We just finished a three day earth oven workshop taught by Kurt Gardella and Ben Loescher. Many thanks to all who participated: Laurie, Brian, Leslie, Jenny and Connie.We’ve got to let the oven dry for a few weeks before we put on the final coat. But it’s basically finished. The base is made with traditional adobe bricks and the dome is cob.
Don’t worry, we’ll explain the process in future blog posts. Right now we’re too exhausted to write about it. In the meantime, please enjoy our highly compressed video version of the past three days.
Can’t wait for the future posts to find out what’s up with the bottles. Also, can it be higher or is there a reason for the height?
Rachel,
The bottles are an insulation layer to keep the heat of the oven from getting sucked down into the base. And, yes, it can be as high as you like. We kept ours low because it’s already a foot above a deck and because the class was just three days and there’s only so high you can stack adobes in a day without them starting to wobble.