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Primitive pottery firing tradition forges friendships in the outback
Potters from Broken Hill and Adelaide work together to build a fire pit on Purnamoota Station. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
On a remote station north of Broken Hill, potters from near and far gather for a weekend of primitive firing.
For about 30 years, station owner and potter Cynthia Langford has opened the gates to welcome potters to do four different types of firings.
"We've got our sawdust firing … you get a nice black, very highly burnished pot come out of there and they're always very excited about those," she says.
"Then we've got our pit where we put our pots in the pit with coffee grounds and different salted corn husks and things, and get lovely colours on our pots.
"And then we've got our cow-pat firing that we do in a drum with dry cow pats."
Home-made bin kilns are a much more affordable option. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
The potters spend most of the day firing pots in bins the Broken Hill potters made in 2012 during a workshop with Swedish potter Stefan Jakob.
"We had a workshop where we made an IKEA rubbish bin into a little kiln and our members bring their little kiln out and we collect up all their little sticks and bits of wood and we fire our pots in the rubbish bins," Mrs Langford says.
Adelaide's Nicki Murnane adds wood to the home-made bin kiln used for raku pottery. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
Friendship formed through pottery
Joining the Broken Hill group are five members from the Adelaide Potters Club.
Each year since 2012, potters from the club have been travelling six hours to come to the remote station.
"They were just really excited about coming and joining us to do this and being able to do these primitive firings," Mrs Langford says.
Cynthia Langford from Purnamoota Station hosts primitive pottery firings on her property each year. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
Adelaide ceramicist Frances Rogers is attending the firing for the first time and says she loves the simple colour scape.
"I actually find it really inspiring for the pots — like you look over and you go, 'OK, I'll use copper red today because that's what I'm looking at,'" she says.
Adelaide's Frances Rogers made her raku creation at the primitive pottery firing event. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
Personal trainer Nicki Murnane is returning to Purnamoota for the second time and says it is a great weekend of getting back to nature and meeting lovely people.
"I always say to people it's a child-like weekend," she says.
Nicki Murnane has twice been to the primitive pottery firings on the remote outback station. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
"The anticipation you get as a kid on Christmas Eve, that's what you get here, and you don't really get that much in life anymore.
"[It's] the sheer joy of unravelling and opening up and not knowing what you're going to get."
Pots are draped with corn husks, beetroot leaves, coffee grounds and wire before they go into the fire pit. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
More accessible pottery
A highlight for the visitors is the raku firings in metal bins that the Broken Hill potters bring from their homes.
Raku pottery is a Japanese firing technique that produces distinctive markings on the surface of the ceramics.
The Broken Hill potters burn emu feathers or horse hair onto their pots at the weekend event.
"You open the lid and you put a little sugar on it and if the sugar burns black when it hits the pot then the pots are ready to come out and have feathers put on it," Broken Hill Potters Society president Sue Andrews says.
As part of a raku firing, a Broken Hill potter burns emu feathers onto a pot. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
The other raku technique they use involves putting a raku glaze on pots and getting it to temperature before quickly removing it to put it in another bin to reduce the glaze and give different colours.
Adelaide ceramicist Frances Rogers says it is a wonderful collective activity.
"You need all hands on deck … pulling the pot out and dropping it in the hot barrel and someone's throwing paper and the other ones got the wet paper and you know, everyone's like 'get the lid on' so it's a little bit more adrenaline," she says.
Rogers says it is making pottery more affordable and accessible.
"[Proper kilns] will be $4,000. They've just told us we could whip one of these up for about $400 or $450," she says.
Unpredictable and spontaneous results
The potters pack their pots with cow pats to create unique patterns. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
Broken Hill's Lee Quinn has been a potter for 40 years.
She enjoys the process of making the cow-pat pit.
As the pots were removed on Sunday morning, Mrs Andrews says it is the best cow pat firing they have had.
"Its just the colours — normally it doesn't come this good. I think it was more pots in the cow pat, tightly packed in a smaller drum," she says.
Sue Andrews says this year's cow pat firing on a remote station was the best they have ever had. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
Waitlist for Broken Hill pottery classes
Joining this weekend was new potter and firefighter Jack Simmonds, who managed to get into day classes at the Broken Hill Potters Society after a three-year wait.
"I did a sip and clay night probably in 2021 and put my name down for classes and then I got the call-up late last year and they said there's a spot for you Tuesday mornings and I rang my boss and got Tuesday mornings off," he says.
Broken Hill's Jack Simmonds has done his first pottery pit firing. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)
Mrs Langford, who first joined the potters in 1991, says the Broken Hill Potters Society was founded in the mid-1970s by three or four women.
They sold pots and eventually raised money to buy a kiln together and officially formed a society.
In time, they purchased an old scout hall and raise funds each year through Mother's Day and Christmas fairs to earn the money to pay for the rates.
The Broken Hill Potters Society runs weekly classes teaching people pottery skills. (ABC Broken Hill: Katherine Spackman)