To kick off the whole 30 Days of Creativity pledge (which I took, belatedly) I've spent the last two days not really making much, but getting organized to really ramp up my creative output over the next 28 days.
joby's blog
On Friday we did a trial run of my awesome adobe horno. It worked pretty well, aside from my own impatience.
We only made one little stuffed red pepper in it, because I wasn't sure it would hold up. For all I knew there was an air bubble or explodable rock in there and it was going to crack and collapse when I heated it up. So most of the meal was on the grill, which we also fired up for the occasion.
Yesterday we put another layer of mud on our combo horno/grill table and today it's pretty dry. I think this weekend I'll definitely be able to fire it up (and hope no rocks explode in it or anything).
It's pretty exciting, and the grand total cost has been zero. It's made from salvaged bricks, a scavenged grill grating and the dirt that was already in our yard.
I've been carving a new handle for the girlfriend's trowel lately. It used to have just some cheesy plastic handle, and it was unsurprising when it broke.
She has a lot of memories attached to that trowel though, so instead of throwing it away I carved a new handle for it.
It's just carved out of a piece of lumber I had laying around, and is attached with a short wood screw.
Later I'll be wrapping it in soaked leather to make a nice surface and at the same time keep the wood from cracking and making it extremely durable.
Over the last two days I've started construction of an adobe horno to use for making pizza, bread, roasts and whatever else I can think of.
It's coming along pretty well so far, as it turns out our entire back yard is pretty much perfect adobe mix just the way it is. There have been a few parties out there over the years though, so it's been important to watch out for broken glass.