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

The Great Pottery Throw Down - Festive Special and 2023 Series

More from The Great Pottery Throw Down this Christmas and in early 2023!

The Great Festive Throw Down

The Great Festive Throw Down will be broadcast on Channel 4 at Christmas Day at 7.50pm. All the normal participants plus four celebrities trying out their throwing skills on the pottery wheel. They are:

• James Fleet: actor and star of Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Vicar of Dibley and Bridgerton
• Jenny Eclair: an English comedienne, actress and presenter of Grumpy Old Women and Loose Women
• Sunetra Sarker: actress of Brookside and Ackley Bridge
• Jamie Laing: television personality who started out in Made In Chelsea

The 2023 Series of The Great Pottery Throw Down

More creative comfort watching for the winter evenings in 2023!

Keith Brymer Jones has announced on Twitter that the new series of The Great Pottery Throw Down (2023) starts Sunday 8th January at 7.45pm on Channel 4.

Last year there were 10 episodes. If it's the same this year it will finish in mid March 2034.

We've not yet seen sight of the participants - but you can expect to see:

• Keith Brymer Jones (Judge)  of Keith Brymer Jones
• Rich Miller (Judge) of Rich Miller Ceramics
• Siobhán McSweeney (Presenter) - and actress in Derry Girls

Here's a little news to make your clay...

The new series of The Great Pottery Throw Down with @Siobhni, @KBJWhitstable and @RichMillerPots starts Sunday 8th January at 7.45pm on @Channel4. #potterythrowdown pic.twitter.com/vVO1Bl8vjQ

— The Great Pottery Throw Down (@PotteryThrow) December 15, 2022

So lots of nice people, lots of throwing and potting and an absolute certainty that Keith will cry!

The Great Pottery Throw Down is back!

Judges, presenter and 12 new potters in The Great Pottery Show Down 2022

I love The Great Pottery Throw Down. It's the televisual equivalent of real comfort food on cosy evenings in winter.

The good news is that they have managed to film the fifth series in the Gladstone Pottery Museum (part of Stoke on Trent Museums), despite you know what (as 'you know what' now seems to called to avoid being "filtered" and/or "moderated")

It starts this evening (Sunday 2nd January 2022) at 7.45pm on Channel 4

Here's who's participating - 

• the Judges Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller are same as last year - as is the kiln technician Rose Schmits
• but they've got a new presenter - Ellie Taylor has replaced Siobhán McSweeney (who replaced who Melanie Sykes who replaced Sara Cox) and 
• 12 new potters who are for a challenge or two - and you can read about who they are and their backgrounds and experience in this article. See if you can pick a winner just from the descriptions!

The first two challenges are to throw:

• a children’s crockery set and 
• ceramic milk bottles!

As I commented in March last year

What I like about this programme

• it's a genuinely "feel-good" programme. Very Sunday evening family entertainment - of the educational and involving kind.
• It has lots of very nice people all working very hard - and collaboratively - to do the best they can. Absolutely no bitching!!
• Both Judges are very experienced and highly skilled practitioners. (see the websites of master potter Keith Brymer Jones and ceramics expert Rich Miller) I'm a big fan of this series because they take both their professional occupations and "Judging" seriously.
• Participants all vary in their experience and skill levels but virtually all have a significant level of knowledge and skill which allows them to participate in the various "make" challenges during the series.
• Every series you can see potters getting better and better as they apply themselves to the challenges (known as "going on a journey"). Soon you begin to see who are the ones who might make it all the way to the end of the series - based on their application, experience, skills and creative imagination
• The presenter was excellent light relief without having an ego which meant she tried to make the programme about her
• who went home every week got more and more difficult to predict as the series progressed - and there were some real surprises.

In the meantime for those not familiar with the series, you can 

• watch all the previous episodes in 2020 and 2021 on demand including via your via desktop
• follow the show on
• Facebook
• Twitter

Previous posts about The Great Pottery Throw Down

• Current Art Shows on Channel 4 (March 2021)
• The Great Pottery Throwdown starts tonight (January 2021)
• Third series of The Great Pottery Throw Down on Channel 4 (January 2020)
• Book Review - The Great Pottery Throw Down (March 2017)
• The Great Pottery Throwdown - Series 2 starts tonight (February 2017)

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