Cob Oven Building

Many hands made light work during the second weekend in August, when we constructed an awesome outdoor cob oven next to the main classroom space.  Here are some photos to showing the process from start, to near completion.

This is the tamping of the soil and establishing a foundation.

Once the foundation was established, a wire mesh skeletal frame was erected, and then filled over half full of stones.

Next, a layer of straw is add, with cob on top.  Inverted wine bottles are inserted into this layer.

On top of the bottle went another layer of cob, to seal them in.

Then, fire brick were put in forming a layer on top of the cob.  Onto the bricks was formed a gently sloping cone of moist sand.

The sand was then cover with moist newspaper, and cob was then layered on top of this mound.  Also, 4 bricks were especially cut to form the opening of the oven.

Cob is a hands-on method for building lasting and sustainable structures.  Thank you to all the hands that help build this lovely oven: Vita, Jeremy, Steve, Jason, Ted, Kerry, Haley, Jay and Kaia.  Also, a very special thanks to Eli Adadow for sharing his rich natural building knowledge and making this project possible!