Drop In Place Hearth

[The plywood hearth base fitted around the stove]

This week, along with weaving like a mad man, I'm installing a hearth in my cabin. I just don't like the idea that the people sharing my space during the gathering could burn it down by letting a spark jump onto the plywood floor. Besides, where is the hearth spirit going to live if there isn't a hearth?

(Update: there was a cricket chirping in my house last night. Guess where? On the hearth, of course. And it's not even done yet. Looks like good luck to me!)

It gets complicated because I don't like the location of the stove as it stands. I don't have the time or energy to move the stove, reconfigure the pipe, and then lay the tile. So, I'm going to tile a piece of plywood that fits around the stove. When the stove moves, so will the hearth.

This project has been a challenge from the start since I'm limited to whatever materials I can scrounge to get it done. We have a big stack of mismatched tiles behind the tool shed. After two hours of shuffling and digging I came up with a design that I like. It uses every available tile of several styles so there are no small batches stranded. It is also restricted to just 4 types of tiles on the surface so it's not too chaotic to look at. Just sort of chaotic. Putting this together was like a weird game of tetris.

[The new hearth sitting on a wheelbarrow]