Clay Oven
I’ve wanted to build a clay oven for years. Finally, it was time when we were digging a hole to put our garden carrots into cold storage for the winter and hit clay. I began planning.
The idea was to use all natural, recycled/repurposed-everything to build the oven. I scavenged lumber from the county landfill and tiles and metal décor panels from the thrift store to make a table, the lumber and bricks left from the previous owners to build the base of the oven and a place for wood storage, I found an electrical wire spool top at the Idaho Falls Power and placed it on top of the brick foundation of bricks I glued together with Hard as Nails. The wooden door I built an everything else was built of recycled and repurposed materials. We used clay from our garden, extra clay from a gravel and clay pit 3 miles away and sand from Sandy Downs on the south side of Idaho Falls. The clay and the sand were also repurposed, right. I only purchased the firebrick for the oven floor and the glue for gluing the brick foundation, tile grout and the door thermometer.
We invited interested friends, neighbors and relatives to come help. Barefoot tromping cob, a mixture of clay, sand, straw and water, basically, adobe, is hard work and we needed help. In return, we feed them pizza! Allen and his 87-year-old dad led the kid and adult cob tromping crew and my sister, Diane, and cousin Marya and I led the oven shaping crew. I loved the team work. It worked well and everyone had a great time.
It took all Summer and then into the fall to dry so I could finish the outside with the tiles before winter. Way beforehand, I purchased the tiles at a used craft store in Utah, owned by my friend Sherry. I intended to use them in my art but found no real use for them until the clay oven. My cousin Marya helped place some of the tiles and I finished the rest, using nearly every tile I had. I spread a cement mixture over the cob, glued the tiles to the cement then grouted the tiles. Each panel of tiles tells a story. It was hard work. It turned out beautifully!
Thanks, everyone!
clay oven table
clay oven table
clay oven base
clay oven base
Stacked brick then wet molded sand
Stacked brick then wet molded sand
Me Diane Marya
Shaping the cob
clay oven
Allen scooping out the sand mold
clay oven drying in the shade
clay oven drying in the shade
clay oven finished
clay oven finished
clay oven finished
clay oven finished
Finished Clay Oven
Finished Clay Oven