cob, Conventional and Faswall houses for clients. Always on the search for better ways of doing things, James has been trained in Natural Plaster in Australia, USA, Japan, NZ, Portugal, England and Morocco.
James Published “Earth Render, The art of clay plaster, render and paints.” In 2013. He has also written numerous articles on Natural Building topics for “The Owner Builder Magazine” and “The Last Straw Journal”.
In 2019 James formed The Natural Plasterers Guild, which he is still the President of. This organization organizes trainings in natural plastering for professional installers. Through this organization James has run trainings in Washington State, Oregon, California, New York and London.
www.nwnaturalhomes.com
Instagram: nwnaturalhomes
Contractor, Builder, Natural Plaster Specialist
James Henderson
Michael G. Smith
Northern California
Michael G. Smith helped start the Cob Cottage Company in Oregon in 1993. Since then he has taught over 150 hands-on workshops covering many different aspects of natural building. He has participated in the design and/or construction of dozens of natural buildings, including 2 homes that he built for himself and lived in for a total of 12 years. He especially enjoys designing and building small hybrid natural homes that combine different natural wall systems for increased efficiency. He is the author or co-author of 3 books on natural building, as well as many articles. For more information and photos of projects visit his website.
www.strawclaywood.com
michael@strawclaywood.com
Natural Builder, Teacher, Author
Talent, Oregon
Earth Dragon Natural Building LLC .
Specializing in building and teaching straw based wall systems, finish carpentry and a relentless enthusiasm for artistic natural finishes, Earth dragon aims to imbue our crafted spaces with the sacredness of natural materials in a way that transforms human habitations into artistic, ecological symbols of home and belonging.
Each undertaking is a co-creative process, a dance of light, space, materials, plans, joy, and whimsy. With natural and conventional building experience since 1998, we bring decades of building evolution to the table.
To quote one of the great thinkers of our time, David Graeber, " the ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make, and could just as easily make differently."
Natural Builder, Carpenter, Teacher, Author
Lydia Doleman
Guatemala
Ashley’s work centers on rebuilding our relationship with the natural world through the development of earth-based skills that deepen our connection to place, while cultivating sovereignty, resilience, and beauty in the built environment.
As a design–build professional and natural building consultant, Ashley guides clients and communities in bringing projects of all sizes to life—from small earthen homes and regenerative landscapes to educational centers and community sanctuaries. Her practice weaves the technical and the sacred, offering comprehensive design, consultation, and hands-on training both online and in person.
Rooted in the arts of permaculture, natural building, herbalism, and birth work, Ashley’s approach integrates ecological literacy with embodied craftsmanship. She views natural building as a living dialogue between land and people—a process of co-creation that restores reciprocity and reawakens our sense of belonging.
Through her work, she offers a bridge between vision and manifestation: helping others design, plan, and build structures and systems that honor place, culture, and future generations. Each project becomes an act of regeneration—an offering to the earth and those yet to come.
Natural Builder, Designer, Teacher, Doula