The Great Pottery Throwdown starts tonight

The Great Pottery Throw Down returns tonight - at 7.45pm on Channel 4. 

Essentially it's a a competition to find the best amateur potter in the country. Tonight it's "Throwing Week"

I know a LOT of people will be really pleased that tonight we see the return of a programme which some of us thought might be gone for good at one point when the BBC shut it down - only for it to be resurrected last year by Channel 4. (I wonder when the BBC is going to realise that people really like shows where ordinary members of the public make things).

Here are the 12 potters hoping to throw, glaze and wedge their way to victory.

The Great Pottery Throw Down starts Sunday 10th January at 7.45pm on @Channel4. With host @Siobhni and judges @KBJWhitstable and @RichMillerPots. #potterythrowdown pic.twitter.com/RiSGA0r9bC

— The Great Pottery Throw Down (@PotteryThrow) January 5, 2021

You can view the video above to see who's who among the contestants and/or review each of the potters on the show's Twitter account.

Potters are set a number of tasks testing their skills (and patience) at the wheel and with different techniques. Each week they have to create the Main Make, which sees the potters produce a piece from slab of clay to glazed glory with every episode culminating in the reveal of the Main Make which the potters present straight from their kiln for judging.
But anything can go wrong in the kiln. The potters who fail to impress with their clay will leave the pottery studio until the final when one person proves themselves to be master of the wheel.

The Host and two Judges

This year's changes are:

• The Judges have changed - they are:
• Keith Brymer Jones of Whitstable - the only person to stay the same across all the series to date. With any luck he's be writing something about the series on his blog
• Richard Miller - Potter, owner at Froyle Tiles is the new Judge. He's previously worked as the technician on previous series of 'The Great Pottery Throwdown'
• The Host has changed and is now Siobhán McSweeney (Sister Michael of Derry Girls) - after Sara Cox and then Melanie Sykes.
• UPDATE: They've moved from Middleport to more spacious accommodation at The Gladstone Pottery Museum 

What's stayed the same

• there are still 12 potters - called Adam, Hannah, Susan, Alon, Sally, Ara, Peter, Irina, Shenyue, Henry, Jodie and Lee - and they come from very diverse backgrounds but are all keen amateur potters.

Previous posts about The Great Pottery Throwdown

my previous posts about this show - and why I like it

• Third series of The Great Pottery Throw Down on Channel 4 (Jan 2020)
• The Great Pottery Throwdown - Series 2 starts tonight (February 2017)
• Book Review - The Great Pottery Throw Down (March 2017)

Plus my previous post about The Ceramics Gallery at the V&A.

I'm fond of ceramics and pots - they often get a mention in my exhibition reviews and are one of the things I collect (on the "when you can't make it collect it" principle).

Other Information

You can also find out about Middleport Pottery where the show is filmed

• website https://re-form.org/middleportpottery/information
• twitter https://twitter.com/Middleport_Pot
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MiddleportPottery/

Plus review the Ceramics Groups on Facebook

• Ceramics
• Ceramic Artists
• Ceramic & Raku Art