The Great Pottery Throw Down 2023

The 2023 Potters in The Great Pottery Throw Down

The Great Pottery Throw Down has started - Episode 1 of the latest series was broadcast last night. The presenter and judges are the same as last time and there are 12 contestants from varying backgrounds and locations within the UK. (Thanks to the person who creates this table for each series on Wikipedia)

The Potters of 2023 - Who's Who

You can "Meet the potters with a licence to kiln" (the jokes have not improved!) in this tweet

The programme is made by Love Productions, who also make the The Great British Bake Off and The Great British Sewing Bee. 

It suddenly struck me that all the productions:

• have a very strong "feel good" factor 
• create challenges which stretch the participants
• have expert judges who are honest and uncompromising in their critiques. They tell it like it is - and they don't always start with what you did well!

Which in the case of potters means, amongst other things, seeing their quick throw challenge output condemned to the bucket of doom if it's deemed unworthy of keeping!

It struck me that those wanting to expand their activities from making art to teaching art might do well to remember this. 

I must confess I'm always amazed by the fact that I get asked to critique what artists are doing in terms of their art and business strategies despite the fact that I insist all potential clients read my page which says I'm very honest and direct in my feedback and I do NOT tend to 'sugar coat' my critiques! In fact, people have told me it's WHY they come to me!!

My conclusion is that if you are clear:

• that you want people to do well
• you are not trying to take advantage of them
• AND deliver honest feedback so that they can make progress

then people appreciate you.

For me, it means with this programme, that they 

• test the contestants in a fair way - across a number of skills and techniques. 
• make challenges feasible within the timescale - but not easy. Which tends to sort the contestants out effectively

For me, it's a very effective formula....

I wish more television programmes related to arts and crafts were like this....

The feel good factor

I wrote down some of the things said at the beginning of the programme - which you can find below.

Comments by potters

"mentorship you can't buy"

"I love the fact that it is so warm and everything about it is encouraging"

"exciting but nerve wracking as well"

"there's "a lot of things that can go wrong"

Comments by Judges

"our potters have an intense passion about ceramics"

Here's their output this week, when they had to make a birthday celebration tea service as in:

• cake stand 
• cake slice
• two cups and saucers
• a cream pot - with a lid for a spoon
• a side plate

I was going to include pics of all the pottery output - but the way they've posted it on Twitter it just keeps on repeating.....

so here's the winner....

Congratulations, Loïs! Your birthday tea set in honour of your sister blew the judges away. #potterythrowdown pic.twitter.com/JdU4iKqn9v

— The Great Pottery Throw Down (@PotteryThrow) January 8, 2023

and here's the composite pic of the tea sets - which you can see in more detail on Facebook

Episode 1: The Celebratory Tea Sets

This is next week - when it's "slab building" - which always sounds really intimidating to me!

Next time, the potters get their mitts on Slab Building Week. Sunday 15th January at 7.45pm on @Channel4. #potterythrowdown pic.twitter.com/lY6gH6OgM1

— The Great Pottery Throw Down (@PotteryThrow) January 8, 2023

Where you can follow The Great Pottery Throw Down

Follow the show on:

• Channel 4 https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-pottery-throw-down
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GreatPotteryThrowDown/
• Twitter https://twitter.com/PotteryThrow (see #potterythrowdown)
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/potterythrow/

Plus you can find out about the earlier series on:

• Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Pottery_Throw_Down