Main cobbing done

The main cobbing is all complete on the oven now. The walls of the oven are about 8 1/2" (22 cm) thick. See how the cob has come out almost to the edge of the foundation all the way around? And yesterday I added a lip to the doorway. Cob is so easy and enjoyable to sculpt. No wonder the Build Your Own Earth Oven book is full of photos of sculptural ovens like this one. I like the look of the little rim, and it may serve to protect some of the detailing on the main oven from getting too sooty. There's no hurry to add the final top coat of smooth cob, though I'd love to get to it this fall sometime. Mostly now we just wait for the thing to dry out a bit before firing it up. The way the weather is these days (very cold and very wet), that's going to take quite a while. Today beans are baking in the indoor electric oven.