Last year at the bushmoot I was intending to build an earth pizza oven.  As the area is built on sand dunes, sand was not going to be a problem.  Clay on the other hand was.  I ended up walking to the river, digging and finding… sand!  So this time I came prepared with some readily dug clay and some from a local potter.

We dug in a load of sand from literally next to the tarp.  Two young girls did most of the work, the rest of us mucked in only when the camera was showing!

For the base, we used wooden logs – these were chopped from a timber pile.  About 3ft long, they were notched so they wouldn’t roll.  We used a tarp to stop the sand running through the bottles onto the floor.  We laid bottles, then tucked the tarp over the bottles and layered sand over the tarp to both hold it in place and give us a firm bed for the fire bricks.  We then built the sand form over the top.

Sand form getting there.  All done with eye.

Layered a copy of the metro over the top and wetted ready for the oven clay mix.

Clay being built up around the form.  This was done quite quickly and inside you could see the cracks where it wasn’t bonded quite as well as it could be.

Smack the finished dome with a big stick.

Straw dipped in clay slip and layered on.  Door is cut.

Add another layer of clay with added straw for stability over the top – just a thin layer.

Add decoration and immediately light!

Used an arrow as a blow pipe

The front did dip a little, but still worked fine