Quietly, by hand

June 26, 2018 9:59 AM

Need 8 minutes to calm down? Watch a short, quiet, idyllic video of Li Zikai building a cat-shaped brick-and-clay oven from scratch. (slfb video)

she has other videos on her facebook page of her doing equally as peaceful activities such as preparing for new year's with calligraphy and a meal, harvesting vegetables, or building and installing a sink vanity from reclaimed wood (no power tools involved).

posted by FirstMateKate (10 comments total)

That was lovely. Thank you!
posted by dendritejungle at 10:10 AM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

That was really neat. A little piece of me died seeing those bricks thrown around - traumatic memories of nice new bricks broken in half - but I guess I can't argue with the results!

Now I'm hungry for fresh-from-the-oven bread.
posted by colin.jaquiery at 10:17 AM on June 26, 2018

I follow their youtube channel, always great relaxing videos uploaded. I think I read somewhere they're a form of Chinese propaganda, meant to idealize rural life and such for those stuck toiling away in the grundle of capitalism. I think that's an interesting element to these videos but ultimately they're just fascinating to watch, something about ambient, purposeful, rewarding labor is satisfying to watch. Maybe it's that 99% of the labor we do in our daily lives is so abstract, has little connection between the work and result, and honestly most of the time is entirely useless, unnecessary, or increasingly destructive.
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:25 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Really nice. I shared on my Facebook page, because it is full of horror and outrage about all the horrible and outrageous stuff going on and I think we all needed a little break (and probably a hug).
posted by agatha_magatha at 10:27 AM on June 26, 2018

I've been watching a lot of Mike Haduck videos in spite of I'm probably not making any of these things.
posted by RobotHero at 10:53 AM on June 26, 2018

What was the purpose of the glass bottles in various locations of the construction?
posted by codacorolla at 11:45 AM on June 26, 2018

codacorolla, it's for insulation! "Cob oven" is a great search term to use if you're looking for more examples or you want to find instructions. actually i'm going to add that to the tags, thank you
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:50 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

I think I read somewhere they're a form of Chinese propaganda, meant to idealize rural life and such for those stuck toiling away in the grundle of capitalism

Oh, so like HGTV? (kidding, kidding...probably not tho). If anyone reading speaks chinese and could give me some more information about where in china this is, or the farm setup (it seems like other people live in other buildings all within this walled structure) I'd really appreciate it! Extremely fascinating, even if it's not a completely accurate depiction of rural life. (of course its not, not nearly enough poop)
posted by FirstMateKate at 12:18 PM on June 26, 2018

I love it that she gets her plans off of the internet.
posted by SLC Mom at 1:18 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

"What did you do today?"

"I baked some bread!"
posted by VTX at 3:19 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]