Clay oven building courses. S.Wales.

[cannyfradock]

****** COURSE VENUE HAS CHANGED FOR 2014 *********

All courses shall now be held at Kate Humbles Rural skills and smallholding school at "Humble by Nature" in Monmouth........
...... www.humblebynature.com/

The first course is a 2 day hands-on Pompeii oven build which will be held on May 31st/June 1st. For more information on course details, Itinerary, fees and booking details please visit the Pompeii oven course webpage.....
.... Pompeii oven courses

The Clay oven courses shall commence in June and shall continue throughout the year. For more info please visit...
.... Clay oven courses

For more information on all the other courses at "Humble by Nature" visit.... www.humblebynature.com

********************************************


After 5 years of making Wood-fired ovens as my hobby and 4 years of building up a Forum to help Wood-fired oven enthusiasts achieve their own goals......and the community work that I've enjoyed doing in helping out and working the peel at some events and building Clay ovens for other communities, I am venturing out in 2013 to start my own courses in Clay oven building.

It has been 2 years in the planning of finding a suitable place where students will able to have "hands on" experience in building a clay oven along with a tutor who can advise on all aspects of building a base, building an oven and firing and cooking in these clay beauties.

The courses will take place in the heart of the Wentwood Forest www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=2798479
where I have secured open and covered space (suitable for any weather conditions) along with kitchen facilities and all amenities.

The day will be split between building a clay oven during the morning and then using a pre-built Wood-fired oven, trying your hand out in baking your "own made" pizzas......and any other seasonal products (will differ depending on season) so as everyone on the course has a good insight into clay oven building and Wood-fired oven cooking.

The course is from 9am to 4.30pm but the tutor (me) will be available after the course end for any of those "other" questions.

Beverages, breakfast, lunch and all ingredients for the wood-fired oven cooking will be included in the price of the day's tuition (some of it you may have to cook yourself)

The oven will be available to use outside of the course hours......for a few hours for anybody who wants to just chew the fat while watching those flames flicker around the oven.

The full Itinerary and course prices can be seen by clicking on the courses page of my website... www.celticwoodfiredovens.com/Clayovenbuildingcourses.html

Members or Friends of members will will receive a 10% discount.

Invitations are welcome for any Clay oven builders of the forum who would like to participate as "invited tutors" on any of the course dates (please PM me for details).

Terry

[rivergirl]

Wishing you all the luck I can send your way!!!

[h12rpo]

Good luck terry looks like great fun

[Fat Bob]

All the best in your latest endeavour. Let us know how things are going...

[reburner]

The very best of luck to you. Whenever I can I will point people in your direction.

[Tom B]

All the very best with the new courses, Terry.

[tonyb]

Good luck Terry, hope its a success for you.

[cannyfradock]

23rd March build and bake course.

Today was bitterly cold, but everybody attending didn't let the cold put them off and it turned out a very successful day.

I prepared a wooden base to build the oven on then showed the class how to prepare the under hearth insulation...fire-brick hearth and how to create a brick entrance. Next....everybody "mucked in" and we started mixing the clay with sand and water for the first layer of the dome....



Cob/Clay balls ready for building the dome....



Next, the sand form for the dome was created....



The sand form was covered with wet pieces of newspaper and the dome was started to be formed.......



First layer of clay covered the sand form dome....



Pre-made oven being fired up ready for the second part of the course.........



Rod brought his own home-made pizza dough and I also made a batch of pizza dough (both quite different btw) so everybody made and baked their own pizza's. We all baked a couple each for all to share and there was enough dough and pizza toppings left over for everybody to take a couple of pizza's home with them.....







Me trying to be clever........



Rod.....this man new a bit about pizza making and his dough and pizza baking far outshone my abilities...



Thanks to Rod, Isabelle, Sian, Richard, Alan, Rob and Ashley. Picture of the road outside the Wentwood Timber Center/Clay oven course....



Terry

[rivergirl]

congrats !!!!! it looks like that even with the bad weather you all had a good day !!

[h12rpo]

Awesome! Terry,< I hope you are snowed under with students !

[Happy Baker]

Nice one Terry!
Good to see you enjoying yourself.

[cannyfradock]

....thanks for the kind words guys. This is the bi-product of the days work....



I moved it into my lock-up (designed to separate from wooden base and be lifted with a fork-lift). I've started scraping the sand out from the dome but I really need to get it back outside and put some heat into it to crisp up the clay.

Terry

[conic]

What a fantastic job your doing and another example of great craftmanship. I love to see people get off their a###e and get on in life and contribute to society instead of moaning.
I really believe you can make a good full time business out of this and/or add it to the curriculum of the catering or construction college and the Welch tourist trail. Immagine going on holiday for a week and spending a day here
I am really impressed with what you have achieved.

Conic

[Fat Bob]

Well done! Keep up the good work. The Sacred Pizza Church of St.Terry of Newport is alive and well and proselytizing... Disciples please apply to Terry...

[rivergirl]

Are there camping facilities or a holiday something close?? So that you could do weekends or even clay and cookery weeks as conic says it would be a great holiday!! And could you write to schools, youth clubs , day centres etc they should jump at the idea of building one of these !! Think of the fund raising possibilies!