Monica Usher

In the late 1970's, in my middle teenage years, I started an apprenticeship in the beautiful Gold Coast hinterland at Lyrebird Ridge pottery with master potter Errol Barnes. I was the second trainee arriving one year after Martin Kelly. Errol had personally built the workshop, a huge timber structure set high up on a ridge in deep rainforest. In the years spent there I took part in the life of the workshop. I first started by preparing clay, packing kilns, watching Errol throw, then moving on to throwing small pieces and working up to larger wares. This was usual workshop practice. In the end I was capable of throwing 100 mugs a day. My traineeship was supported by the Crafts Board of the Australia Council.