Hello from Texas Introductions Discuss Hello from Texas in the Good Background Information forums; Very impressive build. Too bad it is taking so long as is so expensive. J W...

[jwnorris]

Very impressive build. Too bad it is taking so long as is so expensive.

J W

[Xabia Jim]

Yeah, we hate to see that kind of money invested in an oven

Thanks for the pics, and more info. Keep us posted, particularly on the drying, curing and cracking....this might warrant a whole look at dug up clay ovens.

And George, those black streaks are marks of character. Two things you're gonna see...cracks and black soot marks....get to love them.

Jim

[John Fahle]

Originally Posted by dusty

Yep.. very cool indeed! Looks like alot of fun too. Is the dome built around something? Looks like it in cat picture. The dome itself is clay and straw? And you just dug up the clay.

Very, very cool.

dusty

Thanks for all the great comments! Yes, straw mixed with clay dug out of the ground. (Flooresville has great clay. We could have thrown pots with this stuff.) And it's built around a sand form, which you then dig out through the door after the clay sets. Here's a pic of the form. After it's done, it's covered in wet newspaper to keep the sand from sticking to the inside of the dome. Any newpaper that sticks to the inside of the dome just burns off.

Mixing the adobe is surprisingly like kneading bread, with the straw acting as the gluten matrix. You put it on a tarp, add straw, stomp it for a while, then turn it by pulling up the corners of the tarp, and stomp some more. At first, like dough, it just doesn't hold together. But then there's this magic moment when it suddenly turns "smooth and satiny," as all the cookboks say, and it gets extensible and soft, and you know you're done.

[asudavew]

I must admit. Very interesting thread.

It will be really neat to see how it performs.


I bet it was fun to build too.

After all... who doesn't like playing with mud?

[John Fahle]

Originally Posted by asudavew

I bet it was fun to build too.

After all... who doesn't like playing with mud?

Yeah, a two thousand pound mud pie.

[brokencookie]

Originally Posted by Xabia Jim

Two things you're gonna see...cracks and black soot marks....get to love them.

Jim

Obviously you have been around way too many plumbers

[Frances]

Woooohooo, take a look at those tatoos...!!!

[brokencookie]

Where !! I have never seen an oven with Tatoos

[RCLake]

Originally Posted by Frances

Woooohooo, take a look at those tatoos...!!!

So tatoos gets your mine off knitting, thank heaven for little things.

[Frances]

Well, you have to get your priorities sorted out...