Barbara has over 25 years experience in construction as a roofer, joiner and strawbale building.  She travelled in the USA and Canada in 1995 on a Winston Churchill Fellowship, researching strawbale building and gaining more experience, adapting techniques she learnt there to make them more suitable for the European climate and, with the help of a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship, incorporated knowledge of traditional crafts such as lime plastering and coppicing into designs and methods to simplify them and make them more sustainable and appropriate for the 21st century.
With Bee Rowan, she runs Amazon Nails - Strawbale Futures, a not-for-profit social enterprise.  They are both passionately committed to the use of sustainable and natural materials in construction, and to help make the build process as accessible as possible.  They are the UK's leading consultancy and training group in strawbale build and design, and have been developing techniques and simplifying practice in strawbale building and low impact foundations since 1994.  They have direct experience of over 50 builds, and are internationally recognised for their breadth of experience and quality of training.  
The ethos of Amazon Nails is based in the belief that everyone has something to offer and can bring their own invaluable experience to the build process.  Fun and impowerment are integral parts of group building with them!