2: Adding the topping

Making the sand dome

Somehow my mind was on following the plan again, instead of just going on with what felt right.... so for sure I knew that the oven wouldn't be a perfect circle. On top of that, I damaged the nice flat top surface....

Instead of using the drawn circle, I decided (again...) to use the edges of the base as a reference and than take 7 cm for the outer layer and 7 cm for the inner layer. And built the dome of sand to work as a mould for the oven. I used a line as a reference for the height.

First layer

After building the dome, I covered it with wet newspapers, swept away the sand and started with the first layer.

As you see in the picture above, I built up the first layer by shaping little 'bricks' between my hands and pushing them on top of each other. This way spiralling up all the way to the top of the oven, while keeping an eye on the thickness (7 cm). Afterwards I evened out the surface by hitting it with a flat hand. 

 Insulating layer

For the insulating layer I made a mixture of cob and straw. I added a bit more wet clay to this mixture. For me the mixture felt right when it had just enough cob to have the straw stick together. And again spiralling up with bricks until reaching the top. Afterwards I used a thin layer of cob to finish of this layer. 

Read on to see what happens Inside the oven