The Great Pottery Throw Down returns Thursday 2nd February at 8pm on BBC Two!
The finale of Great Pottery Throw Down aired this week and it was a tense episode and a close call at the last minute. Some amazing creations but consistency and quality won the day:
In the final episode Matthew, 23, a teacher from North Yorkshire, emerged triumphant as the winner of The Great Pottery Throw Down 2015. From ten potters who have thrown, turned, trimmed and fired: Rekha, Joanna, Nigel, Sandra, James, Jane, and the three other finalists Jim, Sally-Jo and Tom, Matthew won the coveted title in a very tough competition.
We’re four episodes in and it’s still doing a fab job of bringing pottery alive.
Wendy & Sam are super busy at the moment so I’ve taken over the blog for this mini review – I’m Mark – I’m one of the regulars at pottery classes and I helped with the new look and site for Seven Limes.
So far so good, I was a little hesitant about how well pottery would translate the Bake Off formula (I’m a huge fan of that too despite defnitely doing more pottery than baking!) – and turns out I needn’t have been! So far it has shown a great spectrum of pottery. From throwing on the wheel (most people’s impression of pottery no doubt) with some entirely expected filth from throwing handles – to hand building and slab pots the diversity of techniques has been impressive.
The potters on the show are also a wonderful mix of people, who all have their own strengths and weaknesses and skills they do and don’t have. Personally I had a moment of delight in the second episode where they coiled a sink! (I mostly coil my pots so the realisation they weren’t going to solely focus on wheel thrown pots was exciting to me and they’ve continued to branch out since then.) There’s been a wonderful range of executions – when given the same brief the end result always promises to offer some wildly different outcomes. And there is trepidation too, as we all know, the fear of what you put in the kiln might not come out intact especially with the added time pressure.
The judges have turned out to be well chosen, Kate Malone – someone who’s work I personally love, a hand building artist known for massive pots with impressive shape and form, and Keith Brymer Jones who is the opposite end of the spectrum with a love for simple and minimal thrown designs. He also has a tendency to weep with delight over some of the potters creations, which is quite the change from Bake Off’s Paul Hollywood. Sarah Cox as presenter has also put in a winning turn, keeping the innuendos and puns flowing when needed.
One of the other things I liked seeing was also how much it reminded me of being at class, the banter and chat between the potters is exactly as I’m used to at Seven Limes (spoilers I’ve been going for years!) That said, I’ve got some non potters watching it and they seem to love it too!
You can catch it all still on BBC iPlayer here.
Comedian Johnny Vegas is known for his anarchic humour and quick wit but what’s less known are his pottery making skills!
Wendy was on BBC Radio Manchester Breakfast this morning in the last hour talking about pottery and The Great Pottery Throw Down (which starts tonight! 3rd November 9pm on BBC2!). Very exciting!
Welcome to our new site, we hope you like it – feel free to let us know what you make of it and if there’s anything extra you’d like to see that would be helpful!
With Bake Off nearly over, we’ve been keeping an eye on a new show from the same creators, starring pottery at its heart! We’re keeping our eyes peeled for an air date but it’ll be exciting to see if it takes off as much as Bake Off did 🙂
Read More›