To all appearances, they seem like pretty pieces of glazed pottery.
But the glazes on these hand-made cups have all been created from whatever remained in the ashes of Robert Linigen’s home and studio.
After the fires of October 2013, the Yellow Rock potter thought he had lost everything. But as he trawled through the rubble in subsequent days and weeks, he found little bits of materials that he knew he could find a use for.
He has transformed all those pieces of melted glass, electrical cabling, old tools and the like into glazes for a collection of cups which form part of his “56 houses in Yellow Rock” art work, commemorating the number of homes lost in his little village.
“We tried to take the house apart very carefully so we could reuse some of the sandstone blocks and have as much of the old house in the new house,” he said. “I had no studio so I had a lot of time on my hands.”
Although the family’s plans to rebuild had to be eventually abandoned and the block sold, Mr Linigen’s cups still evoke memories of his old life.
There is one glazed with melted cameras lenses, another created out of the old shower screen, one coloured with the remains of a rusted sledgehammer and axe from the shed and a very precious cup made from a quality bottle of wine which he had put away for a special occasion.
“My message from that wine is ‘enjoy it while you can’,” he said.
There’s also the Crown Lager cup.
“I’d bought two slabs for $80 just before the fire. I thought that would keep me going for a while. It was a pile of melted brown glass in the kitchen.”
Mr Linigen still has a stockpile of material he is working through — “I haven’t quite got it out of my system yet” — and is concentrating of creating another studio at the family’s new Leura home.
But he has one more project in mind to mark the bushfire tragedy — a glaze made from bone ash: specifically from 197 wishbones (the total number of homes lost).
The idea came from his art students at Nepean TAFE.
“They asked what they could do. I thought, well you can all eat roast chicken, so save the wishbones for me. But I’m about 50 short of the 197.”
If readers want to help, they can leave clean wishbones at the Gazette’s office in Springwood or post them to 274 Macquarie Road, Springwood.
56 Houses in Yellow Rock finishes at The Gallery Blackheath on Sunday. The work is for sale in its entirety or as individual pieces.
The Gallery at 44 Govetts Leap Road is open 10am-5pm Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays or by appointment. See also the website www.robert.linigen.com.