Earth and fire: Potter and conservationist Barry Brickell has built and shaped his legacy from Coromandel soil

摘要

BARRY BRICKELL is getting younger by the minute. At first meeting in the Driving Creek Railway ticket and pottery gift shop, the slight 74-year-old shows his years. Though his arms - bare beneath an Aussie rules shirt and a brown woollen vest - are strong and sinewy, his hands are gnarled, his back slightly stooped and his face weathered by the elements. But in his tiny work shed, a compact world turned beige by clay dust, heavy rain rumbling on the roof, the stories begin and the years fall away. His mood becomes expansive and his movements fluid. He seems to rework himself with stories of earth and steel, clay and fire.