The Snail Shell

The Snail Shell, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

This afternoon we got the cob oven to a nice level of completion. All we have to do now is remove the sand (next Tuesday), let it air dry, and build some drying fires.
Hopefully it won't crack too much.
After a few weeks of drying out, we'll mix up a nice batch of finish plaster and have at it. Jerry chose a subdued snail shell design and Krista helped pull it off.
I'm pleased with the outcome so far, although I'm a little sore. We build the base fairly low, which was right for the yard, but it meant a lot of bending over to apply the material. Oh well, soon to be forgotten.
We had a lot of help. Yesterday we were lucky to have a 15 year old homeschooler Ben and his dad Charles. They were way into it and worked really hard with us in the blazing heat. Ugh.
Today we had Meredith and Jon and Zephyr and Julie from up the street, along with Joyce, Krista and Eden. A most excellent crew!
You can see the photos here.