04x06 - Terracotta Cookware & Engraved Tiles

[bunniefuu]

It's week six,

and the potters are
back at the wheel
for Terracotta Week.

In the late
18th
century,

throwing at the wheel
was backbreaking stuff,

as rope-driven
wheels
like this one

would require an entire team
working together in perfect unison.

Thankfully, our potters have electric wheels.

And I have Rose.

Welcome to
The Great Pottery Throw
Down.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Okay, Rose. Okay.

Last week...

Go.

...the potters sculpted
music legends.

I can really start to
channel
my Prince of Darkness.

And even though Henry had
a faceless Ozzy Osbourne...

Oh, he doesn't look
good,
does he?

...it was Lee's
cheekless Dolly Parton

that meant he said farewell
to the pottery

and went back
to his "9 to 5."

But for Alon,
he claimed his first
Potter of the Week...

- It's fantastic.
- ...with a perfect
Bruce Springsteen.

- This week...
- It's about to get messy.

...it's a terracotta trio...

If it breaks
now?
Disaster.

...with the potters
throwing cookware...

I'm out of breath already.

- Uh-oh.
- Ugh!

...as the competition
to stay in the pottery...

- Be careful, be careful.
- ...heats up.

Am I allowed
to take my clothes off?

The potters are back.

And now
just eight remain,

and they're all fired up
for a terracotta tussle

to keep their place
in the pottery.

I'm really, really relieved
to be here,

and I'm super lucky
to be here,

because, yeah,
last week was such a disaster.

The competition is starting
to get really difficult now.

It's the wheat from the
chaff,
as they say.

It's going to be
carnage,
I think.

I'm really happy.
I'm sort of back
to week one energy.

This is good.
It's going to be
great.

Terracotta. Let's do this.

Good morning, potters.

For your main make
challenge
this week,

Rich and Keith
would like you to throw

a signature set
of terracotta cookware:

a family-sized chicken brick,
a casserole dish, and a
tagine.

They're very functional,
but they also
have to look good,

so think about
those well-fitting lids

and think about
those robust knobs.

And what we're going
to do this week

is we're going to allow you
to use the drying room
right from the very start.

Terracotta is a beautiful,
iron-rich clay body

that remains porous
when it's been fired.

Time management
and what to dry when,
and for how long,

is crucial to this challenge.

Terracotta is
a very unforgiving clay.

Okay, potters,
you have been given
two and a half hours,

and your
time
starts now.

In the first part
of this challenge,

the potters need to throw
and shape

their three pieces
of supersized cookware.

Big throws are always
quite exciting.

Each potter has been given

a hefty 20 kilos of
terracotta
to wrestle with.

I'm out of breath already.
Oh, I'm going to have to
take my top off.

The Great Pottery
Nude Throw Down.

Am I allowed
to take my clothes off?

So, Keith,
we've had a truckload
of terracotta delivered,

and we've asked our potters to make three family-sized

A chicken brick,
a casserole and a tagine.

They're big pots to make. Looking at this chicken brick,

they've got to
throw this big
enough

that it has a volume
to contain a chicken,

and they've then
got to time it
right

to put that cut
down the side,

so that the piece
doesn't collapse.

Let's not forget,
when they cut it,

that facet
has to fit exactly.

The tagine
is such an iconic
shape,

and it presents its own challenges in the make.

I mean, the lid
particularly
is difficult.

The lid really wants to work
with the base of the pot
as well.

You know, they need to work
really well together.

That's really lovely.
It's really nice to hold.

The casserole is often seen as a very
humble cooking pot, but far from it.

I mean, there's so much skill that goes
into making one successfully, isn't there?

This has to hold
four litres of liquid,

and predominantly,
most of the time,

these pieces
are going to be hot,

and you've got to be able
to pick them up safely

and not spill your contents
all over the kitchen floor.

And that's what they've
really got to think about.

They are all objects that are designed around their purpose,

It's a tough challenge.

First on the terracotta to-do list...
- Uh-oh.

...is the retro classic,
the chicken brick.

Never thrown one of
these.
Think you've got to look

some pretty old cookbooks
before you see these
things.

Apparently you literally cook
a whole chicken in.

I don't eat chicken,
so I don't know

how chicken's supposed
to be cooked.

- Morning, Sal.
- Good morning. Hello.

So, tell us
about your design.

My design
is based on Inuit
art.

The Inuits put these
animals
on their artwork

in the hopes that
the spirit of the
animal

will be
transferred
to the person.

Sal has chosen
bears to decorate her
tagine,

an eagle
on her casserole dish,

and for her chicken brick,
she's going for a whale.

This will be the orca.
- That's a good shape
for a chicken brick.

Who knew an orca
would make a good shape
for a chicken brick?

Sal is not
the only potter being
inventive

with the shape
of their chicken brick.

So, I'm going to do
this Western theme.

I'm going to make
the chicken brick
look like a saddle.

Peter and his wife, Jill,

are country
and western fanatics.

His saddle-shaped brick
will be joined

by a horseshoe-embellished
casserole dish

and a tagine design
inspired by
his favourite cowgirl.

You say these are
your wife's boots.

What does she do in those?

I don't mean it
like that. Come on.
- Walk? No, walk.

- No, she--
- Or maybe I don't want to know. I don't know.

I mean, are you
riders?
Do you...

No, no.
It's just country music.

I'm going to put filigree
all over.

- Brilliant.
- Uh, and then on these,
horseshoe handles

and filigree blazoned
all over it.

Wow.
- Wow.
How did you meet your wife?

Um...
She came to value my house.

Was she wearing leather boots
at the time?

This is definitely
the biggest thing
I've ever thrown.

Throwing
a vessel large enough

to hold a whole chicken
is no mean feat.

Oh, it's a bit
hard for me, Sal.
I haven't got the muscles.

The potters must first form
the main body of the brick,

which will be then
cut in half later on

during the refine stage
to form the lid and base.

It is a beautiful clay,
but it's a little bit
unstable.

Ah.

While some are attempting
to throw it whole...

- I'm gonna try
to throw it in one.
- It's really hard.

You've got to be
really steady-handed.

...most of the potters
are throwing their bricks
in two sections.

This is going to be
the top of my chicken brick.

I'm going to do it in two
parts
and join them together.

I don't think I am capable of
throwing something that tall.

So, yeah, this was
my only option, really.

Hannah will have
the tricky job

of joining her chicken
brick
before she decorates it,

along with her casserole
dish
and tagine,

with a stamped star design inspired by Portuguese tiles.

I don't know if today's going to be a good throwing day or not.

I don't feel super confident.

I believe in you.

Thanks, Shenyue.

Get it done, get it done.

- Bore da, Jodie.
- Bore da.

- Hi, Jodie.
- Now, before I forget...

I haven't got a clue.

Oh, well, there you go then.

Apparently that means, um,
"Tell me about your set."

- All right. Yeah.
- Yeah.

Yeah. I've got my old
A-level art folio,

which I'm taking
inspiration from.

- Wow.
- Oh, wow.

My inspiration
are these little papier-mâché,

um, designs that I made.

So I'm taking elements
from that,
the abstract elements,

and putting that
as my decoration.

It's a little nod
to my school days, you know?

Back at school,
17-year-old Jodie got an A
for her art project.

She's hoping that 18 years
on,
her geometric design

will get her trio of cookware top marks in the pottery.

If you could go back to you back then, what would you tell her?

Oh, I would tell her,
"Be more confident."

What do you think you of ten
years from now would tell you now?

Me now?
"Be more confident."

- Yes, exactly.
- I know.

As well as
throwing confidently...

...the potters will need
to work efficiently

if they are to complete
each cookware piece

and give themselves
enough time to dry

before refining
and decorating.

Drying for this challenge
is absolutely crucial.

If your pieces aren't dry,
you can't trim,

and you won't be able
to apply slip
if they're not dry enough.

Absolutely crucial
to get it right.

Any thick bases
or walls of their pots

will require more drying time.

My fear is that
the base will be thicker.

I need to trim that off
so that the whole thing
doesn't crack.

But throw
the pieces too thinly...

Ah, ah, ah,
ah, ah, ah,
ah!

...and they risk collapsing.

How are you doing, Sal?

It started to sag,
and now I'm drying
it

in order to try and
stop it
from sagging any more.

Good woman.

Don't you love terracotta?

As Sal struggles
to keep her brick up...

Stop.

...those brave enough to throw

their chicken bricks in one...

My heart's racing so much.

...now face the challenge

of closing the top
without it collapsing.

Hopefully
nothing will crack,

nothing will warp,
nothing will bend.

It's really soft clay,
so it moves really easy.

I don't want the sides
to start shifting,

which is my main concern,
really.

Please close, please
close.
Stop shaking.

Boom, closed.
Uno chicken bricko.

Absolutely brilliant.

Oh, my God.
I've actually done it.

I was bricking it,
and now I'm bricking
it.

Adam's cookware set
will be embossed

with simple human features

in a tribute
to the four generations
of his family.

So I've got my granddad,
um, I've got my dad,
and my new nephew, Theo,

so this will be an
heirloom
that I can give to him.

Hopefully, if it's any good.

I've just got to get it
from here to the drying room
without falling over.

Potters of the Throw Down,
that is one hour gone.

One and a half hours to go.

Oh, no.

As the chicken bricks
head to the drying room...

- Sally, look. I did it.
- Ooh. You did it in one.

Yeah. Look at it.
It's a brick.

...and the potters move on to
throwing the casserole dish...

Oh, come on.

...Shenyue has not yet
left her wheel.

I haven't had time to go
to the drying room yet.

But I will when I get a chance.

If the potters thought
the chicken brick
was challenging...

Get in there.
- ...then things aren't
about to get any easier.

The casserole dish not only
has to be family-sized...

It's so wide,
and it's a lot taller
than you think.

...but the potters
need to build both the base

and a lid
that fits snugly together.

Lots of measuring
in this ceramics
malarkey

‘cause you need to make sure that
the two parts are going to fit together.

There's risks everywhere.

Is that
family-sized?
No, it's massive.

Fit, like,
three ducks in
here.

Alon's striking set
will feature

decorative handles
in the shape of lizards,

the Israeli symbol
for good luck.

His set is dedicated
to his childhood memories

of cooking
with his beloved grandma.

There's three pictures
there.

That's me
in my grandma's kitchen,
banging on the pots,

and then
that's my grandma and me.
- Wow.

And then that's me
banging on the pots
again.

There's a lot of
personal connection with
this.

Absolutely, yeah.

Alon isn't the only potter

inspired by
their food heritage.

Asian culture
is all about food,

so in China,
if you see someone
on the street,

instead of saying,
"How are you?"

they ask, "Have you eaten
yet?"
That's just what you say.

Shenyue will be keeping
her decoration simple,

using the Japanese
technique hakeme,

where white slip is applied
in bold, broad brushstrokes.

The brushstrokes
are quite crucial,

'cause obviously
you can only make them once

and if you go over it,
it doesn't look right.

So you want to still
see the clay underneath
and its colour.

There really is nowhere to hide going down that route.

You're laying bare
all of those materials
and that decoration.

- Yeah. Simple but
effective.
- Yeah, hopefully.

So have you done
your chicken brick
already?

I've done
the two halves of it.

I see.
- I'm gonna
join it later.

You're not using
the drying room then?

Well, I thought the time

it would take me to get there
and come back...

- You know, it's very far.
- It's only over there.

- Yeah.
- It's not that far.

I just thought,
with the heat g*n,

what you can do
in the drying room
in, like, an hour,

you can do with a heat g*n
in two minutes.

- Okay. Fair enough.
Your decision.
- Yeah.

To create
a perfectly fitting
casserole lid,

the judges have asked
for a flange
and gallery fitting.

This little lip here
is a flange,

and this will rest
on top of my casserole dish.

No!

The flange broke.

As Alon deals
with a broken flange...

Having fun.

...Henry is having
more luck with his.

So I just measured my, uh...
flange? Is this a flange?

Yeah.
- That will fit
on top of the casserole,

which will be good.
- You're thinking
about the shrinkage as well?

Yeah, my old uni teacher
used to tell me that,

"As long as they're
a rattling good fit,
you'll be all right."

Henry's well-fitting lids
will be decorated

with a very personal
sgraffito design
based on his many tattoos.

- Here's my leg.
- Oh, okay.

I've got tattoos
all over my leg,
which is really good.

- Who did them?
- I did them.

I design them
and I tattoo myself
with stick and poke needle.

I kind of like the idea.
It's very contemporary
with the tattoo.

And, you know, on traditional
sort of cooking items...

Yeah, I like
how it's merging the two.

...it could work really well.

Could work really well.

- Potters, you have
half an hour left.
- Brilliant.

With their
casserole lids done,
the potters can move on

to the third and final
piece of cookware.

This is a tagine base.

As you can see,
it's quite large.

And, like the casserole
dish,

the judges will be expecting
the perfect fit.

So that's the gallery there,

and the lid sits down
in there like that.

I hope.

The conical tagine lid

requires the potters
to throw high and wide.

Some people are
throwing it upside down

instead of
throwing it outwards,

but I practised that,
and it just keeps
flopping over,

so I'm gonna throw it wide
and cone it in
and seal it at the top.

When you're pulling this way,

because you're coming inwards,
you're making the pot stronger.

Who needs a tagine
this big?

It's got an echo.

Twenty-nine. That'll do.

Be careful, be careful,
be careful. Ah!

As the tagine lids
hit the drying room...

- Just behind you, Peter.
- Okay.

...the five chicken bricks
thrown in two pieces

should now be dry enough
to join together.

Moment of truth.
Is it firm enough?

Does it fit, and is it...

- Hi, Shenyue.
- Hi, Siobhán.

Have you got
nearly everything
done?

Yeah, I'm joining
my chicken brick now.

Good for you. Is anything
in the drying room at all?

No, nothing's
in the drying room.

You'll have it all in
before the time is up,
right?

Oh, yeah, yeah.
Definitely.

Great. Okay,
so...
There we go.

Oh, wow. Good for
you.
That's brilliant.

And, as two become one...

I think it's joined
all right, actually.

So massive.

...Sal is not confident
that the bottom half

she threw earlier
is up to scratch.

I'm re-throwing the chicken brick. It wasn't good.

Potters, you have
ten minutes left.

Handles, handles, handles,
handles, handles.

All of your items need to
be
in the drying room

in the next ten minutes.

This is not fake panic.
This is proper panic.

So, what are these
for?

- Oh, she's off. Cheerio.
- The handle.

Whoa, thank you.

Look at her run.

I'm worried
Keith might say

they're a bit fragile
and not robust enough.

- How's it going?
- All right.

Got most of the stuff
in the drying room.

- Nice, nice. Good.
- Got one empty shelf.

- Whose shelf is empty?
- Shenyue.

I might not
get mine done.

You all right?
Anything I can do?

If you could put my stuff
in the drying room,
that would be amazing.

You're the best.

I might be
in a parallel universe,

'cause I've finished
and no one else has.

Adam, have you finished?

Yeah, I know.
What the hell is going on?
- What?

- You do realise
it's a competition, right?
- Oh, God.

Last 60 seconds.

Okay, that's it, I'm done.

Just do my handles,
and that's it.

Shenyue's coming down
with her tagine.

I'm done.
- You're done,
Hannah?

I was just about to
send you good vibes.

You don't need them.

Five, four, three,
two, one.

Down tools,
please.
That's it.

- Oh, God.
- Well done, everyone.

It went right down
to the wire.

Um, I was cutting up
the shapes for the handles

as they were saying,
"Everything into
the drying room."

So it was very tight.

The terracotta pots
will now be left to dry

for a further three hours
before the potters return
to refine and decorate.

I was just happy to have
everything in the drying
room.

I'm just really worried about
them not being dry enough.

Terracotta Week
continues in the pottery,

as our potters must face
a second challenge

and a second chance
to impress the judges.

Potters, your second challenge
this week is a spot test.

Rich would like you to tell
the story of your life...

- Ooh.
- ...in clay.

I would like you...

Oh, my word.

...to tell your personal
story
in a set of six tiles.

On my panel,
I've celebrated my heritage.

Down in this corner, I've
got
the Victoria Regia lily,

which is the national flower
of Guyana.

That's where
my dad was from.

And I've got a bee, which is for my daughter,
Beatrice, but we call her Bee.

A mug. Had to have a mug.
Celebrate my ceramics.

And we've got the Welsh dragon,
sort of celebrating
my Welsh heritage.

You've all got six
leather hard terracotta
tiles,

and I can't wait
to see what you
do.

Okay, potters,
back to your benches, please.

You have 60 minutes to make
your six-tile frieze,

and your time starts...

now.

I love this task.
Really looking forward to
it.

I'm really happy
to be doing it.

I'm just a little bit worried,
'cause I'm not the best
decorator.

Putting a story together
is completely different.

Let's go for it.

To tell the stories
of their lives in clay,

many of the potters'
thoughts
turn straight to home.

Brighton is a really,
really big part of my
life,

so I've got the West Pier,
which is an iconic Brighton landmark.

Um, I like being in the sea,
so we've got a wave with a boat on it.

I might put some gardening
in there too because
I'm an avid gardener,

so I might wrangle
some plants in down
in the bottom corner here.

Adam's not the only one

planning some foliage
in their design.

I'm doing
plants
that represent

different places that I have lived.

In, uh,
Kathmandu,
where I grew up,

we always had banana trees
in the back garden.

I love drawing plants.
They just remind me of home in different ways.

And for Sal, a chance to remember
the time she spent living in Canada.

There's Canadian maple leaves
in this corner, um, falling,

'cause that's the best time of year,
the fall, when the colours are fabulous.

When I'm in Canada,
the thing I love doing most of all is playing golf,

so I've got a couple
of golf clubs, golf ball.

They're in order of
preference.
The most important things.

You know, there's my partner,
my dogs, my home, and Canada.

But for Henry,
his planning is not, well,
going to plan.

I haven't really got a plan.

I've suddenly gone brain-dead,
and I can't think of any
sort of design to do.

They say, "Tell a story
about your life," but...

I don't really have--
I don't really know
what to do at all.

Don't think
too much about it, Henry.

Good advice, actually.
I'm not gonna think
too much about it.

For our youngest potter,
Alon,
a different problem.

I don't have a life story.

I'm only 20.
I haven't lived too
much.

I'm going to do a pot
to represent cooking
and a world map.

I've moved a lot growing up,
from Israel to England. We moved quite a bit,

so I sort of want to show that as well.

What happens between, like, Asia and Australia? I just...

I'm gonna cover that area
'cause I just don't know
what happens there.

Oh, I'll cover it with a
plane.
That's what I'll do.

As Alon figures out
what will cover his tiles,

Peter has a bit more
life experience to draw on.

I have a big extended family.

You know,
you get a dandelion,

a big fluffy dandelion,
and you blow it,

and all the seeds blow out,
and it's like, you know,

you make a wish for happiness
and success in your family.

So, you know,
that's going to be
quite a big part of it.

It's funny, 'cause it's like,
the stuff I do at home,

I know exactly what I'm doing,

like, a week before
I go out there and do it.

It's all well-planned.
Not like this,

where you suddenly just think,
"Oh, okay."

I'm trying to make things
look
a bit in the foreground

and the background,
by giving them
different depths.

Who's this lady?

This is
a traditional Welsh lady.

- Oh!
- Every Saint David's Day
in Wales,

they make us dress
up
like this.

- It's the law?
- It is the law, yeah.

When I was in school,
all the boys
used to go as miners,

but these days
they go as rugby
players.

They go as
the Stereophonics?

Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

Is this very much
your comfort range here?

- I'm in my happy place here.
Yeah, yeah.
- You're in your happy place.

Potters,
you have half an hour left.

Oh, my God.

As the other potters'
tiles
come together,

Henry has finally made
a decision about his design.

Decision is just,
draw a load of things
that interest me.

It's gonna be kind of like
my tattoos in a way

that it will be kind of
a big group of random things.

More about the process
than the final image.

Fingers crossed
that will be enough.

The valleys are
very,
very famous

for having rows and rows
and rows of terraced
houses,

and that's the house I grew up in, was an old miner's house,

so I wanted to represent
my upbringing as well.

I've got test tubes
to represent

my science degree
that I did.

Micrometres and dividers
symbolic of starting out
in engineering.

As usual,
running out of time.

At the minute,
I'm just trying to carve

what looks like a skateboard.

Don't think I'm gonna have
enough time to put in
any of my other bits.

Potters, you have
ten minutes left.

Oh, I know what I could
do.
Let's do some patterns.

There's no time,
and now I'm
panicking,

and this isn't fun any
more.

Okay, guys, remember,
put them into the frames.

That's going to take up
a little bit of time,

- and it has to be done
before the end...
- Come on.

...of the session.

- Henry, ten seconds left,
lovey.
- Oh, good.

Okay, potters, that is time up.

Step away from
your friezes, please.

Mine is so bad.

Keith and Rich are
looking for six carved tiles

that tell them something
about the potters' lives.

This is Brighton
and what Brighton is to
me.

This is me and Daniel
bobbing around in a
boat,

and then in the background
we've got the beach huts.

We always walk
to the West
Pier,

very iconically Brighton, um, as is the Pavilion.

Wow. This is just inspired.
It's like a Hokusai wave.

Wherever you look,
there's quality mark-making
and quality carving.

Which shows to me
that you planned this out
really, really well.

This propeller
and the clouds represents

my journeys around the world
and my flying career.

A few engineering tools.

This here is a dandelion
that you blow...

- Oh, okay. Yeah.
- ...and you make a wish.

What you've decided to
create
really comes through.

You've got
very clear sections.

I think if you'd have had
something in the
background,

perhaps it would've just
pulled it all together,

but I love the story
and I love the clarity

of your concept
coming through in the
design.

There's a world map because I did
a lot of travelling in my gap year.

There's a pot boiling
over
to represent--

Your love of
cooking.
- Yeah, exactly.

And, of course, we have
the ubiquitous whale here.

- It wouldn't be Alon
without a whale.
- Exactly.

Obviously, there's a bit
more
detail on this side.

It would've been nice to
see
more structure and depth.

If you'd have carved
a little more away through
here

to get sort of a more
three-dimensional feel

and perhaps made the most of
the overall depth of the
tiles.

The one thing I would say
is it might have been nice

to have seen a bit more form
in some of the pieces,

Because when you think
about a test tube,

you think of that
lovely,
rounded, shiny,

polished,
pristine glass form,

and perhaps they're kind of a little flat.

When I'm in Canada,
I play a lot of golf.

And then the background morphs
into my Cornish landscape,

and the thing that links
both Canada and England,
of course, is my pottery.

The way you've kind of morphed
each aspect into each other,

it almost feels like
a piece of collage.

You really get a sense
of that variance in material.

You know that's a flat leaf.
you know that feels all rocky.

- I just think it's worked
really well, Sal.
- Thank you.

This was going to be
the webbing of a trampoline

and then waves and sand
from Cornwall.

The overall impression
that one gets is that
it's not finished.

Yeah.
- What we can see
here,

despite the fact
that it's not finished,

is some really strong,
bold use of patterns,
textures.

I think the direction
it was going in
is really interesting.

I love the concept,
and a lot of these leaves
are really recognisable.

That really, like,
strong graphic quality.

I would say perhaps
it doesn't make the most
of the depth of the tiles

because it feels like
it's sort of
very much on the surface.

Just a bit more definition
and a bit more dimension

- would've been nice. Yeah.
- Yeah.

This is my life in the valleys
represented in my tiles.

Rows and rows
of terraced houses where
all the miners used to live.

The music notes
representing the music
that comes out of the valleys.

The Welsh maid is
so integral to Welsh culture,

and you've got it down
to a T.

- Absolutely wonderful.
- Thank you.

Keith and Rich
must now rank the potters
from worst to best.

In eighth place, we have...

Henry.

Just perhaps a bit
too much time thinking

and not enough time carving.

In seventh place,
we have Alon.

I think it was just
a little bit flat.

Hannah is sixth,
Peter is fifth,

Shenyue fourth,
and Adam third,

leaving Jodie and Sal
vying for the top spot.

In second place...

Jodie.

Really lovely
set of tiles, Jodie.

In first place,
we have Sal.

A wonderful set of tiles.
You've used the tools in very different

but it still feels
so of you.

And you've really used that depth of
the tile, and that's what I was after.

- Really well done.
- Thank you.

It was really lovely to hear
Rich talk about my tiles
in such a nice way.

I mean, he is Mr. Tile,
isn't he?

If you do well in the second challenge,
you feel a little bit safer.

But, yeah, it's the next bit
now, isn't it?
It could all fall apart.

After
a few hours of drying,

the potters' trio
of terracotta cookware

should be leather-hard...

Ooh, it's actually
quite firm.

...and ready to refine
and decorate.

- Ooh, they're nice and dry.
- Are they?

- Yeah.
- Mm, mine aren't.

Ooh, it's so heavy.

Trimming the clay
not only refines

the form of their pieces,

but also takes out
the excess weight...

It's quite heavy
at the minute.

...which could cause
stress cracks in the kiln.

Trying to be careful
with this one.

But make the walls too thin,
and they risk collapse.

If it breaks now,
disaster.

Aah!

Hey! It fits. Yeah.

The potters
will be decorating

directly on to raw clay
using coloured slip.

I think I'm going to white-slip it and then

put some kind of greeny
kind of bluish
background,

and then I've got some stamps to
put stars on, kind of inspired by tiles.

The judges are expecting
beautiful decoration

that ties the cookware
pieces
together as a set.

These are stencils
made out of tissue paper.

I've put some slip
on the tissue paper as well.

That's going to
dry off slightly.

And then when I apply that,
it'll leave some of the slip,

but it'll also take
a lot of it with it as well.

This is the fun bit.
I've been looking forward
to this bit.

As Sal delicately carves out
her Inuit-inspired design...

Sgraffito-ing out the bear, so I'm taking away the white slip

and making him slightly
in relief, as it were.

...Shenyue is taking
a more simplistic approach.

I want to still be able to
see
quite a lot of the

I think it's such
a stunning, um, clay.

It would be a shame
to cover a lot of it up.

It's this Japanese technique
called tobiganna.

You move the slip away
and expose
the terracotta underneath.

Are you, like, pretending
that you're launching
your own cookware?

- Yes.
- Your terracotta cookware?

What shop would it go into,
do you think?

Ooh, I don't know.
What, uh, like a bougie shop?

A bougie shop?
Please, like I'd know.

Halfway through, potters!
Halfway through!

Not enough time.

An hour and a half
into the challenge,

and the pottery
is awash with colour.

I have cobalt,
which is blue,

copper, which is green,
turquoise, and red iron.

Keeping it
as authentic as I can

to what would've been
available
to the Inuit people.

But one potter is
still trying to lose weight.

So I'm still trimming, um,
my tagine lid at the minute.

Thinner than it is now
is my aim.
Just to get it thinner.

Henry isn't the only one who
hasn't started decoration.

Peter's tricky horseshoe handles are taking up valuable time.

This is just
the back of the seat.

If you imagine
you got a saddle,
that bit's going to sit there.

I haven't done the glazing,
I haven't done
the decorating yet.

But I'm not panicking.

I lie.

Peter might not
have added colour just yet,

but for Adam,
the naked approach
is all part of his design.

So, we are currently
putting on boobs.

So they will be--

We all have boobs,
men and women,

so it's still
an androgynous form.

Um, and I think
it just makes it
a bit playful.

Makes you realise
that it's a character
a little bit more.

As Adam
adds boobs to his brick,

Alon's opted for something
a little less avant-garde.

My grandma
is quite superstitious,

and, in Israel,
we have these lizards

which are, like, see-through
and they eat mosquitoes,

and they're considered
good luck,

and anything
that kills mosquitoes
is pretty good in Israel.

So I thought
I'll put some on here.

Potters, you have one hour left. One hour left.

Nothing's dry.
Nothing's dry.

Peter, don't be
throwing your toys out.
You have one hour left.

This is the base
of my tagine dish.

More kind of
fluid brushstrokes.

You can kind of see
maybe like tumbling waves.

So this is the orca.

And what have you
applied on here?

Manganese.
It's still very
wet,

so it's hard to
get
a crisp line.

When are you thinking
of cutting it?

I'm not cutting it till the last minute.

Needs to be really firm, or it stands a chance of warping.

All right.
I'll leave you to it.

Thanks, Keith.

Before the chicken brick
is finished,

the potters
must slice it in two.

And while most are leaving
this risky move
to the last moment...

I'm really, really
quite stressed.

...Henry is bravely
being the first
to make the cut.

So the way I deal with it is
I'll just do it, I think.

It's still quite sticky.

Just watching it.
Oh, that's a thing of beauty.

- It's going all right?
- Uh, maybe.

- Depends if this
comes off or not.
- Oh.

What are you stuck on?
Nothing,
that's what you're stuck on.

Hey! That looks really good.

It actually went better
than I thought, so, whoo-hoo!
Very exciting.

While Henry starts
to add his slip decoration,

the rest of the potters
must apply a transparent
glaze

to make their tagine
and casserole dishes
food-safe.

Because these are functional pots,
they need to be glazed on the

Terracotta is porous,
and, uh, if you put a stew
in this in the oven,

it will soak through.

But adding
too much glaze and moisture

to the heaviest part
of their pots

could lead to cracks
as their pieces dry,

even before they're fired.

But I don't want to put
too much on all in one go,

as I do feel like
I would be prone

to getting it so wet
that the base will
crack.

It doesn't need
to be very dry
to do that, does it?

Mm, not really.
Hopefully not.

Potters, you have
ten minutes left.

Aw, cutting it
to the bone again.

For those potters
who have left the cutting
of their chicken brick

until it's at
its driest, it's time
to get the knife out.

So, what are we doing?
Um, to cut them--
Yeah, I'm going to cut.

One slip of the knife
could ruin the whole brick.

Really don't want
to do this.

My incision has
just
caught at the bum.

- Did you cut it, Jodie?
- I'm doing it.

Go on. Push.

Okay, folks,
you have one minute
remaining.

Oh, do you know
what I haven't done?
Glazed the inside of my pots.

Get your stuff
into the drying room now.

Well, this has gone well,
hasn't it?

Oh, Henry, love, please.
Good girl, Jodie.

Look at that mighty barrel.

Excellent.
Oh, that looks
lovely.

- Well done! Congratulations.
- Yay!

The potters'
terracotta cookware
is now ready for firing

under the supervision of Rose.

I forgot that
the inside of the tagine

and casserole dish
need to be glazed.

With a minute to go.

Arguably the most important
part, so... we'll see.

It's judgement day.

The potters' terracotta
cookware has been fired
and is ready for judging.

I'm excited to see my
set,
I really am,

because a lot of effort
went into it, you know?

It's quite a sentimental
piece to me, so I hope
it hasn't broken.

But the potters won't see
their finished pieces

until they are revealed
for the very first time
in front of the judges.

The lizards, they're
considered
good luck, so hopefully

they brought some luck
to my pots.

Okay, potters, I am sure
that you are as excited as
us

to see what is
underneath the
hessian.

So, let's start with Henry.

- Hi, Henry.
- Hi.

- How you doing?
- Doing all right.

- I'm excited.
- Shall we have a look?

- Yeah. Let's do it.
- Yes.

- Mm.
- Ooh.

Love the bold gestural
drawing.

If you don't get that
right,
then there's no chance.

- You can't rub it out
and start again.
- Thank you very much.

Oh, wow. Oh, that's nice.

Is it? Whoo!
- That's a really
nice surprise.

- That's really nice and
light.
- Holy moly.

Now, on to
the actual tray itself.

Not so good.
It ain't fit for purpose.

- Well, no. Definitely not.
- Let's face it.

So, let's have a look
at your casserole.

I'm noticing
there aren't any
lugs.

I'm looking for somewhere
to pick it up,
and there's nothing there.

You can pick it up.
It's a nice shape, actually,
to pick up, I think.

By the time
that's full of stew,

that is gonna roast
your hands to bits.

I'm not having that.

Wow, yeah.
- That's not good,
is it?

No. You've applied that glaze
on the inside way too thickly.

I was just so panicked.
- And as that's
just absorbed into the body,

it's just
caused it
to split apart.

It's a real shame, because if you hadn't rushed that

I really feel confident
that would've survived,

because actually
it's beautifully even.

Damn.
- It just feels
really frustrating

'cause it's so close.

bit on the thick side.

You can just see
where it's started
to split apart,

you know, and that movement
in the base has caused
the top not to fit.

The bottom has become
wider than the top.

But as an overall set
and the design concept,
it works quite well.

It's very sort of
recognisable
as a cohesive set.

How you feeling?

Numb.

- Shall I do the honours?
- Yes, please.

- Ooh.
- Oh, okay.

I like this design.
I think it's really,
really nice.

- So the tagine...
- Should we have a look?

Yeah.

- Oh, and we've cracked.
- Yeah.

- Oh, good Lord.
- Oh. Wow.

But the lid, for
me,
is lovely.

It's a nice, robust weight, and it feels well-thrown.

So let's have a look
at the chicken brick.

The size is brilliant.
You'd get a decent-sized chicken in there, wouldn't you?

I kind of like it. It's kind of rustic.

It is. No, honestly. Could've been slightly

Really, really not a bad
set.
Well done.

- Aw, bless you.
- Nice work.

Thank you.

- Well, should we have a look?
- Yeah.

Whoa.

I love this design.
It works really, really well.

It's really playful,
even down to the attention
to details of the eyebrows.

Let's have a look
at this casserole.

We've got an arm
that's detached.
- A broken arm.

But let's lift this off.

- Oh.
- Ooh.

Another stress crack
through the bottom there.

So, now we have
the chicken brick.

It's slightly
on the small side,

um, but you know,
again, I just love this.

It is so expressive.
It's simplicity at its best.

As a set, I think
they work incredibly well.

Okay, let's have a look.

Ooh.

Ooh.

Let's have a look
at the tagine.

- Oh, my word.
- Oh, right, okay.

Can see you've got
a bit of a stress crack
in there.

This works really well,
these three polar bears here.

It's very simple,
but very, very effective.

Let's move on
to the chicken brick.

Now, you see,
I really love this.

It's fantastic.

- Thank you.
- You've used the registration
mark for his mouth.

There you go, look.

- Hello.
- He's eating plankton.

Hello, Keith. I'm cooking you
a nice chicken.

It's brilliant.
It really, really works
well.

All completely
individual items,
but they work together.

- Brilliant.
- Thank you.

Yeah, fantastic,
Sal.
- Thank you.

- Well, that is a crack.
- Wow.

We can't really-- Well,
we can comment on whether it's fit for purpose

because, quite frankly...

- It isn't.
- Yeah.

- But very successful lid.
- Thank you. Yeah.

Let's take a look
at the casserole--

- Oh, wow.
- That's fairly conclusive.

That's quite
a blow-out, isn't it?
- That is a blow-out.

I love the lizards.
I'm not sure if they work

as sort of lugs
to pick it up with.
- Yeah.

Out of the set, I mean,
this is the sort of only
functioning piece, I guess.

But I love this design
and the way that draws
all of the pieces together.

Yeah, the colour of that
slip
really, really pops

with the red
of the terracotta.

Obviously,
this ain't so good.

No.

Ooh.

Oops.
- It's the symptom
of a very heavy lid.

It just puts so much
pressure
on that bottom

because that clay
is having to
support

so much weight
that it just cracks and
moves.

I love these.
I absolutely think
this is brilliant.

Yeah, lovely handles. So, the chicken brick, let's have a look.

Wow. You were talking
about the saddle
and things like that.

And that's exactly
how you pick a saddle up.

You've got a strong theme
working its way through.
The horseshoes and the riding.

It does sort of bring them
together well as a set.

Whoa.

Okay.

This motif you've used
as a repeating pattern,
it just shouts "tiles,"

and you do get that sense
of Lisbon or Portugal.

Let's have a look
at the casserole.

- Oh, dear.
- Oh.

Oh, we've had
a slight issue in there.
Yeah.

Right, chicken brick. Let's have a look.
- Mm.

Okay. Looks like
another blow-out there,
which is unfortunate.

But, you know, this effect
on this particular clay
works really, really well.

It's got a rustic
Portuguese charm to it.

- Beautiful.
- Thanks so much. Thank you.

- Shall we have a look?
- Yeah.

I would've liked
to have seen a more deliberate
design application.

It's a bit
on the messy side
for me. Um...

Obviously,
the base of the tagine--

Yeah.
- Wow. We've got
some real issues there.

- Serious cracks.
- Crack, yeah.

- That's one issue.
- Yeah.

And then
there's plenty
more.

I mean, the walls
do look very thin,
actually,

by comparison
to the thickness of the
lid.

Well,
let's move on to this.

Oh. You see--
- Don't lift it
too...

Yeah, it's the
obvious.
It's cracked.

- Yeah.
- A good set if you're on a diet, I think.

Keith didn't love the design,
and everything was broken,

so, yeah, I'm definitely
worried about going home. Yeah.

I didn't actually have
a functional piece

in the whole set, so...

Pretty bad.

I think I'm going
because mine was pretty much
the worst blow-out there.

Potters, it's getting
harder and harder each
week,

but I think we can all say goodbye
to terracotta for another year.

Thank God for that.

Phew. Now,
for the nice bit.

This week's
Potter of the Week is...

She took us on a beautiful Canadian adventure. It is Sal.

Congratulations, Sal.

Well done.

Now for the bit I really,
really, really don't like.

The potter
who is leaving us
is...

Shenyue.

Oh, my word.

- Oh, come here to me.
- Aw, thank you.

Really, really enjoyed
spending time
with all the potters,

and, you know, we do have such
a clay family now and I'm gonna
miss them all dearly.

This week,
there were a lot of people
in the running to go home,

so it came down
to design technique, really.

This has definitely
changed my life.

It was just something
that I think I needed

to push me
to try different things
and challenge me.

I'm just...
Yeah, just going to
keep pottering on.

As Shenyue
says goodbye to the pottery,

Sal's terracotta cookware
is her second set

to be placed
in the Throw Down gallery.

Potter of the Week again.
Hey, that's-- I'm stunned.

Over the moon.
This week's done.

Next week's a new start,
a new challenge,

and you've got to hit it
at 100 miles an hour.

- Next time...
- Sorry.

- ...the biggest build so far.
- One, two, three, over. Quickly. Whoa.

Animal water features.
- It's breaking
the thing.

- But who will be in
floods...
- Hey. Whoa.

...and who will survive
to make it
to the quarter-final?

Oops.

I thought you were
mad.
Completely mad.

Maybe we could
turn it off now?