The Great Pottery Throw Down (2015–…): Season 3, Episode 5 - Episode #3.5 - full transcript
It's week five and just eight potters remain.
Our potters are about to face their biggest challenge so far.
But if they can't take the heat,
they need to get out of the pottery.
It's going to be illuminating.
Welcome to The Great Pottery Throw Down.
This time.
I've never made a lamp before. First time.
The potters are back at the wheel.
I really need you guys to leave me alone today.
Hoping to light up the room.
It made me jump.
There's a surprise visit
from pottery legend, Emma Bridgewater.
Couldn't be more impressed.
But who will shine the brightest?
They look fantastic.
And who will be left out in the dark?
Light's out.
It's an early morning start
for our eight remaining potters
and it's time to tackle their biggest throwing challenge
in the competition so far.
Well, I'm a thrower.
Predominately that's all I really do.
So it's even more pressure, really, coming in
as Potter of the Week into a throwing challenge.
So, I really, really want to nail it.
I'd really like to win anything before I get voted out.
Just one thing. I don't really mind what it is.
It's a new week, you know, I'm gonna try my best.
I'd love to be Potter of the Week again.
Morning, potters. Welcome back.
This week for your Main Make, Sue and Keith would like you
to throw two matching lamp bases.
You can alter your throwing pieces
into any shapes to create your unique designs.
You've got two hours to build your lamp bases
and your time starts now.
The potters each have 12 and a half
kilos of clay.
See, this is a big lump of clay for, like, tiny muscles.
The guns are out.
To throw and shape into two beautiful
bespoke 30 centimeter high lamps.
Throwing's not my thing. 13 years hand building.
Eight months throwing.
It's a big difference.
Complete with light fittings, bulbs and shades,
which will be plugged in and switched on for judging.
I make quite a lot of vases.
A ceramic lamp base is just a vase
with a light bulb on it, I guess.
We're in week five now.
We want them to really start excelling themselves.
We want some wow factor, don't we?
We absolutely do.
We've asked them to make two matching lamp bases,
at least 30 centimeters high and 25 centimeters wide.
How they do that is entirely up to them.
They can throw in sections and then stick them together
or they can just throw in one piece.
And also they've got to get the sizing right,
especially for their fixings on the top.
How are they gonna get the fittings
into the inside of the lamp?
If your fixture can't fit on the table lamp,
it's not gonna be a table lamp.
So would you be able to do this in two hours
'cause it's a tough timeline, isn't it really?
No, two hours is fine.
Loads of time.
After last week's slip casting,
some of the potters are happy to be back at the wheel
and working with big lumps of clay.
Feels really nice doing something a little bit bigger.
It's where I feel most comfortable.
I'm gonna do four in total and if the ones
that I made with less clay are up to the job
then I'm gonna use those ones.
Love this process so much.
It's the calabash bowl with fossils down the side.
I have practiced it and it took me an hour and 40 minutes
and that was with no distractions.
- Morning, Flea. -FLEA: Good morning.
Hi, Flea. -Hi.
What are you going for? Have you got your plans in here?
Yeah, I had these lovely calabash boards.
They're old, like squashes. You know the shape of a squash?
Oh yeah. -So there's gonna be this shape,
which is like the waves, the scalloped edge
of the lamp going all the way round,
into then a long thinner neck.
And how does the wire work going in?
Hole in the side.
I was checking out most ceramic lamps
and they all tend to have holes on the side
if you're doing the old-fashioned style.
Flea's curvy calabash inspired lamps
will be shaped into a masculine and feminine version
to represent her and her husband.
And after a near slip up last week,
she's not taking any chances
to fall behind in this challenge.
I like throwing tall things. I love experimenting.
It's my place where I feel really happy.
I really am doing my best to throw it in one.
Okay. We'll leave you to it.
Thank you.
Good luck. -FLEA: Thank you.
Good luck. -Thank you. Thanks so much.
I'm not a great thrower of huge pieces,
so I was, like, yeah, I don't wanna have any mistakes.
A bit taller than this. Wash.
I'm struggling already.
Ronaldo is hoping to throw
two identical lamps with a strong geometric design
featuring 3D triangles inspired by diamonds.
We're really tight on time.
I'm trying to stop myself from feeling stressed
and just get on with it. I'm not worried.
I just know I need to do a bit more
than I'd done in the practice session.
I struggled a bit to get the angles I wanted.
So I really, really need you guys
to leave me alone today.
Ronaldo isn't the only one
having to concentrate.
How do you do it with a shaking hand?
I don't know what's the matter with me today.
I don't normally get nervous.
The potters not only need to throw big,
precision is also key if they're to get
the exact height the judges are after.
Sizing is, um, everything this week.
I'm not so great with getting perfect measurements.
Uh, can't do the maths.
I have to Google, like, what a percentage is.
Mine are different. Some of these are really tall,
aren't they? I can't alter the size now.
The die is cast.
Hello, Rosalind. What have you gone for?
I'm going for a pair of sheep
lamp bases.
- Excellent. -Look at them.
Oh, Rosalind, I do love your ideas.
Okay, excellent.
If you turn the page, you can see
another illustration.
Wow. -MELANIE: Oh, wow!
They're the bottles that I'm gonna try and throw.
Oh, I see. And then you're gonna form the--
Yeah. -The sheep on them.
Yeah.
Rosalind's thrown pieces
will be shaped into sheep
and she'll use her sculpting skills
to add delicate detail of the sheep's characteristics
and wooly texture of their coats.
My inspiration seeing them sitting up like humans
- when they're being sheared. -Right. Okay, yes.
He looks like he's in a deck chair, doesn't he?
Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
why not knit in a lampshade.
- You've thought of everything. -I've just gotta stop
my hands shaking now and do the throwing.
Yeah. Get into your stride.
I feel better now chatting to you.
- Good. Have calmed you down? -You've calmed me down.
Good. Glad we're useful for something.
I've never made a lamp before. First time.
I wouldn't say it's your classical lamp base.
It's quite a different one.
It's quite sculptural.
Rainna will have to throw and join
eight different sections
for her Wild West themed lamp bases
to form a cowboy hat and head as the male lamp
and a bonnet for the lady,
finished with bare bulbs and no shades.
The thing is it's, like, a play on words.
Something like a pun, bright idea.
Bing. Light bulb comes out the head.
It sounds quite fun,
so are you gonna address that also with the color
and the way that you finish it and the glazing?
The hats are gonna have the detail on there
and I will do one male, one female.
So I'm doing the obvious colors, pink, blue.
And basically that's the concept of you
- matching them up? -What, the Wild Wild West?
- Male and female. -The male and female.
- They're a pair. -Oh yeah, they're a pair.
Yeah.
They don't have to be an identical pair
but they have to be harmonious.
One of the potters has decided
to attempt perfect harmony.
I'm making two, as close to identical,
lamp bases as I possibly can.
It's sort of coming from a Minoan,
Cretan, Greek sort of inspiration.
I just love the kind of full-bodied, swollen forms,
with the beautiful, sort of geometric shapes
and digression of that era.
Claire's identical lamps
will feature a long neck, bulbous body
and a simple geometric design.
All finished in brown glazes
to give them an ancient Greek look.
The pressure's on.
They're getting stricter and just that bit more precision
and more that they're looking for.
It looks a bit weird at the moment
but it will all start to make sense eventually.
It's taken a lot of blood, sweat and tears
and a lot of flops to learn how to throw in one piece.
For sure.
Whether they're throwing in one
or in multiple sections,
this challenge is about to get even harder.
So it's 10% to 12% shrinkage for this clay when it's fired.
You have to consider the light fitting,
which is, like, a centimeter.
But then it's, like, calculating
what a centimeter is gonna be once this has shrunk.
Do you know what I mean?
I've got a hole at the bottom so I can put my hand in
so I can screw the lamp bit fixture in.
And then at the end, I'll put in a hole
in the side where the wire can go through.
Jacob, what are you aiming for?
I'm going for, like, traditional Ming vase dynasty shapes.
And I wanna base it on shipwreck pottery.
So the stuff that will come over from Hong Kong
to Liverpool, which is a direct link
to my cultural heritage.
Jacob's inspired
by barnacle-covered shipwrecked pots.
He'll replicate them by adding pieces
of broken crockery he's found on the beach
into the clay surface to give his lamps
an aged look.
I've got like a mixture of sand
and bits of broken pottery
that I've collected from all the beaches I've been to.
Oh, okay. -SUE: How are you gonna actually
get in onto the surface?
When I put the slip on and then put the clay in,
it kind of...
- Bonds onto it. -Bonds onto it.
What does that do when you fire it?
That's just silica, isn't it?
- Yeah. -So it's--
- It'll be interesting, won't it? -It will.
- It'll be quite interesting. -There's different iron content,
isn't there, in different beaches.
Absolutely, yeah.
Oh, it sounds fabulous.
Jacob is not the only one
that's been beachcombing.
We love walking around the beach
and picking up stones, especially things with holes in.
The idea is to make sort of a sculpture piece
that works as a light.
Rosa will throw a stand
and alter it to be square,
upon which she'll place an organic shape
to represent smooth stones found on the beach.
So, have you got time to do this?
Don't know. I've got the stones in there
but I need to bash them around before they dry
too much because otherwise they crack.
So you've got the basic shapes
for your stones made in the drying room
Yeah.
And these are your bases, aren't they?
And they're not even been started.
Okay.
Shall we leave you to it then?
- Okay. -Oh, don't look at me like that.
See you in a bit.
I feel like a naughty child now.
- Well done, my love. -CLAIRE: One done.
Okay, potters, let me illuminate you on the timings.
You are halfway through, which means
- you've got one hour left. -Oh my God.
I need to get on it.
With their first lamp base
safely in the drying room,
the potters need to get started on their second
if they're to have a good pair.
So I'm really happy with my first one.
And now I'm going onto my second,
which is more of a long neck.
Bit more, bit more female.
Matt's not content with throwing two lamps.
He's planning to get his hands round another pair.
This is number three.
I've got two out that were a little bit heavier.
With a bit more clay there's a bit more safety
that they don't collapse.
But I want them to be as sort of light
as I can possibly get.
Matt is going shadeless
with his minimalist design of two narrow neck lamps,
finished in black glazes and a chattering effect texture.
- Chattering? -MATT: Yeah.
I know what it means in my world.
What does it mean in a potter's world?
So you grab a trimming tool.
If you hold the edge, just pointing
into the direction of the rotation,
it springs back so it bounces along the surface
and creates a really...
- Kind of corrugated effect. -Yeah.
That's it. Yeah, nice technique.
It won't be looking anything like this when it's finished.
I'm going to bash it around, make a hole in it,
all kinds of things.
Rainna's trying to get ahead
with her heads.
This is the lady's one
so we'll do quite little features.
The more detail in their designs,
the more work the potters have to do
but Rosalind has found a time-saving method
of turning clay into wool.
This is just to make my fur.
So I just made the fur in the bottom
of an ice cream tub and then, um,
poured some plaster of Paris in.
And then you just, when you take your mold out,
you've got all your lovely fur indentations.
I can relax now I've got something, you know,
that I've got over my nerves.
But I'm back to normal now.
If you can call me normal.
Have you seen Flea's?
It's quite male, isn't it?
It's really male, isn't it?
When it's glazed it'll look different
with a lampshade on top, guys.
Okay potters, you've got 10 minutes left.
Just 10 minutes.
Getting a bit tight for time now.
These necks have to be done.
It's tight. It's tight.
But I might, I think, I can get it done.
I think I can.
I realized it was a centimeter small
so instead of cutting down the other one
and then the chance of it being exactly enough height,
I'm just gonna add to it.
It's just cracking.
It's starting to crack now already.
I haven't even put it in the drying room yet.
It's already cracking.
Oh no.
They're gonna be fussy about these joins
so I need to make sure they're really well joined.
I'm really tight for time.
I knew this was gonna happen though.
10 seconds.
Okay, now I'm worried. Now I'm worried.
Nine. Eight. Seven.
Six. Five. Four. Come on, Rainna.
Three. Two. One.
That is the end of this part of the challenge.
Well done.
I've made both my lamps. There's a long way to go.
I've still got to add the shells,
but as a form, as two shapes,
I'm really happy with them.
I have loads to do, but it's on track I think.
So I'm looking forward to the next bit.
I'm just gonna get in there and just work like mad.
Di, di, di, di.
Whack it all together, bish bash bosh.
Got myself two Wild Wild West heads.
The potters' lamp bases
have been drying for three hours.
Now the clay is leather hard, they're ready for refining.
There's no obvious cracks or anything.
I'm really happy about that.
By turning and trimming,
the potters can take off any excess clay
taking weight out of their pieces.
I'm not turning. I'm just trying to fettle away.
Just need to get this really beautifully finished.
If the potters leave too much clay
in the bases of their lamps,
they could risk them exploding in the kiln.
Kinda get carried away 'cause it's so like,
well, for me it's therapeutic and you get focused,
you could trim and not wanna stop trimming.
But take too much away
and they could weaken their pieces
causing them to collapse or crack during firing.
There's always the danger that you can take too much off.
So I find kinda listening and tapping,
you can hear where it's thinner.
Once the bases are refined
to the potters' satisfaction, this is the stage to shape, cut
and add additional decoration
to bring their final lamp designs to life.
I've never done pottery so fast. Brr...
Rosalind's not quite counting sheep.
She's only got one lamp finished so far.
The second still needs its wooly coat.
50 to the dozen.
Doing it at a normal rate would be lovely.
I'm cutting a hole in my sculpture.
I definitely like finding stones with holes in.
Simple joys of life.
This kind of attention to detail is definitely a new thing for me
and I'm really enjoying it.
I'm in my shell-ement. I really am.
I'm making a bow for the back of her head.
Rainna needs to make two hats
for her Wild West themed heads.
I need to concentrate on that bit at the moment
because it's a weird shape.
I don't even want to look at it.
It looks so bad.
Claire will be hoping her geometric
patterns
aren't carving weak spots into her Greek-inspired lamps.
This bit's probably more stressful
because obviously, this is the last bit,
so this is where you have to really bring it together
and make it count.
I don't know if we're gonna do that, but we'll try.
As Claire adds very precise lines,
Matt is taking a different route
by applying a chattering effect.
So, I think I'm pretty happy with that.
Okay, potters, you are halfway through.
Uh.
Matt, what's your chuck called?
That one just says eh up chuck on it
but I've got one at home called Chuck Berry.
Nice.
It's a very niche market, the northern pottery jokes.
Your... I was gonna say your hole is perfect, but it is.
I like to think my hole is perfect.
Now time for the join.
Ronaldo still needs
to join his lamp bases together
and find time to add his 3D diamond sprigs.
All the time, you know.
Don't know why I keep putting myself in this position.
It's looking good.
I look good in a bonnet, don't I?
Yeah, I think you look great.
You've got no eyes.
That's going on.
It's your last 10 minutes, potters.
- 10 minutes left. -10 minutes left.
That's not so good, is it?
I don't think I'm gonna do it in time.
Better get my skates on.
This is gonna be my sprigs.
I'm just trying to get as many done as I can.
So you can see there's one symmetrical design
at the bottom. I don't think I've got time to do that.
They're going all around. I'm just winging it.
That does not look like what I want it to look like.
That don't look like a cowboy hat.
You alright? -RAINNA: Yeah, sorry.
I'm going to make a hole because I have...
This is not a sculpture, it is a light
and so I have to be able to put the fitting in.
That's was a deeper base than I thought it was.
Oh, I've got a hole in it.
Make sure I don't forget that, and at the back.
Plan's changed slightly.
Only gonna be able to put the diamonds on the top.
I've never worked so fast.
I always end up under pressure.
10 seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
- Oh, Rainna, it's always you. -I'm going.
Six. Five. Four.
I'm slowing it down for you as well.
Three. Two.
Careful with my head.
One. Get them in the drying room.
Oh, that was a bit tight for time, wasn't it?
I was, like, rushing to get the hole done
for the light fittings.
I literally just went boof, boof.
Don't know if they're the right measurements,
but we'll see when it comes out of the kiln.
I'm disappointed a bit.
I didn't get the finish that I actually wanted.
It's not as clean as it should be.
I just need to hope when I come back
all the lamps are in one piece
and the glazing process goes well.
Dream scenario for the Spot Test is to try and be top three.
Just go for it and make it work.
I wouldn't really like a decorating challenge.
I find that quite technically difficult.
Each week the potters face another
challenge
to test their skills in all aspects of ceramics.
And today a very special guest is ready
to put them through their pottery paces.
So, potters, your second challenge
is a Spot Test.
Please welcome to the pottery ceramics legend,
Emma Bridgewater.
Ah.
- Hello. -Oh, it's very nice to be here.
Thank you for asking me.
Now, what do they have to do today?
I'm going to give you two pieces of pottery,
which you're going to decorate using writing,
with or without embellishment, to make a pair.
They just need to work together
in some way that you can make clear to me.
My criterion isn't perfection, it's spirit and passion. Okay?
You've got 90 minutes to hand-write
on your two pieces of crockery and your time starts now.
Remove the hessian.
With Emma's challenge to share
a personal message,
the first thing that many of the potters think of
is their family.
I'm gonna do like a family tree.
Just to write my family's names down
and then do like a lovely little swirly tree thing going over it.
Bob's your uncle. Got yourself some writing on a plate.
My mother's a poet so I might add
two of our poems together.
She had to witness quite a lot
when I was going through depression
and she's a pretty amazing woman.
Well, me being a big sop,
I'm going for something lovey dovey.
A mother's love and two elephants
with their trunks, like, into like a heart.
When I saw the plate and stuff,
I kind of thought straightaway about my dad.
My dad's got Parkinson's disease.
He struggles, like, to do every day sort of things.
So I'm writing down the three words
that I know is related to him
and then on that one, I'm gonna write down
the things that, the three words that I kind of look up to.
So shake, struggle, perseverance
is the things that he does every day.
- And then, for me-- -Jacob, that's amazing.
That's really powerful. Oh, that's absolutely lovely.
What are your words for him?
Well, brave, strong and a role model.
- So yeah. -Oh.
How lovely to be reflecting on that.
It's lovely.
Really looking forward to seeing it.
- Yeah, fantastic. -MELANIE: Thank you.
Cheers.
The plan is to have my two children
running along with a kite in the air.
This is their names.
And then I thought I'd do the kite going around
saying "Love you forever".
I'm not going to write a big story
because I can't spell, so I'm just sticking
to simple words that I know.
Two of the potters have opted
for revelatory moments in their lives.
"Whoever should drink from this cup
shall never thirst."
Oh, I love that.
The living water of Jesus. That's all you need.
- Absolutely lovely. -Yeah.
Well done you.
My faith most certainly gets me
through the tough times.
Are you doing words on the plate as well?
I'm going to do "daily bread".
You're gonna write "daily bread".
Which is our spiritual food.
You keep going. I'm longing to see the results.
Thank you. -MELANIE: Thank you.
Oh, it's bloody wonky. That's what it is. Never mind.
- Hi, Matt. What's your picture? -Yeah, what's going on here?
The phoenix signifies burning itself
and regenerating into something new.
I gave a little nod to it in the raku firing,
burning the cycling jersey and that's the past
regenerating into something better.
That's pretty deep, Matt.
I couldn't be more impressed.
Hopefully, I can make not too many more errors.
As you can I see, I--
Just don't worry too much about that.
You might regret saying that.
Ronaldo is taking a simpler route.
So my message is "create and inspire".
Because I want to create and inspire people.
I've spelt it wrong and I wanted just to wipe it out
and put the correct spelling in.
I put "first" instead of "thirst".
Ooh, I nearly a T where the L was supposed to go.
This is my dad.
My mum. My older sister.
My older brother. Me. And my younger brother.
So it goes down in, um, order of age.
And, oh no, sorry.
My mum's actually older than my dad.
Potters, we're halfway through the challenge.
I've done my cup.
Now I'm doing the daily bread plate.
With less than 45 minutes remaining,
if they haven't already, the potters need
to get started on their second piece.
Time's running out and I haven't even started
the other one yet.
Haven't even come up with a full concept
in my head for that one.
So that's gonna be a bit of a freestyle.
Typical me.
I'm actually writing "shake"
and I can't stop shaking myself 'cause I'm just like...
so it's quite ironic really.
I still have to do my elephants. I'll get it done.
It'll just probably be a bit rushed.
It sounds awful, doesn't it?
Potters, you've got one minute to go.
Oh dear.
Going to run out of time.
The last thing you want is run out of time,
which it looks like I am again now.
Okay, 10.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Rainna. Five. Where's your other bit?
Four. You've done it.
Three.
Two.
- One. -Just let me do--
No!
Hands off the pots.
Thank you. You've finished your challenge.
Excellent work.
The potters have hand-painted a trophy mug and plate,
each with a personal message.
Emma now has the difficult job to judge worst to best.
Okay. Number eight.
This, Claire.
- Yeah. -I like the, your personality
that comes through your writing
but I would say probably that it's not something
- you're accustomed to doing. -No.
But nevertheless, well done.
Number seven. Ronaldo.
"Love life."
"Create and inspire."
"Create and inspire" is a bit... It's a bit bossy.
If you know what I mean.
Number six. Rosalind.
Your message, you've rendered into a design.
The two pieces obviously thematically link.
Perhaps it might have been more effective
to take that very beautiful stylized heart
and do it again.
In fifth place...
is Matt.
It's interesting. You have all gone for serious messages.
When we were talking to you, you said
that this was a very personal, kind of, almost a journey.
I found that very, very moving.
I'm very impressed that you, you chose to put
the important word of the mug inside the rim.
And I know that looking from that side
that makes the two things work.
- Now, in fourth place. Jacob. -Yeah.
Whilst it's very personal
and it's specifically about your father
and the symptoms of his condition,
actually, it has a beautiful wide resonance
because "shake" might have, you know, a meaning
that any one of us could understand
in terms of, you know, losing our way.
That's one of the great, sort of, moments, isn't it,
when you're making, when you find the way to do that.
So then we get to number three.
Flea.
Flea's obviously been someone who's practiced writing
and that's a lovely thing to see.
"Taking my thoughts for a walk today,
away from my mind where they like to prey.
All that is darkness, all that is sad,
nightmarish thoughts that are driving me mad."
- They're a bit dark. -Don't apologize for the dark.
I said "passionate".
I think it's a very assured piece of work.
Who is number two?
You're enjoying this, aren't you, Emma?
Okay. Number two.
It's Rainna.
It's absolutely lovely.
I think there's a very good
relationship between the two things.
The message and the decoration
react to each other
within that piece and together.
I think it's really important in this challenge
that there is a real proper link
and a relationship between the two pieces.
And I feel that Rainna's really pulled that off.
But of course...
it had to be Rosa.
Lovely pieces.
I love the way you've taken that line for a walk.
The kite strings tie this together
and they make that and the plate a beautiful whole
and make the relationship between the two pieces
very, very, very pleasing, very effective.
I love, love the marks you've made.
I think it's completely lovely.
Yes!
I'm feeling absolutely fine, especially after coming last.
Emma's just fantastic. I really, really like her.
It just wasn't a challenge for me.
I'm really, really happy that I won this task.
I think you should enjoy every minute of it
when you win something.
It doesn't happen that often in life.
Yes, I won something. It's fantastic.
The potters are back
and with their lamp bases biscuit fired,
it's time for them to find out
whether they've survived in the kiln.
Good morning.
We're gonna decorate our bases today
and I'm looking forward to seeing the sheep.
Praying that they've come out the firing in one piece.
I was worried about this one.
Some of the things were quite thick.
So I was just worried about...
As always with firing,
you don't know what you're gonna get.
There's that kind of nervous anticipation,
but excitement when it comes out right.
Fingers crossed it does for me.
- Oh no... -Oh...
Oh no.
Nothing exploded? Nothing exploded, right?
- It has exploded. -Oh my God.
Oh look, there's mine.
Oh...
- Oh, sweetie. -Don't worry.
These things happen.
The potters now have two hours
to decorate their lamps with glazes and oxides
to make their designs light up the room.
So now to the decorating stage.
This is the nice bit.
With her female piece in pieces,
Flea has a lot to do before
she can think about decoration.
I am gonna be glazing
this piece back together.
It's interesting because probably in my relationship
I'm possibly the more broken one
and my husband is usually the strong one.
So maybe it's a paradox for our relationship.
Some of the other potters
also have a bit of prep to do before getting started.
I really wanted them to be nice and smooth,
which they're not quite.
So I've been sanding them down.
I can hear other people just sanding and stuff
but 'cause I haven't added anything on,
everything is just nice and smooth from trimming it,
so it saves me a bit of time as well.
Ronaldo is trying a different approach
with his finishing.
I'm doing a bit of plastering.
Nah, nah, yeah, basically I mixed that
with underglaze to make a paste.
I've heard the judges say more than once
that I could take more time with the finishing.
I had wanted to do so during the making stage.
That didn't happen so now I'm taking
extra precaution to make sure that it doesn't look too tacky.
Rainna is first to start glazing
her Wild West hat lamps.
That baby blue's nice, isn't it?
Rosalind plans to dip her sheep.
So what I do is do the mattes,
which will give me the black matte sheep's face.
And then just by simply putting a translucent gloss on there,
it deepens it and makes it shiny.
I'm doing a graphic sort of shape
around my, my holes in my stones
to sort of draw the attention to them.
And then go for a lot of sort of gray, blacky colors.
So they look sort of... The dark with the light.
Jacob plans to enhance his shipwreck
pottery effect with different oxides.
I'm gonna water down manganese oxide,
which is like brown, and that's gonna go
on the surface to really make the textures pop out,
and then I'm gonna start layering up powders
on the surface, so that I sort of get
metallicy colors coming through.
I'm just pleased that they haven't cracked.
But poor bloody Flea,
she's being really positive about it. It's amazing.
She's like, no, I've got this, gonna be alright.
I'm like, you go, girl.
I'm really into doing jigsaw puzzles weirdly
and so funnily enough, this is a bit of a,
this is a bit of a pleasure.
I mean, how lucky am I?
- Hi, lovey. -Hi.
What went wrong then?
I think they were probably wet still on the inside.
When something is that thick,
you know, if there is any moisture
within the core of the clay,
you know, that moisture will expand
and as it expands it--
- Can blow up. -Basically blows up.
So what are you doing to remedy it?
So I'm using a thick gluey glaze,
which will hopefully piece the puzzles back together.
Are you still gonna be able to
manage to get the cable through?
Well, amazingly the cable hole is okay.
But, I mean, to be honest, at this point
- that's the least of my worries. -Yeah.
And I'm gonna have a sleepless night tonight. That's for sure.
Well look, good luck with it all.
- Thank you. -Carry on sticking.
- I'm, yeah. -KEITH: Yeah.
- Puzzle Queen. -Fingers crossed.
Thanks.
So this is an iron and manganese wash
that I'm gonna sponge back,
so it'll leave like the darker bits
in the real crevices.
And then this bit at the top is gonna be white
and then I'm gonna do a clear glaze over this bit.
So, never done it before but...
Claire isn't the only potter
in uncharted territory.
I'm trying to make this top bit
look like sort of dusk, night sky,
which I haven't really done before
and hopefully sort of have that
just faded night sky look, but it's all a best guess really.
It's just about getting the right sort of balance,
I think, of the white and the dark colors
coming through, so just have to see.
It's all quite experimental, I think.
Potters, we're halfway. You've got one hour left.
Woo-hoo.
No one could tell.
No one, I don't think no one could ever tell
Oh.
Seriously. It's only looking at the base.
Having spent an hour piecing together her lamp,
Flea has only just made a start on decorating.
Plan for colors for me are dark blacky greens.
Just trying to lay it on.
Needs two or three coats really.
So thin this glaze.
I'm just going to put a bit of carbonite on
to get some nice sort of runs hopefully.
Fine and dandy, ma'am.
She looking like a pretty girl now.
Missed a spot there.
I'm gonna let the gloss, like, drip onto the underglaze.
Ronaldo is adding cracked glass
which will melt in the kiln to create a jeweled shimmer
to the top of his lamps.
So when it comes out it will be really hot.
So when the glass cools, it's gonna give
like a thermal shot and then we get
all the cracks happening on the surface.
Last time I've done it,
it didn't work how I expected it.
The glass was a bit too thick.
Something's gonna happen. Who knows what?
I mean, I always talk about how cracks can be really lovely.
So, um, it's a case of, uh,
trying to see the beauty of the crack.
Potters, you've got 10 seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven. Six.
Five.
Four. Three.
Two. Careful with my head. One.
Okay potters, please take your lamp bases down to the kiln.
Potters dismissed.
When I take them out of the kiln, I'm expecting
to have like a good finish, the glass cracked,
the black glaze dripping onto the matte.
So as long as all of those things work together,
I'll be happy. If there's any mishaps during the firing,
I'll be really disappointed.
Is it in-between those two bricks?
Yeah, is that okay?
I managed to patch it back together.
It doesn't feel yet like it's over.
If I open the kiln tomorrow and it's standing,
I feel like I'm still in with a chance.
So, um, a sleepless night and, yeah, see you in the morning.
After a 24-hour glaze firing,
the lamps are out of the kiln.
It's in one piece.
Oh my goodness. It's standing up. Really, it's amazing.
Yeah, I do like them.
Now I've just gotta wire them up.
If only my hand weren't so fat.
I'm a pro. Ah, no I'm not.
Didn't thread it through the other hole.
The potters must now add their bulbs
and shades before judging.
What the hell have I done?
I was up against a lot of challenges
and I pushed through and it worked.
You've just gotta hope for the best.
That's all I can do.
Eight pairs of thrown lamp bases
plugged in and ready for judging.
Okay potters, shall we see who is gonna light up this room?
They look absolutely amazing.
I love the fact that you bring your own personality
to whatever you make.
You can really see that knit on there, can't you?
You've used the black pigment and the glazes
and the oxides to absolutely exactly
what they're meant to be for.
- The only issue I have-- -Yeah.
is the size. -Yeah.
They're much shorter, but in terms
of working as a pair,
they're just really lovely, aren't they?
Light them up. Ah...
- Oh, wow. -It's great, isn't it,
through the, the knitted shade.
The knitting makes it all lacy looking.
You can see more of the definition
Yeah.
And it works so, so well. It really, really does.
Really commendable.
Thank you so much. -MELANIE: Well done.
Thank you.
As far as them working as a pair,
as a matching pair,
I can see what you've done there, obviously.
I really like the way you've manipulated the clay.
I mean, that bonnet works really well.
The whole idea is very nice.
Light bulb above the head, just slightly bigger.
If the hats were much bigger
and more statement pieces, feature pieces,
then it would be a better scale for those.
- Bing. -Oh!
It made me jump.
Sorry.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
'Cause the brightness of lights sort of detracts
from the, from the base. You can't see the base.
Turn them off now.
Thank you. -SUE: Okay, well done.
Cheers. Thank you.
The decoration for me is a bit on the stiff side.
They're sort of the kind of generic kind of lamp base
you'd get in a department store.
Shall we light them up?
They really do come to life.
Yeah, I like the softness of the bulbs.
They're extremely well made.
I was hoping for more in your decorations.
Something a bit more exciting.
I think in terms of a pair
they do sit together, don't they?
But I just, I wanted your shapes to be more curvaceous.
Going back to your designs, you had gourds
that were influencing you, which are really bulbous
and very soft and voluptuous in shape.
But I just don't feel that you've achieved that
in the shapes here.
The shells really work.
With that copper oxide on there, they really work.
The forms could have been a bit more fluent.
Oh dear. -KEITH: It's all held together.
I must admit, I didn't think that was gonna survive
- in the gloss kiln and-- -Me neither.
You can see your throwing lines on there.
- Did you turn them as well? -I didn't.
If you had, you see, obviously
you would have made the whole thing less bulky.
There would have been less clay there
and it would have been less susceptible to blowing up.
Yeah.
They work well together.
I would have just liked to have seen
a bit more fluidity with the glazing
and the application.
You know, you've got some nice areas here
that have really worked for you, but other areas are a bit stiff.
I thought from your original design
that they were gonna be more pebble-like and grayer.
This is the top of the light.
- Well, that's bang on. -Exactly.
That is bang on.
Done that already. -SUE: Yep.
Oh yeah. They look very nice.
And the shapes are really nicely balanced.
They're not exactly the same,
but you can see that they work as a pair.
Your chattering is causing a long shadow.
That's what it looks like from a distance.
- Did you incorporate that? -Totally meant to do that.
And they work as a pair.
It does look like wheat in a field.
It does, yeah. -With the light
casting down on it at dusk.
I think you've missed a trick myself.
I think they would have looked great with a shade on
or at least a rounded bulb.
I think that would have sat nicer
with the curved forms.
Okay.
The crisp detail just isn't,
- isn't there on some of these. -No, that's right.
That's rounded where, you know, it's a diamond,
you expect it to be really sharp.
You know, it's gonna be sharp. I wanna see it.
It's attention to detail.
I really wanna see all these kind of
little marks and things really cleaned up.
So does it pick up that glass
- in the top? -Not as much as I wanted to.
It really picks out all the imperfections
where you should have finished it off.
Yeah.
I absolutely think they look fantastic.
This so easily could have not worked.
They could have looked terrible.
It's sublime. It's fantastic.
You know, we wanted statement pieces and for me,
these really work as massive statement pieces.
They really, really do.
And it shows real confidence to actually do that to a piece.
I commend you on one, your bravery
for doing it and two, for the reaction
that you've been able to get.
Thank you.
Shall we see what they look like lit up?
Yeah. -Okay.
Fantastic. -JACOB: Thank you.
- Really, really lovely. -Good piece of work.
- Thank you. -Yeah. Well done.
Thank you. Cheers.
Keith used the word "sublime", which is great.
I'd love to be Potter of the Week again.
I kinda agree with all the comments
that were said to me.
I probably could have tidied up the triangles a bit more.
I feel like it's totally out of my hands.
A bit like the cracks in the kiln.
Out of my hands.
I feel like I did everything I could,
but it's out of my hands.
Okay potters, the judges have made their decisions.
Now for the happy bit first.
Would you like to do the honors, Keith,
and announce who Potter of the Week is?
The Potter of the Week this week is...
Jacob.
Well done, Jacob.
We just felt that what you intended...
Ah...
We just felt what you intended, you executed incredibly well.
Absolutely exceptional and it was pure alchemy
and wonderful to see.
Time now for the bit that I absolutely dread
and it's getting harder and harder.
We've got to say goodbye to one of you.
And the fifth person leaving the pottery is...
- Flea. I know you know. -Oh, it's okay.
Can I give you hug? I'm really gonna miss you.
I'm gonna miss you all too. It's been so wonderful.
This has been an experience that I will treasure forever.
I started pottery three or four years ago,
post-natal, pretty depressed, at home,
picked up a ball of clay and now I'm here and, um,
I couldn't have asked for more.
Flea is really funny.
She's really polite and she's got so much character.
She's a lovely, lovely girl.
I'll miss her dearly.
They are my potters for life. Love them.
Jacob's winning lamps will now take
their place in our Throw Down gallery, as he claims
his second Potter of the Week accolade.
It was so nice hearing them say my name.
Gives you that kind of boost that you need
to get on with the next challenge.
Me and Claire have both got
two Potter of the Week's now, so, uh,
who's gonna get the hat-trick?
I'm gonna come in fresh next week
and just really try to apply myself better
and really take on board what the judges said.
I'm definitely gonna make sure
during my makes, I'm gonna have
really nice finishing, really smooth finish as well
and they can never say to me again
I should have finished it better.
Our potters are about to face their biggest challenge so far.
But if they can't take the heat,
they need to get out of the pottery.
It's going to be illuminating.
Welcome to The Great Pottery Throw Down.
This time.
I've never made a lamp before. First time.
The potters are back at the wheel.
I really need you guys to leave me alone today.
Hoping to light up the room.
It made me jump.
There's a surprise visit
from pottery legend, Emma Bridgewater.
Couldn't be more impressed.
But who will shine the brightest?
They look fantastic.
And who will be left out in the dark?
Light's out.
It's an early morning start
for our eight remaining potters
and it's time to tackle their biggest throwing challenge
in the competition so far.
Well, I'm a thrower.
Predominately that's all I really do.
So it's even more pressure, really, coming in
as Potter of the Week into a throwing challenge.
So, I really, really want to nail it.
I'd really like to win anything before I get voted out.
Just one thing. I don't really mind what it is.
It's a new week, you know, I'm gonna try my best.
I'd love to be Potter of the Week again.
Morning, potters. Welcome back.
This week for your Main Make, Sue and Keith would like you
to throw two matching lamp bases.
You can alter your throwing pieces
into any shapes to create your unique designs.
You've got two hours to build your lamp bases
and your time starts now.
The potters each have 12 and a half
kilos of clay.
See, this is a big lump of clay for, like, tiny muscles.
The guns are out.
To throw and shape into two beautiful
bespoke 30 centimeter high lamps.
Throwing's not my thing. 13 years hand building.
Eight months throwing.
It's a big difference.
Complete with light fittings, bulbs and shades,
which will be plugged in and switched on for judging.
I make quite a lot of vases.
A ceramic lamp base is just a vase
with a light bulb on it, I guess.
We're in week five now.
We want them to really start excelling themselves.
We want some wow factor, don't we?
We absolutely do.
We've asked them to make two matching lamp bases,
at least 30 centimeters high and 25 centimeters wide.
How they do that is entirely up to them.
They can throw in sections and then stick them together
or they can just throw in one piece.
And also they've got to get the sizing right,
especially for their fixings on the top.
How are they gonna get the fittings
into the inside of the lamp?
If your fixture can't fit on the table lamp,
it's not gonna be a table lamp.
So would you be able to do this in two hours
'cause it's a tough timeline, isn't it really?
No, two hours is fine.
Loads of time.
After last week's slip casting,
some of the potters are happy to be back at the wheel
and working with big lumps of clay.
Feels really nice doing something a little bit bigger.
It's where I feel most comfortable.
I'm gonna do four in total and if the ones
that I made with less clay are up to the job
then I'm gonna use those ones.
Love this process so much.
It's the calabash bowl with fossils down the side.
I have practiced it and it took me an hour and 40 minutes
and that was with no distractions.
- Morning, Flea. -FLEA: Good morning.
Hi, Flea. -Hi.
What are you going for? Have you got your plans in here?
Yeah, I had these lovely calabash boards.
They're old, like squashes. You know the shape of a squash?
Oh yeah. -So there's gonna be this shape,
which is like the waves, the scalloped edge
of the lamp going all the way round,
into then a long thinner neck.
And how does the wire work going in?
Hole in the side.
I was checking out most ceramic lamps
and they all tend to have holes on the side
if you're doing the old-fashioned style.
Flea's curvy calabash inspired lamps
will be shaped into a masculine and feminine version
to represent her and her husband.
And after a near slip up last week,
she's not taking any chances
to fall behind in this challenge.
I like throwing tall things. I love experimenting.
It's my place where I feel really happy.
I really am doing my best to throw it in one.
Okay. We'll leave you to it.
Thank you.
Good luck. -FLEA: Thank you.
Good luck. -Thank you. Thanks so much.
I'm not a great thrower of huge pieces,
so I was, like, yeah, I don't wanna have any mistakes.
A bit taller than this. Wash.
I'm struggling already.
Ronaldo is hoping to throw
two identical lamps with a strong geometric design
featuring 3D triangles inspired by diamonds.
We're really tight on time.
I'm trying to stop myself from feeling stressed
and just get on with it. I'm not worried.
I just know I need to do a bit more
than I'd done in the practice session.
I struggled a bit to get the angles I wanted.
So I really, really need you guys
to leave me alone today.
Ronaldo isn't the only one
having to concentrate.
How do you do it with a shaking hand?
I don't know what's the matter with me today.
I don't normally get nervous.
The potters not only need to throw big,
precision is also key if they're to get
the exact height the judges are after.
Sizing is, um, everything this week.
I'm not so great with getting perfect measurements.
Uh, can't do the maths.
I have to Google, like, what a percentage is.
Mine are different. Some of these are really tall,
aren't they? I can't alter the size now.
The die is cast.
Hello, Rosalind. What have you gone for?
I'm going for a pair of sheep
lamp bases.
- Excellent. -Look at them.
Oh, Rosalind, I do love your ideas.
Okay, excellent.
If you turn the page, you can see
another illustration.
Wow. -MELANIE: Oh, wow!
They're the bottles that I'm gonna try and throw.
Oh, I see. And then you're gonna form the--
Yeah. -The sheep on them.
Yeah.
Rosalind's thrown pieces
will be shaped into sheep
and she'll use her sculpting skills
to add delicate detail of the sheep's characteristics
and wooly texture of their coats.
My inspiration seeing them sitting up like humans
- when they're being sheared. -Right. Okay, yes.
He looks like he's in a deck chair, doesn't he?
Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
why not knit in a lampshade.
- You've thought of everything. -I've just gotta stop
my hands shaking now and do the throwing.
Yeah. Get into your stride.
I feel better now chatting to you.
- Good. Have calmed you down? -You've calmed me down.
Good. Glad we're useful for something.
I've never made a lamp before. First time.
I wouldn't say it's your classical lamp base.
It's quite a different one.
It's quite sculptural.
Rainna will have to throw and join
eight different sections
for her Wild West themed lamp bases
to form a cowboy hat and head as the male lamp
and a bonnet for the lady,
finished with bare bulbs and no shades.
The thing is it's, like, a play on words.
Something like a pun, bright idea.
Bing. Light bulb comes out the head.
It sounds quite fun,
so are you gonna address that also with the color
and the way that you finish it and the glazing?
The hats are gonna have the detail on there
and I will do one male, one female.
So I'm doing the obvious colors, pink, blue.
And basically that's the concept of you
- matching them up? -What, the Wild Wild West?
- Male and female. -The male and female.
- They're a pair. -Oh yeah, they're a pair.
Yeah.
They don't have to be an identical pair
but they have to be harmonious.
One of the potters has decided
to attempt perfect harmony.
I'm making two, as close to identical,
lamp bases as I possibly can.
It's sort of coming from a Minoan,
Cretan, Greek sort of inspiration.
I just love the kind of full-bodied, swollen forms,
with the beautiful, sort of geometric shapes
and digression of that era.
Claire's identical lamps
will feature a long neck, bulbous body
and a simple geometric design.
All finished in brown glazes
to give them an ancient Greek look.
The pressure's on.
They're getting stricter and just that bit more precision
and more that they're looking for.
It looks a bit weird at the moment
but it will all start to make sense eventually.
It's taken a lot of blood, sweat and tears
and a lot of flops to learn how to throw in one piece.
For sure.
Whether they're throwing in one
or in multiple sections,
this challenge is about to get even harder.
So it's 10% to 12% shrinkage for this clay when it's fired.
You have to consider the light fitting,
which is, like, a centimeter.
But then it's, like, calculating
what a centimeter is gonna be once this has shrunk.
Do you know what I mean?
I've got a hole at the bottom so I can put my hand in
so I can screw the lamp bit fixture in.
And then at the end, I'll put in a hole
in the side where the wire can go through.
Jacob, what are you aiming for?
I'm going for, like, traditional Ming vase dynasty shapes.
And I wanna base it on shipwreck pottery.
So the stuff that will come over from Hong Kong
to Liverpool, which is a direct link
to my cultural heritage.
Jacob's inspired
by barnacle-covered shipwrecked pots.
He'll replicate them by adding pieces
of broken crockery he's found on the beach
into the clay surface to give his lamps
an aged look.
I've got like a mixture of sand
and bits of broken pottery
that I've collected from all the beaches I've been to.
Oh, okay. -SUE: How are you gonna actually
get in onto the surface?
When I put the slip on and then put the clay in,
it kind of...
- Bonds onto it. -Bonds onto it.
What does that do when you fire it?
That's just silica, isn't it?
- Yeah. -So it's--
- It'll be interesting, won't it? -It will.
- It'll be quite interesting. -There's different iron content,
isn't there, in different beaches.
Absolutely, yeah.
Oh, it sounds fabulous.
Jacob is not the only one
that's been beachcombing.
We love walking around the beach
and picking up stones, especially things with holes in.
The idea is to make sort of a sculpture piece
that works as a light.
Rosa will throw a stand
and alter it to be square,
upon which she'll place an organic shape
to represent smooth stones found on the beach.
So, have you got time to do this?
Don't know. I've got the stones in there
but I need to bash them around before they dry
too much because otherwise they crack.
So you've got the basic shapes
for your stones made in the drying room
Yeah.
And these are your bases, aren't they?
And they're not even been started.
Okay.
Shall we leave you to it then?
- Okay. -Oh, don't look at me like that.
See you in a bit.
I feel like a naughty child now.
- Well done, my love. -CLAIRE: One done.
Okay, potters, let me illuminate you on the timings.
You are halfway through, which means
- you've got one hour left. -Oh my God.
I need to get on it.
With their first lamp base
safely in the drying room,
the potters need to get started on their second
if they're to have a good pair.
So I'm really happy with my first one.
And now I'm going onto my second,
which is more of a long neck.
Bit more, bit more female.
Matt's not content with throwing two lamps.
He's planning to get his hands round another pair.
This is number three.
I've got two out that were a little bit heavier.
With a bit more clay there's a bit more safety
that they don't collapse.
But I want them to be as sort of light
as I can possibly get.
Matt is going shadeless
with his minimalist design of two narrow neck lamps,
finished in black glazes and a chattering effect texture.
- Chattering? -MATT: Yeah.
I know what it means in my world.
What does it mean in a potter's world?
So you grab a trimming tool.
If you hold the edge, just pointing
into the direction of the rotation,
it springs back so it bounces along the surface
and creates a really...
- Kind of corrugated effect. -Yeah.
That's it. Yeah, nice technique.
It won't be looking anything like this when it's finished.
I'm going to bash it around, make a hole in it,
all kinds of things.
Rainna's trying to get ahead
with her heads.
This is the lady's one
so we'll do quite little features.
The more detail in their designs,
the more work the potters have to do
but Rosalind has found a time-saving method
of turning clay into wool.
This is just to make my fur.
So I just made the fur in the bottom
of an ice cream tub and then, um,
poured some plaster of Paris in.
And then you just, when you take your mold out,
you've got all your lovely fur indentations.
I can relax now I've got something, you know,
that I've got over my nerves.
But I'm back to normal now.
If you can call me normal.
Have you seen Flea's?
It's quite male, isn't it?
It's really male, isn't it?
When it's glazed it'll look different
with a lampshade on top, guys.
Okay potters, you've got 10 minutes left.
Just 10 minutes.
Getting a bit tight for time now.
These necks have to be done.
It's tight. It's tight.
But I might, I think, I can get it done.
I think I can.
I realized it was a centimeter small
so instead of cutting down the other one
and then the chance of it being exactly enough height,
I'm just gonna add to it.
It's just cracking.
It's starting to crack now already.
I haven't even put it in the drying room yet.
It's already cracking.
Oh no.
They're gonna be fussy about these joins
so I need to make sure they're really well joined.
I'm really tight for time.
I knew this was gonna happen though.
10 seconds.
Okay, now I'm worried. Now I'm worried.
Nine. Eight. Seven.
Six. Five. Four. Come on, Rainna.
Three. Two. One.
That is the end of this part of the challenge.
Well done.
I've made both my lamps. There's a long way to go.
I've still got to add the shells,
but as a form, as two shapes,
I'm really happy with them.
I have loads to do, but it's on track I think.
So I'm looking forward to the next bit.
I'm just gonna get in there and just work like mad.
Di, di, di, di.
Whack it all together, bish bash bosh.
Got myself two Wild Wild West heads.
The potters' lamp bases
have been drying for three hours.
Now the clay is leather hard, they're ready for refining.
There's no obvious cracks or anything.
I'm really happy about that.
By turning and trimming,
the potters can take off any excess clay
taking weight out of their pieces.
I'm not turning. I'm just trying to fettle away.
Just need to get this really beautifully finished.
If the potters leave too much clay
in the bases of their lamps,
they could risk them exploding in the kiln.
Kinda get carried away 'cause it's so like,
well, for me it's therapeutic and you get focused,
you could trim and not wanna stop trimming.
But take too much away
and they could weaken their pieces
causing them to collapse or crack during firing.
There's always the danger that you can take too much off.
So I find kinda listening and tapping,
you can hear where it's thinner.
Once the bases are refined
to the potters' satisfaction, this is the stage to shape, cut
and add additional decoration
to bring their final lamp designs to life.
I've never done pottery so fast. Brr...
Rosalind's not quite counting sheep.
She's only got one lamp finished so far.
The second still needs its wooly coat.
50 to the dozen.
Doing it at a normal rate would be lovely.
I'm cutting a hole in my sculpture.
I definitely like finding stones with holes in.
Simple joys of life.
This kind of attention to detail is definitely a new thing for me
and I'm really enjoying it.
I'm in my shell-ement. I really am.
I'm making a bow for the back of her head.
Rainna needs to make two hats
for her Wild West themed heads.
I need to concentrate on that bit at the moment
because it's a weird shape.
I don't even want to look at it.
It looks so bad.
Claire will be hoping her geometric
patterns
aren't carving weak spots into her Greek-inspired lamps.
This bit's probably more stressful
because obviously, this is the last bit,
so this is where you have to really bring it together
and make it count.
I don't know if we're gonna do that, but we'll try.
As Claire adds very precise lines,
Matt is taking a different route
by applying a chattering effect.
So, I think I'm pretty happy with that.
Okay, potters, you are halfway through.
Uh.
Matt, what's your chuck called?
That one just says eh up chuck on it
but I've got one at home called Chuck Berry.
Nice.
It's a very niche market, the northern pottery jokes.
Your... I was gonna say your hole is perfect, but it is.
I like to think my hole is perfect.
Now time for the join.
Ronaldo still needs
to join his lamp bases together
and find time to add his 3D diamond sprigs.
All the time, you know.
Don't know why I keep putting myself in this position.
It's looking good.
I look good in a bonnet, don't I?
Yeah, I think you look great.
You've got no eyes.
That's going on.
It's your last 10 minutes, potters.
- 10 minutes left. -10 minutes left.
That's not so good, is it?
I don't think I'm gonna do it in time.
Better get my skates on.
This is gonna be my sprigs.
I'm just trying to get as many done as I can.
So you can see there's one symmetrical design
at the bottom. I don't think I've got time to do that.
They're going all around. I'm just winging it.
That does not look like what I want it to look like.
That don't look like a cowboy hat.
You alright? -RAINNA: Yeah, sorry.
I'm going to make a hole because I have...
This is not a sculpture, it is a light
and so I have to be able to put the fitting in.
That's was a deeper base than I thought it was.
Oh, I've got a hole in it.
Make sure I don't forget that, and at the back.
Plan's changed slightly.
Only gonna be able to put the diamonds on the top.
I've never worked so fast.
I always end up under pressure.
10 seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
- Oh, Rainna, it's always you. -I'm going.
Six. Five. Four.
I'm slowing it down for you as well.
Three. Two.
Careful with my head.
One. Get them in the drying room.
Oh, that was a bit tight for time, wasn't it?
I was, like, rushing to get the hole done
for the light fittings.
I literally just went boof, boof.
Don't know if they're the right measurements,
but we'll see when it comes out of the kiln.
I'm disappointed a bit.
I didn't get the finish that I actually wanted.
It's not as clean as it should be.
I just need to hope when I come back
all the lamps are in one piece
and the glazing process goes well.
Dream scenario for the Spot Test is to try and be top three.
Just go for it and make it work.
I wouldn't really like a decorating challenge.
I find that quite technically difficult.
Each week the potters face another
challenge
to test their skills in all aspects of ceramics.
And today a very special guest is ready
to put them through their pottery paces.
So, potters, your second challenge
is a Spot Test.
Please welcome to the pottery ceramics legend,
Emma Bridgewater.
Ah.
- Hello. -Oh, it's very nice to be here.
Thank you for asking me.
Now, what do they have to do today?
I'm going to give you two pieces of pottery,
which you're going to decorate using writing,
with or without embellishment, to make a pair.
They just need to work together
in some way that you can make clear to me.
My criterion isn't perfection, it's spirit and passion. Okay?
You've got 90 minutes to hand-write
on your two pieces of crockery and your time starts now.
Remove the hessian.
With Emma's challenge to share
a personal message,
the first thing that many of the potters think of
is their family.
I'm gonna do like a family tree.
Just to write my family's names down
and then do like a lovely little swirly tree thing going over it.
Bob's your uncle. Got yourself some writing on a plate.
My mother's a poet so I might add
two of our poems together.
She had to witness quite a lot
when I was going through depression
and she's a pretty amazing woman.
Well, me being a big sop,
I'm going for something lovey dovey.
A mother's love and two elephants
with their trunks, like, into like a heart.
When I saw the plate and stuff,
I kind of thought straightaway about my dad.
My dad's got Parkinson's disease.
He struggles, like, to do every day sort of things.
So I'm writing down the three words
that I know is related to him
and then on that one, I'm gonna write down
the things that, the three words that I kind of look up to.
So shake, struggle, perseverance
is the things that he does every day.
- And then, for me-- -Jacob, that's amazing.
That's really powerful. Oh, that's absolutely lovely.
What are your words for him?
Well, brave, strong and a role model.
- So yeah. -Oh.
How lovely to be reflecting on that.
It's lovely.
Really looking forward to seeing it.
- Yeah, fantastic. -MELANIE: Thank you.
Cheers.
The plan is to have my two children
running along with a kite in the air.
This is their names.
And then I thought I'd do the kite going around
saying "Love you forever".
I'm not going to write a big story
because I can't spell, so I'm just sticking
to simple words that I know.
Two of the potters have opted
for revelatory moments in their lives.
"Whoever should drink from this cup
shall never thirst."
Oh, I love that.
The living water of Jesus. That's all you need.
- Absolutely lovely. -Yeah.
Well done you.
My faith most certainly gets me
through the tough times.
Are you doing words on the plate as well?
I'm going to do "daily bread".
You're gonna write "daily bread".
Which is our spiritual food.
You keep going. I'm longing to see the results.
Thank you. -MELANIE: Thank you.
Oh, it's bloody wonky. That's what it is. Never mind.
- Hi, Matt. What's your picture? -Yeah, what's going on here?
The phoenix signifies burning itself
and regenerating into something new.
I gave a little nod to it in the raku firing,
burning the cycling jersey and that's the past
regenerating into something better.
That's pretty deep, Matt.
I couldn't be more impressed.
Hopefully, I can make not too many more errors.
As you can I see, I--
Just don't worry too much about that.
You might regret saying that.
Ronaldo is taking a simpler route.
So my message is "create and inspire".
Because I want to create and inspire people.
I've spelt it wrong and I wanted just to wipe it out
and put the correct spelling in.
I put "first" instead of "thirst".
Ooh, I nearly a T where the L was supposed to go.
This is my dad.
My mum. My older sister.
My older brother. Me. And my younger brother.
So it goes down in, um, order of age.
And, oh no, sorry.
My mum's actually older than my dad.
Potters, we're halfway through the challenge.
I've done my cup.
Now I'm doing the daily bread plate.
With less than 45 minutes remaining,
if they haven't already, the potters need
to get started on their second piece.
Time's running out and I haven't even started
the other one yet.
Haven't even come up with a full concept
in my head for that one.
So that's gonna be a bit of a freestyle.
Typical me.
I'm actually writing "shake"
and I can't stop shaking myself 'cause I'm just like...
so it's quite ironic really.
I still have to do my elephants. I'll get it done.
It'll just probably be a bit rushed.
It sounds awful, doesn't it?
Potters, you've got one minute to go.
Oh dear.
Going to run out of time.
The last thing you want is run out of time,
which it looks like I am again now.
Okay, 10.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Rainna. Five. Where's your other bit?
Four. You've done it.
Three.
Two.
- One. -Just let me do--
No!
Hands off the pots.
Thank you. You've finished your challenge.
Excellent work.
The potters have hand-painted a trophy mug and plate,
each with a personal message.
Emma now has the difficult job to judge worst to best.
Okay. Number eight.
This, Claire.
- Yeah. -I like the, your personality
that comes through your writing
but I would say probably that it's not something
- you're accustomed to doing. -No.
But nevertheless, well done.
Number seven. Ronaldo.
"Love life."
"Create and inspire."
"Create and inspire" is a bit... It's a bit bossy.
If you know what I mean.
Number six. Rosalind.
Your message, you've rendered into a design.
The two pieces obviously thematically link.
Perhaps it might have been more effective
to take that very beautiful stylized heart
and do it again.
In fifth place...
is Matt.
It's interesting. You have all gone for serious messages.
When we were talking to you, you said
that this was a very personal, kind of, almost a journey.
I found that very, very moving.
I'm very impressed that you, you chose to put
the important word of the mug inside the rim.
And I know that looking from that side
that makes the two things work.
- Now, in fourth place. Jacob. -Yeah.
Whilst it's very personal
and it's specifically about your father
and the symptoms of his condition,
actually, it has a beautiful wide resonance
because "shake" might have, you know, a meaning
that any one of us could understand
in terms of, you know, losing our way.
That's one of the great, sort of, moments, isn't it,
when you're making, when you find the way to do that.
So then we get to number three.
Flea.
Flea's obviously been someone who's practiced writing
and that's a lovely thing to see.
"Taking my thoughts for a walk today,
away from my mind where they like to prey.
All that is darkness, all that is sad,
nightmarish thoughts that are driving me mad."
- They're a bit dark. -Don't apologize for the dark.
I said "passionate".
I think it's a very assured piece of work.
Who is number two?
You're enjoying this, aren't you, Emma?
Okay. Number two.
It's Rainna.
It's absolutely lovely.
I think there's a very good
relationship between the two things.
The message and the decoration
react to each other
within that piece and together.
I think it's really important in this challenge
that there is a real proper link
and a relationship between the two pieces.
And I feel that Rainna's really pulled that off.
But of course...
it had to be Rosa.
Lovely pieces.
I love the way you've taken that line for a walk.
The kite strings tie this together
and they make that and the plate a beautiful whole
and make the relationship between the two pieces
very, very, very pleasing, very effective.
I love, love the marks you've made.
I think it's completely lovely.
Yes!
I'm feeling absolutely fine, especially after coming last.
Emma's just fantastic. I really, really like her.
It just wasn't a challenge for me.
I'm really, really happy that I won this task.
I think you should enjoy every minute of it
when you win something.
It doesn't happen that often in life.
Yes, I won something. It's fantastic.
The potters are back
and with their lamp bases biscuit fired,
it's time for them to find out
whether they've survived in the kiln.
Good morning.
We're gonna decorate our bases today
and I'm looking forward to seeing the sheep.
Praying that they've come out the firing in one piece.
I was worried about this one.
Some of the things were quite thick.
So I was just worried about...
As always with firing,
you don't know what you're gonna get.
There's that kind of nervous anticipation,
but excitement when it comes out right.
Fingers crossed it does for me.
- Oh no... -Oh...
Oh no.
Nothing exploded? Nothing exploded, right?
- It has exploded. -Oh my God.
Oh look, there's mine.
Oh...
- Oh, sweetie. -Don't worry.
These things happen.
The potters now have two hours
to decorate their lamps with glazes and oxides
to make their designs light up the room.
So now to the decorating stage.
This is the nice bit.
With her female piece in pieces,
Flea has a lot to do before
she can think about decoration.
I am gonna be glazing
this piece back together.
It's interesting because probably in my relationship
I'm possibly the more broken one
and my husband is usually the strong one.
So maybe it's a paradox for our relationship.
Some of the other potters
also have a bit of prep to do before getting started.
I really wanted them to be nice and smooth,
which they're not quite.
So I've been sanding them down.
I can hear other people just sanding and stuff
but 'cause I haven't added anything on,
everything is just nice and smooth from trimming it,
so it saves me a bit of time as well.
Ronaldo is trying a different approach
with his finishing.
I'm doing a bit of plastering.
Nah, nah, yeah, basically I mixed that
with underglaze to make a paste.
I've heard the judges say more than once
that I could take more time with the finishing.
I had wanted to do so during the making stage.
That didn't happen so now I'm taking
extra precaution to make sure that it doesn't look too tacky.
Rainna is first to start glazing
her Wild West hat lamps.
That baby blue's nice, isn't it?
Rosalind plans to dip her sheep.
So what I do is do the mattes,
which will give me the black matte sheep's face.
And then just by simply putting a translucent gloss on there,
it deepens it and makes it shiny.
I'm doing a graphic sort of shape
around my, my holes in my stones
to sort of draw the attention to them.
And then go for a lot of sort of gray, blacky colors.
So they look sort of... The dark with the light.
Jacob plans to enhance his shipwreck
pottery effect with different oxides.
I'm gonna water down manganese oxide,
which is like brown, and that's gonna go
on the surface to really make the textures pop out,
and then I'm gonna start layering up powders
on the surface, so that I sort of get
metallicy colors coming through.
I'm just pleased that they haven't cracked.
But poor bloody Flea,
she's being really positive about it. It's amazing.
She's like, no, I've got this, gonna be alright.
I'm like, you go, girl.
I'm really into doing jigsaw puzzles weirdly
and so funnily enough, this is a bit of a,
this is a bit of a pleasure.
I mean, how lucky am I?
- Hi, lovey. -Hi.
What went wrong then?
I think they were probably wet still on the inside.
When something is that thick,
you know, if there is any moisture
within the core of the clay,
you know, that moisture will expand
and as it expands it--
- Can blow up. -Basically blows up.
So what are you doing to remedy it?
So I'm using a thick gluey glaze,
which will hopefully piece the puzzles back together.
Are you still gonna be able to
manage to get the cable through?
Well, amazingly the cable hole is okay.
But, I mean, to be honest, at this point
- that's the least of my worries. -Yeah.
And I'm gonna have a sleepless night tonight. That's for sure.
Well look, good luck with it all.
- Thank you. -Carry on sticking.
- I'm, yeah. -KEITH: Yeah.
- Puzzle Queen. -Fingers crossed.
Thanks.
So this is an iron and manganese wash
that I'm gonna sponge back,
so it'll leave like the darker bits
in the real crevices.
And then this bit at the top is gonna be white
and then I'm gonna do a clear glaze over this bit.
So, never done it before but...
Claire isn't the only potter
in uncharted territory.
I'm trying to make this top bit
look like sort of dusk, night sky,
which I haven't really done before
and hopefully sort of have that
just faded night sky look, but it's all a best guess really.
It's just about getting the right sort of balance,
I think, of the white and the dark colors
coming through, so just have to see.
It's all quite experimental, I think.
Potters, we're halfway. You've got one hour left.
Woo-hoo.
No one could tell.
No one, I don't think no one could ever tell
Oh.
Seriously. It's only looking at the base.
Having spent an hour piecing together her lamp,
Flea has only just made a start on decorating.
Plan for colors for me are dark blacky greens.
Just trying to lay it on.
Needs two or three coats really.
So thin this glaze.
I'm just going to put a bit of carbonite on
to get some nice sort of runs hopefully.
Fine and dandy, ma'am.
She looking like a pretty girl now.
Missed a spot there.
I'm gonna let the gloss, like, drip onto the underglaze.
Ronaldo is adding cracked glass
which will melt in the kiln to create a jeweled shimmer
to the top of his lamps.
So when it comes out it will be really hot.
So when the glass cools, it's gonna give
like a thermal shot and then we get
all the cracks happening on the surface.
Last time I've done it,
it didn't work how I expected it.
The glass was a bit too thick.
Something's gonna happen. Who knows what?
I mean, I always talk about how cracks can be really lovely.
So, um, it's a case of, uh,
trying to see the beauty of the crack.
Potters, you've got 10 seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven. Six.
Five.
Four. Three.
Two. Careful with my head. One.
Okay potters, please take your lamp bases down to the kiln.
Potters dismissed.
When I take them out of the kiln, I'm expecting
to have like a good finish, the glass cracked,
the black glaze dripping onto the matte.
So as long as all of those things work together,
I'll be happy. If there's any mishaps during the firing,
I'll be really disappointed.
Is it in-between those two bricks?
Yeah, is that okay?
I managed to patch it back together.
It doesn't feel yet like it's over.
If I open the kiln tomorrow and it's standing,
I feel like I'm still in with a chance.
So, um, a sleepless night and, yeah, see you in the morning.
After a 24-hour glaze firing,
the lamps are out of the kiln.
It's in one piece.
Oh my goodness. It's standing up. Really, it's amazing.
Yeah, I do like them.
Now I've just gotta wire them up.
If only my hand weren't so fat.
I'm a pro. Ah, no I'm not.
Didn't thread it through the other hole.
The potters must now add their bulbs
and shades before judging.
What the hell have I done?
I was up against a lot of challenges
and I pushed through and it worked.
You've just gotta hope for the best.
That's all I can do.
Eight pairs of thrown lamp bases
plugged in and ready for judging.
Okay potters, shall we see who is gonna light up this room?
They look absolutely amazing.
I love the fact that you bring your own personality
to whatever you make.
You can really see that knit on there, can't you?
You've used the black pigment and the glazes
and the oxides to absolutely exactly
what they're meant to be for.
- The only issue I have-- -Yeah.
is the size. -Yeah.
They're much shorter, but in terms
of working as a pair,
they're just really lovely, aren't they?
Light them up. Ah...
- Oh, wow. -It's great, isn't it,
through the, the knitted shade.
The knitting makes it all lacy looking.
You can see more of the definition
Yeah.
And it works so, so well. It really, really does.
Really commendable.
Thank you so much. -MELANIE: Well done.
Thank you.
As far as them working as a pair,
as a matching pair,
I can see what you've done there, obviously.
I really like the way you've manipulated the clay.
I mean, that bonnet works really well.
The whole idea is very nice.
Light bulb above the head, just slightly bigger.
If the hats were much bigger
and more statement pieces, feature pieces,
then it would be a better scale for those.
- Bing. -Oh!
It made me jump.
Sorry.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
'Cause the brightness of lights sort of detracts
from the, from the base. You can't see the base.
Turn them off now.
Thank you. -SUE: Okay, well done.
Cheers. Thank you.
The decoration for me is a bit on the stiff side.
They're sort of the kind of generic kind of lamp base
you'd get in a department store.
Shall we light them up?
They really do come to life.
Yeah, I like the softness of the bulbs.
They're extremely well made.
I was hoping for more in your decorations.
Something a bit more exciting.
I think in terms of a pair
they do sit together, don't they?
But I just, I wanted your shapes to be more curvaceous.
Going back to your designs, you had gourds
that were influencing you, which are really bulbous
and very soft and voluptuous in shape.
But I just don't feel that you've achieved that
in the shapes here.
The shells really work.
With that copper oxide on there, they really work.
The forms could have been a bit more fluent.
Oh dear. -KEITH: It's all held together.
I must admit, I didn't think that was gonna survive
- in the gloss kiln and-- -Me neither.
You can see your throwing lines on there.
- Did you turn them as well? -I didn't.
If you had, you see, obviously
you would have made the whole thing less bulky.
There would have been less clay there
and it would have been less susceptible to blowing up.
Yeah.
They work well together.
I would have just liked to have seen
a bit more fluidity with the glazing
and the application.
You know, you've got some nice areas here
that have really worked for you, but other areas are a bit stiff.
I thought from your original design
that they were gonna be more pebble-like and grayer.
This is the top of the light.
- Well, that's bang on. -Exactly.
That is bang on.
Done that already. -SUE: Yep.
Oh yeah. They look very nice.
And the shapes are really nicely balanced.
They're not exactly the same,
but you can see that they work as a pair.
Your chattering is causing a long shadow.
That's what it looks like from a distance.
- Did you incorporate that? -Totally meant to do that.
And they work as a pair.
It does look like wheat in a field.
It does, yeah. -With the light
casting down on it at dusk.
I think you've missed a trick myself.
I think they would have looked great with a shade on
or at least a rounded bulb.
I think that would have sat nicer
with the curved forms.
Okay.
The crisp detail just isn't,
- isn't there on some of these. -No, that's right.
That's rounded where, you know, it's a diamond,
you expect it to be really sharp.
You know, it's gonna be sharp. I wanna see it.
It's attention to detail.
I really wanna see all these kind of
little marks and things really cleaned up.
So does it pick up that glass
- in the top? -Not as much as I wanted to.
It really picks out all the imperfections
where you should have finished it off.
Yeah.
I absolutely think they look fantastic.
This so easily could have not worked.
They could have looked terrible.
It's sublime. It's fantastic.
You know, we wanted statement pieces and for me,
these really work as massive statement pieces.
They really, really do.
And it shows real confidence to actually do that to a piece.
I commend you on one, your bravery
for doing it and two, for the reaction
that you've been able to get.
Thank you.
Shall we see what they look like lit up?
Yeah. -Okay.
Fantastic. -JACOB: Thank you.
- Really, really lovely. -Good piece of work.
- Thank you. -Yeah. Well done.
Thank you. Cheers.
Keith used the word "sublime", which is great.
I'd love to be Potter of the Week again.
I kinda agree with all the comments
that were said to me.
I probably could have tidied up the triangles a bit more.
I feel like it's totally out of my hands.
A bit like the cracks in the kiln.
Out of my hands.
I feel like I did everything I could,
but it's out of my hands.
Okay potters, the judges have made their decisions.
Now for the happy bit first.
Would you like to do the honors, Keith,
and announce who Potter of the Week is?
The Potter of the Week this week is...
Jacob.
Well done, Jacob.
We just felt that what you intended...
Ah...
We just felt what you intended, you executed incredibly well.
Absolutely exceptional and it was pure alchemy
and wonderful to see.
Time now for the bit that I absolutely dread
and it's getting harder and harder.
We've got to say goodbye to one of you.
And the fifth person leaving the pottery is...
- Flea. I know you know. -Oh, it's okay.
Can I give you hug? I'm really gonna miss you.
I'm gonna miss you all too. It's been so wonderful.
This has been an experience that I will treasure forever.
I started pottery three or four years ago,
post-natal, pretty depressed, at home,
picked up a ball of clay and now I'm here and, um,
I couldn't have asked for more.
Flea is really funny.
She's really polite and she's got so much character.
She's a lovely, lovely girl.
I'll miss her dearly.
They are my potters for life. Love them.
Jacob's winning lamps will now take
their place in our Throw Down gallery, as he claims
his second Potter of the Week accolade.
It was so nice hearing them say my name.
Gives you that kind of boost that you need
to get on with the next challenge.
Me and Claire have both got
two Potter of the Week's now, so, uh,
who's gonna get the hat-trick?
I'm gonna come in fresh next week
and just really try to apply myself better
and really take on board what the judges said.
I'm definitely gonna make sure
during my makes, I'm gonna have
really nice finishing, really smooth finish as well
and they can never say to me again
I should have finished it better.