Wood-fired cob ovens built by hand from clay, sand, and straw. Beautiful, functional, and deeply satisfying to use.
A cob oven is one of the most rewarding natural building projects you can undertake. Built from the same clay, sand, and straw mixture used in cob walls, a well-made cob oven can reach temperatures of 700°F or more — perfect for wood-fired pizza, bread, roasting, and slow cooking. The thermal mass of the cob holds heat for hours, making it as practical as it is beautiful.
There's something deeply satisfying about cooking in an oven you built with your own hands. Cob ovens are a gathering point — people are drawn to them. They cook food in a way that no modern oven can replicate. The high heat and wood smoke create a crust on bread and pizza that is simply not possible any other way. Beyond the cooking, a cob oven is a sculptural object in your garden — something that tells a story about how it was made and who made it.
We start with a foundation — usually a stone or urbanite base that raises the oven to a comfortable working height. The dome is formed over a sand mold, layer by layer, using a cob mix tuned for thermal performance. The insulation layer goes on last, trapping heat inside the dome. The whole process typically takes two to three days of hands-on work. You can be as involved as you want — many people help build their own oven from start to finish.
A note on timelines: any time frames mentioned here are for the active hands-on work only. Natural building happens in stages, and each stage needs time before the next one can begin — drying time, curing time, weather windows. A project that takes a few days of work can take several weeks or months from start to finish. The timeline follows the material, not the calendar. We talk through realistic expectations as part of every first conversation.
