Gemopal Pottery

I live and work in the small outback town of Lightning Ridge.(750 km from Sydney, and near the border of New South Wales and Queensland.) Lightning Ridge is world famous for the magnificent black opals it produces. I first arrived in the Ridge for a couple of days on a touring holiday in 1965 - and I'm still here.
I tried opal mining with mixed success for 14 years, until a prospective hobby called pottery turned into a full-time disease, worse than the "opal fever".
I produce pottery from the clay that is home to the unique gem.

All my pots are made of clay I dig and prepare from the opal mines. The clay varies in colour from field to field within the mining reserve. These pots, which show the natural clay colours from two different areas, have been fired to about 1170° C., and are the most distinct clay colours, where the clays are compatible in shrinkage and hardness. The clays are prepared separately, sliced, interleaved, joined together, thrown on the potter's wheel, and faceted. These pots are glazed on the inside only. The scumming from the salts is scraped and rubbed off before firing in the kiln. Usually these faceted pots are about 4" - 100 mm high.

The clays (kaolinitic) are the silt from an ancient inland sea, and have a high soluble salt content. (Up to 2 % ) As they are high in silica (the main ingredient of opals) a colourless flux is added to the clay to counteract the silica for stoneware glaze firing. I allow for 20 % shrinkage, but as most of my pots are small, this is no great problem.
Sometimes, with imagination, these faceted pots can present some interesting pictures.
I call this one "Spaceman."

The picture on the left is a "face" of an
open-cut mine at the 3 Mile field. You can see traces of the drives (tunnels) dug by hand by the old-time miners. The level section near the top is where the opal clay starts, the clay goes down to a depth of 80' in this area. The overburden above the clay was 20' - 30'.

On the right is my underground storeroom, with bags of various clays left to age. I let the clay age for at least 3 months to gain plasticity before use on the wheel. Here it is about 10' to the clay level, and with a cool, humid atmosphere, it's almost an ideal place to keep the clay. I get a bit of exercise, using a windlass to lower and raise the 50lb. bags of clay.

First Kiln

This was a simple up-draft wood kiln I built while I was living on the fields at Phil Herbert's Rush.

Built with ordinary house-bricks, it was OK for earthenware temperatures.

The fire-box had a sheet of metal over it, and as you can see, it also served for cooking or heating water.

My showroom, which I call "The Flying Potsman" (with apologies to the Flying Scotsman) is an old electric train carriage from the Sydney urban system. It is nealy 62' long by 10' wide, with plenty of windows for light. This carriage went into service in 1929, and spent 63 years service in Sydney, before finding a new home in the Ridge. I have other carriages which serve as residence and work/storage rooms. They are a good form of "instant building".

Present Pottery Site

From the air, you can see my 5 "Red Rattler" train carriages from the Sydney Urban system.
The green roofs next door belong to Aboriginal friends, Roy and June Barker, who have the Goondee - Aboriginal Keeping Place. A fascinating place, showing old artifacts, legends, and history. Roy still makes tradional stone axes, boomerangs, hunting and fishing spears,and other weapons.

This is the first 3' diameter shaft being drilled at "Anderson's Folly" - my claim, about 16 miles away by road and bush track, half that in a straight line. The clay level started at 30', pale coloured clay, which became progressively darker to a depth of 50'.

And, just to get away from clay, this shows a 1/4 " slice from the centre of a cone shell, a large pale opal with an unusual shaped flaw (The Devil's Smile, or the Angel's Kiss??), and 4 mosaics. These are thin pieces of precious opal glued onto a black potch (common opal) base, then covered with a dome of quartz crystal, to protect the opal. Triplet opals are made the same way.

To order pots, or for correspondence:

Graeme Anderson
P.O. Box 27
Lightning Ridge
NSW Australia
2834.

Phone (02) 6829 0375
EMAIL: 65207andon@ceinternet.com.au

Please feel free to Email Me
Any other isolated potter care to swap an occasional message?

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