1,000 clay bricks

While I waited for my cement to harden, I bought normal clay bricks from Langkloof brick yard. I worked on roughly 1,000 brickes for the oven, including the base. I also started collecting clay from a farm in the area, building sand and cutting grass. The clay had to be worked with the feet to achieve the perfect consistency! I then mixed the sand and grass to the clay and stomped this mixture thoroughly.

In my first oven, I mixed one part clay with one part sand and half a part grass. Considering that the oven worked very well and I had experienced no cracking, I was not going to deviate from that recipe.

It was hard work to mix everything together and be certain it was mixed well - this is a crucial step! I added water until the clay had the consistency of building sement.

When I was certain the cement was hard (after about two weeks of keeping the cement base wet!) I lay the first layer of clay bricks on top af the clay mix or mortar. I decided on a small narrow chimney to maximize the size of the inside of the oven. I designed the oven so that the chimney would be choked when the door is closed, thus creating a sealed oven for baking. The fire would be burnt out and the oven cleaned before bread is put into the oven. When making pizza or baked vegetables, for example, the door would be kept open with a fire right in the back of the oven.

After the first layer, a base layer of clay brick was added on top of the cement base. Now, it was just a question of building the wall to the desired height. Each brick was dipped in water before building and was kept wet during the whole process. It took a full day to build the walls up to 650mm (including the base layer).