"Earthen Art:
Common as Dirt" by
Kiko Denzer, Resident Sculptor at FireWorks Restaurant
and author of "Build
Your Own Earth Oven"
FireWorks Restaurant is home of Maya, a nine-foot high commercial
earthen oven built
by Kiko in 2002.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT:
I've been working with earth for about ten years now, first making
ovens, then sculpting, then building a studio and a greenhouse
as well as various mud jobs, including garden walls, school projects and various
teaching gigs, and large installations for the DaVinci days festival
in Corvallis.
Earth is a natural material for sculpting and the combination of earth with sand and straw provides an extraordinary structural flexibility that dissolves the division between sculpture and architecture.
I started carving stone when I was ten, and still work in stone, wood, and other materials. But earth, and the revival of interest in it as a natural and environmentally friendly building material, have provided a context where art has an essential and practical part in a more sustainable cultural vision. Creation returns to its rightful place as a community endeavor, and people who wouldn't consider tackling a life size sculpture will gleefully build an oven or even a house. Sometimes, they'll even build a restaurant!
The work with patterns has been
an inspiration reinforced from many corners. The garden is full
of pattern, rhythm, form, and endless variety. I'm growing wheat
to make our own bread, so wheat has become something of an obsession.
I found a book about the women of Basutholand, South Africa, who
replaster their houses every year and use a whole lexicon of traditional
patterns to make otherwise plain walls into stunning art that
also welcomes visitors and tells stories about their lives and
traditions. I've used the same approach to make school murals
to transform dead brick walls into vibrant displays of community,
culture, and spirit. And finally, I live between forests and streams.
Every fall I wait to watch the salmon swim up, procreate and die.
The eggs hatch, the fingerlings swim out to sea, grow, and return
again. Birds, bears, humans, and other critters eat the fish and
(mostly) return the nutrients to the ground - basic material and
essential nutrients flow between forest and sea. Fish, forests,
flowers, and sea - all become one.
EARTHEN PLASTERS AND REINFORCEMENT:
Earthen plaster
is clay subsoil mixed with fine sand, wheat paste, and fiber.
Depending on the qualities of the clay, cracking is controlled
by adjusting one or another ingredient. Reinforcement is provided
by various binders applied after the mud is dry. Linseed oil and
blood are two of the more traditional binders, but I use mostly
waterglass (sodium silicate), an inert mineral dissolved in water
under heat and pressure. It's used for everything from stopping
leaky radiators to preserving sandstone buildings. All the pigments
are earths, mostly from very near my home. Of course, ALL pigment
is some kind of earth (including all the colors of Michelangelo's
Sistine ceiling).
DURABILITY:
The reinforced
wall pieces are water resistant, lightfast, and made to last.
They are designed for interior display but, in more protected
locations, may hold up well outdoors as well. They can be hung
as you would hang a mirror.
ADDITIONAL WORK:
In addition to
the sculpted cob courtyard wall at FireWorks, I've done two other
walls in Corvallis, one on Garfield, in the block west of King's,
on the north side of the street, and the other on NW 12th, just
south of Corvallis High School. Both are visible from the street.
ART ON DISPLAY:
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2007 Earth, Oven, Art Workshops
If you can make mud pies, you can build with earth. Good material is often underfoot. Practical, beautiful, dirt cheap, and faster than you think, mud is also sculptural, colorful, and rich, whether you make ovens, benches, garden walls, or houses. And you can do it with your kids! "Mud ovens" were the original masonry ovens (brick is, after all, fired clay). The ovens we make bake beautiful bread (and anything else), and perform as well as the fancy $4,000 Italian ones. You can build a simple one in a day, learn about cob and natural building and make the best pizza and breads.
WITH KIKO DENZER & HANNAH FIELD (other instructors as noted)
Kiko & Hannah have been teaching oven and bread workshops
together for about seven years. They have taught for Bob's Red
Mill, Andrew Whitley's Village Bakery (UK), the King Arthur Flour
Company, and will be among the featured instructors for the Bread
Baker's Guild of America's "Camp Bread" at the San Francisco
Baking Institute this spring. Kiko is an artist/ builder and author
of Build Your Own Earth Oven (now in a revised third edition with
a bread chapter by Hannah), & Dig Your Hands in the Dirt:
A Manual for Making Art out of Earth (Hand Print Press). Hannah
baked professionally for organic bakeries in the UK, and is also
an organic gardener and massage therapist - in addition to helping
her husband write usefully about bread.
DATES:
May 12 & 13, Ovens & Bread.
Sally and Dan Herman's home/farm/garden near Salem, OR. Still
a few spots left. Send a deposit soon.
May 20-22, San Francisco, "Camp Bread:" sponsored by the Bread Baker's Guild of America, hosted by San Francisco Baking Institute. Unfortunately, this is completely booked, but we have a traveling slide presentation on earth, art, ovens, and community, and can do short demos/intros to earthen ovens, retained heat cooking, and sourdough bread. If you're in the Bay area and interested, please call or write.
June 30/July 1, Ovens & Bread: Buena Vista House Café and Lodging, near Salem, OR. The site features a semi-commercial earthen pizza oven for the baking segment, and a cob guesthouse.
July ? art/design & earthen plasters: at the North American School of Natural Building, with Kiko Denzer. Let me know if you're interested, and stay tuned.
August 4-5, "the KNEADING Conference:" Unity, Maine, with the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardener's Association, & farmers, millers, oven-builders, educators, and bakers of all kinds. Hands-on, practical focus on local, sustainable bread, from soil to seed to loaf; separate fee schedule: contact: kneading@heartofmaine.org.
September 8-9: Ovens & Bread: Buena Vista House Café & Lodging, Salem, OR.
Ongoing, Local to Corvallis area: a school project, some private jobs, and another attempt at a home wheat patch, where I hope to grow a year's worth of bread. Know of any older varieties of long-straw, soft wheats suitable to our coastal NW climate? I'd be grateful for tips. If you're interested in joining us for a community mud day, we'll be making mud- and adobe bricks. There may also be some hands-on learning opportunities for serious apprentices. Please call or write.
FOR OTHER COURSES & OTHER INSTRUCTORS, see below:
DETAILS for KIKO & HANNAH'S WORKSHOPS:
Workshops cover everything you need to know to make an oven and bake anything in it, as well as Hannah's simple approach to naturally leavened, "artisan" breads.
FEES: $175 per person for two days of hands-on learning, lunches, and snacks. For those with limited, low, or fixed incomes, we can and do reduce fees; please inquire.
FORMAT: Both days combine oven-making with bread-baking, adjusted to suit participants. By the second day, we'll have a "temporary oven" to bake in, and a more permanent oven to finish. The Buena Vista course may include opportunities to work with decorative plasters on a small hybrid earth/timber-frame cottage.
ACCOMODATIONS: Workshop sites are in or close to towns with overnight facilities of various kinds. The Buena Vista House Café and Lodging has B&B style rooms which can be arranged separately.
INSTRUCTION: Kiko Denzer: I'm an artist, and have been building ovens since 1994. Hannah's been baking since about 1984, including several years as a professional baker. We bake 25 pounds of whole-grain sourdough every other week in a mud oven. It's a staple food, and we don't have a conventional oven. Our philosophy for workshops is that we all participate, we all learn, and we all teach. Groups are generally interesting, diverse, and fun. We also believe that the cooking of food (and growing it) is essential to the survival of true culture. Our hope is that workshops not only help people make good ovens and bake good bread, but also that, by working, cooking, learning, and eating together, we maintain the living fabric of community and culture.
TO REGISTER (not for Texas or Maine): Send a check or postal money order for 50% of the course fee, payable to Kiko Denzer, at POB 576, Blodgett OR 97326. Note your first and second choices for workshop dates. Registration fees are partially refundable if we have a waiting list and/or can fill your space. There's a 20% discount for full pre-payment by 3 weeks before your chosen workshop. When we get your payment, we'll send confirmation and other info.
MORE INFO/QUESTIONS: Please call 541-438-4300, or email handprint@cmug.com.
BOOKS
The new oven book features a super-insulated design, Hannah's
bread chapter, a chapter on mobile, community, & "rocket"
ovens; plus lots of new photos & drawings and completely revised
& updated text. Price is $17.95, shipping is free (check or
money order to Hand Print Press, POB 576, Blodgett OR 97326. Look
inside it (and other titles) at handprintpress.com.
OTHER COURSES (Please
note: separate instruction/contact/registration info):
July 9-20, Earth ovens and plasters, Portland OR, with Bernhard
Masterson & Lydia Doleman, Portland Community College, Rock
Ck, $237 (3 credits), Mon-Thus, all day. Info: Bernhard Masterson,
503-929-8583, Bernhard_masterson@hotmail.com.
October 20-28th, Ovens & Natural Building Austin, Texas, at the site of the Kerrville folk festival: a colloquium to learn by making things. Kiko is scheduled to be there to help with ovens, bread, and other sculpture. Contact: Kindra@claysandstraw.com.
ALSO: see cobworkshops.com, naturalbuildingnetwork.org, &/or do a websearch for your local area ("natural building," "earth" or "cob" or "clay ovens" etc.). In CA, look up Emerald Earth, the Permaculture Institute of N'n CA (PINC), and many others.
Build Your Own Earth
Oven
A Low-Cost, Wood-Fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect
Loaves
by Kiko Denzer $15
Now you can buy an autographed copy through the FireWorks Online Store!
Paperback - (May 15, 2000) 132 pages
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Review from Library
Journal
Denzer, an artist and builder, creates beautiful wood-fired ovens
using the most widely available building material: dirt. Some
earth ovens are plain while others are formed into the shape of
animals or human faces. Denzer offers an explanation of basic
concepts such as material selection, oven location, and design
and then guides readers through the construction of their own
oven. Earth ovens could be produced most anywhere using Denzer's
instructions; he even shows how to build a weatherproof roof.
A sourdough bread recipe is included. Appealing to a diverse audience
of bakers, outdoor cooks, traditional crafts persons, and perhaps
even homeschoolers looking for a project, this title should be
part of most public library collections.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Build Your Own Earth Oven is a fully-illustrated handbook
for making a simple, wood-fired, masonry-style oven. It provides
clear, step-by-step instructions for building and firing the oven,
as well as complete directions for making sourdough bread in the
best (and simplest) artisan tradition.
Earth ovens are as simple as a southwestern horno or European bee-hive oven and every bit as effective as a fancy brick hearth or modern, steam-injected commercial oven. The dense, three-to-twelve inch thick earthen walls store the heat of the fire; after the hot coals are removed, the hot walls radiate a steady, intense heat for hours. The resulting steamy environment is essential for the crisp, flavorful crusts of true hearth loaves, and you can easily build it for less than the price of a couple of fancy dough-rising baskets!
If you like to cook outdoors, an earth oven can also transform fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs into delicious pies, pizzas, and other creations (one of my favorites is fresh vegetables, herbs, and potatoes drizzled with olive oil). Pizza cooks to perfection in three minutes, and you can even use the residual heat to dry your surplus garden produce, and incubate your home-made yogurt!
Building with earth is safe, easy, inexpensive, and extraordinarily effective. Good building soil is usually right under your feet! Many will find it in their back yards. Use it plain, or mixed with sand and straw. Build the simplest oven in a day! Adding a roof and foundation makes it permanent. The simple, round shape makes a beautiful garden sculpture, or can be sculpted into a fire-breathing dragon!
It is a project that appeals to bakers, builders, and beginners of all kinds: The serious or aspiring baker who wants the best lo-cost oven for their bread; Gardeners and outdoor cooks who want a centerpiece for a beautiful outdoor kitchen; People interested in creative uses of low-cost materials and simple technologies; and Teachers who want a multi-faceted, experiential learning experience for their students (the book has been successful with everyone from third-graders to adults).
Illustrated by the author with over a hundred drawings and photos, it includes color pictures of sculpted ovens and their builders, as well as further references on food, baking, and building.
About the Author
Kiko Denzer is an artist, writer, builder, and baker who has spent
the last five or six years working primarily with earth.
Back cover comments for Build Your Own Earth Oven
"Build Your Own Earth Oven is the essential book for those
who want to do just that. It is worth many times its price in
avoided labor and frustration, and the ample and enjoyable illustrations
are a great guide to those (mud builders and dough makers) who
use the right brain more than the left. Go on -- Get Dirty!"
-- Dan Wing, co-author (with Alan Scott) of The Bread Builders,
Hearth Loaves & Masonry Ovens
"There are really only three books for the would-be bread-oven builder. If you get only one, get Kiko's..." -- John Connell, Architect, Founder of the Yestermorrow Design/Build School, & author of Homing Instinct.
"This new edition of the Build Your Own Earth Oven book is again a clear and concise manual on building a fun, people and earth friendly oven that not only will bake your bread and all incredibly well, but can give rise to great heights of artistic expression... Kiko covers all the mundane details with insight and inspiration. Nothing lacking here to get you up and baking... This book quides you gently towards a wellspring of creativity within, to manifest a hands-on wholesomeness without." -- Alan Scott, master oven-builder and coauthor (with Dan Wing) of The Bread Builders, Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens
"Roasted sweet potatoes, zucchini & onions in a cumin/orange juice glaze, with roast garlic pork loin (for the meat eater) and baked apples, then roasted eggplant, squash and leeks, rosemary polenta, herb roasted salmon and peach pie. This morning, cinnamon rolls..." -- Nani Waddoups, Oregon
"...the best book I know on traditional earthen ovens...we've recommended the first edition to hundreds of our clients and students." -- Ianto Evans, Founder of the Cob Cottage Company, and author, Lorena Owner-Built Stoves
"Kiko Denzer's gift is to bring together in one small book both the means to make an inexpensive oven which will surely bake wonderful bread, and a gently impassioned explanation of why to do this matters. I have greatly enjoyed reading the book and can't wait...to get into my back yard and start digging." -- Andrew Whitley, Founder, The Village Bakery (a commercial, wood-fired bakery), Cumbria, U.K.
"...not only great for making ovens and bread, but also the best introduction to building with earth...all you need to know about materials and processes; makes it simple, quick, and easy." -- Charmaine Taylor, Taylor Publishing, California
"Your drawings and diagrams are warm and practical and they match your helpful, unassuming, flexible voice. The reader feels...as though he or she is going on a journey in building and creating. The prospect of making an oven seems less intimidating because you give so many options, directions, and encouragements." -- Carrie Mitchell, Utah
"I love how you have made function into art with your ovens... My mother, who is an artist, has been inspired by your oven book and, I am proud to say, we will soon be baking breads in our backyard." -- Olivia Lester, Utah
"I built an oven with two students for our school auction. We tested it at a gala house warming party. All the guests abandoned the beautifully catered food and began devouring plain simple bread and butter... People were in fresh baked bread euphoria -- a success!" -- Warren Cohen, 3rd grade teacher, Washington
"This easy-to-understand handbook, generously sprinkled with Kiko's wit, wisdom, and beautiful illustrations, contains everything you need to know about how to build, decorate, and bake in a delightful earthen oven." -- Michael Smith, builder, teacher, and author of The Cobber's Companion
"Kiko -- Thank you! Thank you! The permaculture students love your book -- our best-seller!" -- Emily, "WE Design," Seattle
"I'm an ardent breadbaker and I think your book is inspiring, comprehensive, and very practical...it is beautiful." -- Monika G. California