Bread Oven Building workshop in King City, Ontario
Here are pictures from a August 2010 Bread Oven Building workshop in King City, Ontario. It was a perfect hot and sunny weekend. We had an inspiring crew of 16 participants who were easily able to build two bread ovens in two days. The first oven we built quickly and fired it up the next day to make delicious pizza. We took our time with the second, added a number of details and enjoyed the process of collaborative sculpting.
We began laying our fire bricks on an artistically designed river stone base.
Many feet make easy work of mixing recycled pottery clay,
clay subsoil, sand and straw into homogeneous cob to build the ovens.
We kneaded the cob into loaf size bricks.
We placed the bricks around a form made out of sand.
We built it up like an igloo, molding the bricks tightly together.
We added a second layer of bricks for improved strength and heat retention.
It is essential that all the bricks of both layers are well kneaded together so that there are no air gaps. The structure becomes one monolithic dome.
Artists at work.
The forms were dynamic connecting and influencing one another.
Here is our finished oven complete with its oven spirit.
We removed the door and hollowed out the sand after all the sculpting was complete. This facilitated easy refinement of the doorway of the oven.
Thank you Leslie and Jamie for organizing the event. Enjoy your oven!