5. Cut the Doorway

Cut for Doorway

A New Doorway

About 5 hours after finishing the first layer, I cut out the door.  Simon Brookes removed the sand and lit his first fire at this point, but I was not that confident, so I left the sand in there.  It stayed there until about five days after the final layer was laid.

I cut the clay with a retractable craft cutter, with the blade fully extended.  This worked well for me, although I can see that a perfectionist may want to achieve a neater finish.  The clay was still quite soft, and I played around with it to get a finish I was satisfied with.

...Geoff the Cutter