About Us

Our intentions as a craft person of all things clay, straw and wood, is to integrate that deep connection to earth, to healthy soil and both the reverence and reflection of place in our work the way earthworms weave a relationship between earth, plants and sky. 

The Journey

A woman wearing a red tank top, jeans, and brown boots standing outdoors at a building with a green wall and a wooden roof. She is smiling and holding sunglasses in her hands. Behind her is a wooden fence and trees.

Lydia Doleman, Founder.

Lydia’s path to natural building began with a deep desire to synthesize her passions for art, sculpture, and the biological sciences. After discovering the functional beauty of tangible, natural museum crafts, she experienced a pivotal, life-changing moment 30 years ago: she witnessed a group of women building a strawbale house in Montana. For Lydia, it was the perfect combination of art, ecology, and high-performing, affordable housing.

Formerly teaching and building under the name Flying Hammer Productions (since 2003), Lydia has spent decades mastering both conventional carpentry and natural building. As a master of her craft, she knows the rules of construction inside and out, which gives her the freedom to creatively break them. Today, she focuses on the fine detailing and sculptural finishes that transform a house into a work of art.

Her milestone projects reflect a co-creative dance of light, space, and materials, including:

  • Building her own custom small home, which was celebrated in Lloyd Kahn's renowned architectural book, Shelter.

  • Designing a whimsical, sculptural cob entryway resembling cherry trees for Portland's Rebuilding Center.

  • Creating highly affordable $250 ecological shelters for a homeless community using natural materials.

  • Authoring the educational guide Essential Light Straw Clay Construction to demystify sustainable building.

The Name "Earth Dragon"

A woman and a young girl working together to build a wall out of mud and straw, with the girl covered in mud.

The name "Earth Dragon" is rooted in Lydia’s profound love for all things clay and earth-based. She has a deep admiration for the humble earthworm, a creature that quietly takes what we consider refuse and transforms it into something magical and life-sustaining.

When Lydia discovered that the Chinese translation for "earthworm" is "earth dragon," she fell in love with the beautiful metaphor. It added an element of magic to a lowly creature that does so much to sustain our ecosystems. Serendipitously, Lydia’s own Chinese zodiac sign is the North Dragon. Ultimately, In 2023, Earth Dragon Natural Building LLC was born. Reflecting a transition in her life and business toward becoming more grounded, rooted, and deeply place-based.

The Philosophy

Person working on a wooden construction scaffold against a bright blue sky.

At Earth Dragon Natural Building, the core philosophy is centered on democratizing the physical and social architecture we inhabit. In a fragmented world, we believe in empowering individuals to move away from a consumer-based mindset—where a house is just a financial transaction—to actively producing a deeply resonant home. We aim to reconnect people and places by creating structures that directly reflect your localized, authentic patterns of living.

Our foundational principles for sustainable natural building include:

  • Community Connection: Utilizing the construction process as a collaborative tool to foster deep relationships and collective ownership.

  • Ecological Sustainability: We utilize non-toxic, locally sourced, and carbon-sequestering materials like straw and clay to build robust, healthy and fire resilient sanctuaries. Installing wall systems like strawbale, rammed earth, and hempcrete.

  • Authentic Living: Crafting structures that directly reflect your localized, authentic patterns of living to reconnect people with their environment.

  • Artistic Expression: Applying a "smooth rustic" aesthetic that beautifully balances ancient, traditional textures with clean modern architecture.

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."