Today was awesome. We saw children and adults puddling cob for the first time, some of them even went barefoot, me included.
The weather stayed lovely and warm almost all day and we managed to produce four wheelbarrows full of cob, more than enough to achieve our goal of getting the form and first thermal layer up.
The form was a challenge, primarily because it was just so flippin' big. The base measured 31.5" x 21.5" and was 20" high in the middle.
Despite three sizeable sand avalanches, we managed to get a lovely smooth firm form up and stable ready for the cob.
Whilst we were preparing the cob (three and a half hours of puddling) the newspaper that we had wet and draped over the form had dried out and blown all over the place, so this had to be rewetted and put back on, as this paper stops the clay bonding to the sand form inside and potentially ruining the final product.
After some fairly serious puddling, a few achey legs and hips and some fairly seriously sunburnt shoulders, we had a lovely firm cob mix ready for application.
Taking my time and really revelling in the experience of building such a big oven, I used all of the cob that we had made, but needed a couple more bucket loads to get the whole thermal layer finished. now for the finishing touches.
As soon as the thermal layer was finished I set about smoothing out all the little joints using my hands, which is therapeutic and nerve wracking, as I have never worked on this scale before.
Once relatively smooth, I took the final step of smacking the whole layer with a smooth piece of timber (recycled dado rail), this bonds the molecules a little more firmly and gives a good finish.
Finally I packed the joints in my brick arch with cob and tidied up all of the joints.
And that's it!
My feet are buggered and I ache all over, but I am the happiest person alive.
See you all Wednesday for the next instalment, enjoy the pictures.
Keep on cobbing.
It's looking fantastic! Can't wait to build a cob oven with you one day x
ReplyDelete