On Episode 4 Of The Throw Down - A Bit Of A Balancing Act

Image copyright BBC. Episode 4 of The Great Pottery Throw Down

Another serious episode of the Throw Down, more crying and sweating (no blood thank goodness) and happily, a slight reduction in sexual innuendo. Someone had to go of course, and Sandra, we salute you too, a bit of a gamble using Tellytubbies as inspiration for garden sculpture, but I liked it. Not quite sure how Matthew managed to win however, maybe my finger is slightly off the pulse of contemporary aesthetics, but hell’s bells, I guess that’s the beauty of modern creative freedom.  

I’m so happy that the Throw Down is bringing pottery back into the public consciousness, or is it that it was already reemerging and so they felt the need to make the show about it? Either way, the only problem is that it is also comes with a vaguely pernicious sense of urgency and an anxious threat of failure. And I’m not sure that’s how you should exist in any situation, especially when swimming in the juices of your own creative daemon, you’ll end up sinking,  or even doggy paddling.

And it’s starting to creep in here, at our studio too. Because of the show - or the zeitgeist - we are now at capacity with a growing waiting list; it’s hard to get on our courses (I get angry calls from people who’ve failed multiple times to sign up) although we run as many classes as we possibly can. It brings that same nervousness and frustration. It was never meant to be like that. We need calm here, and temperance. Tessa agrees with me. ‘make three pieces’, she says ‘take all the time in the world, make them in a way you can enjoy making them, put some You in them. Don’t be furiously churning out fifty for a sale or a show or a judge; they’ll have no real value in them’.  What wisdom!

Anyway, gripe over; next week it’s porcelain. Are they in for a treat?! What a challenge that can be at the best of times, our porcelain master and member Tom Kemp manages to make it look like a doddle as he calmly throws perfect 3-foot vases out of the stuff, but it isn’t, I know. It still gives me the runaround as it spins around, making itself into white mound of nothing again and again in my hands- and I’ve even done a Jo Davies masterclass.

Good luck team. Don’t sweat it.

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