Who We Are:

Joshua Klyber
503.975.7300

Joshua is the founder of Living Walls Plastering and Painting. He brings over 10 years of experience in sustainable and natural building. He is actively involved in the integration of these two fields into standard construction techniques. Joshua started out with plastering on cob and strawbales homes and brought these techniques inside of the urban home. With the popularity of American Clay plaster, the demand for earthen plasters and other natural finishes has increased dramatically in the last couple of years.

As Principal, Joshua is actively doing research in reviving traditional paint and plaster formulations. Specializing in clay, lime, casein and waterglass finishes, he brings these traditional paints and plasters to the workplace. Rather than working with faux finishes, he works with the techniques that are currrently being copied with latex paint. His intense interest in these techniques has led him to being a great resource for contractors, DIY'ers and artists who are seeking technical information on plastering and painting techniques.

With his extensive knowledge of natural finishes, and connections to the natural building world, Joshua is actively working with the City of Portland. He is a member of the City of Portland's Alternative Technology Review Committee (ATAC), a committee that helps ease new sustainable materials and techniques through Portland's building code. Joshua is also a member of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG), which is helping to create building code amendments that incorporate green building technologies, practices, and standards into the city code.

Joshua is also a regular instructor for Tryon Life Community Farm, the Village Building Convergence, natural building colloquia, architecture and contractor firms. His favorite workshops to teach are those involved with building traditional European and African bread ovens.

 

Natanya Sabel

After receiving a B.F.A. degree in Ceramic Sculpture and a B.A. in Art History from Indiana University, Natanya Sabel became fascinated with the versatile, creative, and low impact qualities of natural materials and their application in the residential building industry. In 2004, she joined Fox Natural Building in Ohio, where she developed her knowledge of building through straw bale, timber frame, and cob construction. She also trained in fine earthen plaster finishes and tradition lime plasters alongside Marcia Wolff, owner of Design Council. In 2006, Natanya traveled abroad for a year to teach international volunteers natural building techniques at a permaculture living center in New Zealand.

Besides her building experience, Natanya spent two years in Boston, MA, apprenticing a master woodworker specializing in antique furniture restorartion. She also spends her time creating stained glass window panels and mosaic sculpture that she integrates into much of her building projects.