It's the semifinal and it's
bathroom week!
And our four
remaining potters are revisiting
a challenge that everyone dreads...
Excuse me a second, sorry.
Oh.
Sorry. Occupied.
I'm decorating the toilet.
Oh, Keith, God. That's gross. Urgh.
I'm nearly finished.
Wait till you see, hang on!
No, no, no. No-one wants to
see that.
Oh, sorry about that.
Welcome to
The Great Pottery Throw Down.
Siobhan, come back. I need a hand
with the brush.
Oh, God, no. No. Gross, no.
Nh-uh-uh... Nn-nh.
Last time...
The potters made vintage-style
water filters...
This is stressful.
..in an epic throwing challenge that
pushed Dave to the edge.
Donna's pristine and perfect
surfaces won her her fifth
Potter Of The Week.
I think it's fantastic.
Thank you.
And it was Jan who became the latest
potter to leave the competition.
To be fair, it's been
an absolute blast.
This time...
This is pretty pressurised.
..it's the semifinal.
I have to beat these boys.
Damn right.
The potters face a big
bathroom build...
Oh, God, this is terrifying.
..and a delicate decoration
spot-test.
I'm adding a few extra colours in
a hope to out-fox Donna.
But whose hopes of a place in
the final...
Stop wincing. I'm not wincing.
..will be flushed away...
Ooh.
..and who will bowl the judges over?
It's really, really good.
I'm crying over a toilet.
This show's ridiculous.
A new day dawns
for our four semifinalists.
It all still does feel like a dream.
Walking in, in the dark and seeing
all the lights.
I would absolutely love to get
to the final.
But in order to get there,
the potters need to tackle two
challenges. Oh, dear.
And the first is the most famous
and feared challenge in
Pottery Throw Down history.
So this week we're going to
make toilets.
I mean, it's a complicated build,
so anything could happen.
Slightly terrifying.
Nervous, Dave?
Don't be nervous. Is that bad?
Don't know.
Semifinals - it's really exciting.
I, you know, I woke up
this morning, my alarm went off,
and I was, like, out of bed.
Wahey, off we go.
So excited. I'm completely buzzing.
Especially, since I'm the only
girl left,
so I am here representing
all the ladies.
Welcome, potters, to the semifinal.
And congratulations on getting
this far.
All right, then,
straight to business.
For your Main Make challenge
this week,
the judges would like you
to hand-build a Victorian
floral toilet.
Now, we want you to slab-build
your toilet in four parts.
Now we'll give you a hump mould
and a plastic mould
for some of those parts.
Now we'll also give you a cistern
and a wastepipe,
so those finished toilets can be
plumbed in
and flushed during judging.
Think carefully about
the order you do things in.
You'll need to flip your toilet
during construction
and access to some areas may
become restricted.
Careful planning is required
to give us a complete,
stable, functioning toilet.
No pressure from the judges, then.
All right then, potters,
you have six and a half hours
to make
and refine your Victorian floral
toilets.
And your time starts now.
Oh, do you know what, this challenge
is very exciting.
I've really wanted
to get this far to do the big one.
I would never make a toilet at home.
It is a once-in-a-lifetime thing
for me,
so I just want to have fun with it.
The potters have been given
pizza-body clay,
so-called because of its use in
the construction of pizza ovens.
Ah, that is horrid.
It's like cement.
And while its coarse and sandy
structure means
it's more than a little tricky
to manage...
It's absolutely lovely, but
it cracks like nobody's business.
..its heavy grog content makes it
remarkably stable
and perfect for
such a colossal build.
I'm actually really excited.
I thought I would dread it,
but if I can pull this off,
it's like I've made a toilet.
It's just unreal.
Rich, the semifinal! Yes.
Here we are. Yeah.
And we're surrounded by, wait
for it... Toilets!
We've got a return of the toilets.
I know - fantastic.
I think this toilet challenge is
the one challenge
that every potter coming into
our pottery here fears most. Yeah.
Because the sheer scale of it
but also the engineering
that has to go into making it work.
The rim has to be intact,
it has to allow the water
to flush through.
The P-bend has to be in
the right position
to allow that water to flush out.
And the bowl has to be lovely
and round.
Absolutely, we don't want a pool
of water in the bottom of the bowl.
I think it's interesting that we're
using pizza oven clay again,
because it's incredibly strong,
but they do have to think about
the finish and the surface,
don't they?
Yeah. This sculpting pizza-body,
naturally, is very,
very heavily textured. Yeah.
And we're looking
for, sort of, beautifully pristine,
ornate surfaces. So the potters are
going to have
to make sure they really hone that
surface
during the Make stage to create
beautiful surfaces
at the Decorating stage.
Absolutely. It's a balancing act
between the aesthetics of the piece
and the practicality of the piece.
I mean, it's going to be incredible
to see who of our potters end up
with a royal flush,
and who are going to go down
the pan.
It is.
Hi, Dave. How are you? Yeah,
I'm very excited to be doing this.
You look excited. Yeah. You do look
excited.
Well, it's the big one, innit?
Yeah. Yeah. And it's the semifinal!
It is! It's great, innit?
And you're here!
So, tell us about your design.
So my toilet is
a Victorian botanist toilet.
Because that era, you know, science was
just buzzing with ideas. Yeah.
And, uh, I like the idea that
a toilet might have
an educational purpose as well...
Oh, yeah. ..a talking point.
I like to be educated while
I'm sitting on a toilet.
Who wouldn't?
Dave's educational throne will
channel the botanical illustrations
of Charles Darwin and his favourite
plant, the cowslip.
He'll detail this popular perennial
across the front,
rim and down into the bowl.
And, if he has time, he'll add some
hidden extra details.
I'm going to do a satirical cartoon.
I like that.
You know, the Victorian botanist
who's dreaming
of his cowslips while he's having
a wee, but then the nature
that he's so excited by is being
polluted by the vast amounts
of human effluent put into
the river.
So I thought that would be hidden
round the back somewhere... Right.
..for someone to find. Lovely.
Look forward to getting educated.
Well, that's what we're aiming for.
Dave might be concentrating on one
botanical bloom,
but Donna is bringing
an entire bouquet.
My design is called
Stop And Smell The Flowers and...
For the toilet? Yes, for the toilet.
Very good. It comes from a saying
that my dad says to me all
the time. "Never worry, never hurry,
"stop and smell the flowers."
It's based on the flowers
that are associated with all
the birth months of my family.
So it's like a family tree.
Oh, OK. Yeah, so. In flowers?
In flowers, yeah. Yeah.
Donna's blue and white floral
family tree will feature a daisy
to represent her birth month
of April, surrounded by dozens
of flowers that represent
her nearest and dearest.
Like, chrysanthemum is my mum,
and the holly is my son.
Primula is my daughter, snowdrop is
my husband,
and so on and so forth. How lovely.
Excellent.
Yeah. What would you say you're most
worried about, then?
The clay is quite groggy
and I'm well aware that, you know,
you play around with it too much
it's going to start cracking, so...
Yes. ..I want to work quickly
to get everything drying
and then just trying
to get it joined.
Sounds like you've got a clear plan.
I have planned and planned
and planned. If anything needs
planning, this one does, definitely.
Definitely. Yeah. Well, look,
good luck with it all. Thank you.
And we'll see you later.
Good luck, Donna. Super, thank you.
Once the slabs are joined in
the bowl, the potters
need to compress the clay.
Got a serrated kidney and I'm just
scraping all the overlaps flat.
This will prevent cracking
and help transform
the rough, groggy clay into smooth
sanitary ware.
You're up against it with this clay,
cos it's like trying to make
sandpaper smooth.
It's a lot of pressure. It is.
I mean, every week it feels like
it's the most pressurised week.
But this... this is pretty
pressurised.
Hi, lovey. Hey. Hey, how you doing?
Yeah, excited. Big build,
lots to do.
So are you a Dan-with-a-plan
this week? Uh... Half a plan.
Well, tell us about your half
a plan.
Um, yeah, so it's going to be themed
on my grandad.
He had a thing about having
an outside toilet for gentlemen
and an indoor toilet for the ladies.
Oh, really?
Just like his grandad, Dan's toilet
will sport
a coiffed ginger moustache,
which will sit proudly above
a representation of the rose garden
Dan would help him tend as a boy.
So your grandad... Uh-huh. ..would
he, like, only live in houses
that had an outside toilet
that he could use?
I think that was his first thing.
It wasn't south-facing garden,
nice schools or whatever. Location.
No, it was - "Where's the crapper?"
Whilst Dan is dedicating his
toilet to
a senior member of the family,
Steven is celebrating the youngest.
So my design is dedicated
to my daughter, Bonny.
Is Bonny toilet trained yet?
So she's just, kind
of, completed potty training.
Ah, good for her. Yay.
Momentous moment.
It's basically a dedication
to her and...
Her bowels. And her bowels, yeah.
Bonny's straight-sided toilet
will be decorated
with her favourite flowering plant,
the dandelion.
In the bowl, delicate seed clocks
will float upwards whilst on
the front
the flower will blossom around
the plinth
with sprigged blooms at the base.
Your sprigs must be very, kind
of delicate and fine if they're...
They are and I'm... And you're going
to be using this clay
to press into them? Yeah. Yeah, I
mean, they're very,
very grogged clay. Yeah.
It's going to be quite difficult
to retain that beautiful,
delicate... Yeah.
And it's quite crumbly, isn't it?
So just be warned of that. Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you. Good luck.
Thanks very much.
Pottys, oh, I mean potters,
that's one hour gone.
Time to get the room extruded.
This clay is hard.
All the potters have chosen
to extrude
a long hollow section that
they'll engineer
to funnel flush water around
the bowl.
It's the most important part,
I would say,
because the toilet has to flush.
And if this is not done right,
the toilet isn't going to flush.
But bending the extruded clay into
shape is not easy.
Doesn't look very nice.
Doesn't look very strong,
it's full of holes.
Cracks means unfunctionality
and unfunctionality means home time.
Let's do this, Siobhan. I can do
this, I can do it.
I have to beat these boys.
Damn right. Boo to boys!
Boo to boys.
You going to win? Um, as long as
I... Yeah!
As long as I have a toilet at
the end of this, I will be happy.
This is...
Yeah, this is tough.
As Donna, Steven and Dave persevere
with their extruded rims...
..Dan has had a change of plan.
I've sacked off the extruder cos it
looked horrible,
so I'm going to make my rim,
which may or may not be
a terrible idea.
He's building.
He wants the... the kudos
and the fame that
that brings.
We can't all be
the great showman like Dan.
I'm worried that I don't really have
a plan, so I'm just going to,
like, just start stacking stuff
together and see what happens.
Halfway through, potters,
you're halfway through!
How can we be halfway through?
I haven't even got this bit made.
How are you getting on?
Uh, really good, yeah.
Uh, I've changed my rim design.
The extruder wasn't pretty enough,
so I've made it.
OK. How many times have you changed
your design?
Today, or...? Oh, my gosh. I think
that sort of answers it - today.
So while Dan regenerates his rim...
It's all good.
..the rest of the potters...
Right. Let's do this.
..are focusing on their flush.
This is the inlet pipe.
So clean water will come in here.
Travel round the rim
and there'll be lots of holes
in the rim.
I'm going to start adding the holes
for the water to come in.
Right, so I've got a Frankenstein
rim, which is part extruded,
part hand-built,
and partheld together with hope.
Think it might turn out that
Dan's had the right idea.
I mean, he only did it to be
a show-off,
but he might have hit on something.
But Dan won't know if his rim gamble
has paid off
until he attaches it to his bowl.
Steve. What's up?
Have you got two secs? Yeah.
I'm going to flip it.
Stick it on before it all gets
too wet. Don't mind me.
All right. Right. Don't you need
the... Yeah, OK.
Yeah. Shall I? You flip.
It just needs hands everywhere just
to stop it going distorted.
There you go, awesome, thank you.
Watch out. I've got my hand in here.
All right, get your hand out.
Just need to take it out. OK.
How's it at that side?
Yeah, it's good.
Is it meeting? Sweet.
Sweet as? Yeah.
Thanks, Steve. Beautiful, baby.
Yeah, awesome. Finished.
Potters,
don't drive me round the U-bend.
But you've one hour left.
That's really bad.
That is really bad.
Now that all the potters have
dealt with
the problem of getting water into
their toilets...
I'm quite happy with this.
..attention now turns to
the challenge of getting it
out again.
I am now going to add my P-bend
to the bottom of my bowl.
The P-bend is very weighty, so
I want to be able to support it.
So the bowl will be put on this?
It... Yeah, yeah. Gotcha.
It's funny, isn't it, because we are
now, in the semifinal... Yeah.
..really starting to get
to know our potters. Yeah.
And the way they work through
a challenge... Yeah.
I mean, Dan, although he said
to us he is a man with a plan...
Yeah. ..you know, he does like
to think on his feet.
He does, yeah. And there's been
tweaks, and you get the sense
the design is evolving all the time.
So this is the plinth
and I've got a profiling tool.
In theory, you make the pot into
the profile,
but sort of using the profile
to cut the pot.
Yeah, the plinth's looking
not too bad.
I want it to come quite
far out to the front of the toilet
so it gives me
lots of decorating space.
For someone like Donna
to be able to decorate such
a massive surface
with the way she decorates with
a brush will be brilliant. Mm-hm.
I think with Steven, we've seen
a lot of very angular forms. Yeah.
He seems to have this kind of
real lean towards
straight lines and angles.
Yeah, sort of brutalist look. Yeah.
I'm not gonna get kind of
any angles in there, I don't think.
I'm kind of more concerned with..
..just getting it functional.
I mean, interestingly, Dave,
I think, of all of our potters,
has got that engineering mind,
that technical approach.
Yeah, that's right.
He visualises what he wants
to make with the clay,
but sometimes his knowledge of
the actual clay itself
doesn't make him realise that maybe
that's not the right way to do it.
Have you got a sec, Dan?
Oh, here we go.
It's gonna sit...
That's gonna go on there?
It's gonna sit forwards...
Oh, that's nice.
..so it's got a bit of a spring.
Yeah? Is that not gonna collapse?
Well... I'm hoping not.
And this back bit,
how are you gonna support that?
It looks like he's putting
the bowl... On the plinth.
Mm.
It should stay. Oh, gosh.
Right...
Have you scored,
slipped the bottom? Yeah.
Its' a lot of weight down through
a very narrow centre of gravity.
Hang on a minute. Wait.
It looks really saggy,
or is it just my eyes?
You can see it sitting down.
No, yeah, I know.
Yeah, it is.
No, the arse is falling. Yeah.
OK.
Are you gonna put it on its bottom?
Yeah, put it down that way.
It's still a bit... lacking structure
in the base.
Mm, yeah. Soft.
Soft, in other words, yeah.
You don't wanna put that in
the drying room, do you, Dave?
Just to firm up.
Have you got anything else to do?
I've got plenty to do.
Just let that firm up a bit, then.
OK.
Are you all right?
I'll get the door.
Yeah, just let that firm up.
If that was moving a bit,
let it firm up.
Potters, guess what...
..you've half an hour left.
Right.
Pick up the pace,
pick up the pace.
I need to work on this and get it
more ready to receive the bowl.
Right, the sprigs.
I'm gonna put them around here,
just on this bit,
so that I have all
of this surface that
I can decorate.
It's firm,
but whether it's firm enough...
I dunno, might be ready
for another go.
Oh, God, this is terrifying.
Is that right?
It doesn't feel right.
You got it?
Yeah, I got it, yeah.
Are you able to give me
a hand lifting mine onto the thing?
Of course, yeah.
What do you want me to do?
Well, if we...
Stop wincing.
I'm not wincing.
Rotate.
Hey, hey! All good?
Thanks for the help.
I've got it from here.
Ten minutes remaining.
Make sure to get your
lovely floral sprigs on.
Now, cowslip sprigs.
The Victorians were all about
decorative features.
I'm just pressing my sprigs.
This is not something that
I wanna be rushing, but...
I'm gonna try and get as many on
as I can.
I'm in constant fear of just taking
it too far and it cracking.
I've got four roses
and my moustache.
They're quite nice.
I think this will work, and I can
paint the decoration around them.
I've given up completely on
the sprigs on the top.
Ten seconds, potters.
That's not true.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Tools down,
step away from your toilets.
Step away!
Well done.
Boom.
Cor, it's a whopper. Wow.
That was... No words.
I think that deserves a hug.
Oh, my goodness.
What a day.
I am, like,
beyond proud of myself
that I have just made
a whole toilet.
It's crazy,
absolutely crazy.
Do you know what it is?
It's, like, such a daunting task,
and then when it's done,
just sheer relief
and just, like, you've still got
the adrenaline pumping.
Well, there's
a nice feeling when it's finished
that you can just let it go.
And I'm kind of proud of
the shape that I achieved.
I think it was what I saw in my
head, so that's all I can do.
It didn't go according to
plan. I did wing it a bit.
I'm most worried about cracks.
But... there's nothing
to be done now.
Just gotta leave it be,
and then come back after it's been
bisque fired
and we'll see what we're
dealing with.
It's the semi-final,
and the potters are back to face
their second challenge with a twist.
What?!
OK. Ooh.
It's interpretive dance.
It's a dance-off.
This is a bit unsettling, isn't it?
Yeah, this is a little
bit unsettling.
Hello, potters.
Hello.
I suppose you're wondering
what's going on.
Yeah.
What I can tell you is that
for your second challenge this week,
you will be leaving this room.
In fact, you will be leaving
Gladstone Pottery altogether,
and we will be going up the road
to one of the oldest working
pottery factories in the country.
Wow.
So, I suppose you
need to get your coats.
Rose!
Oh!
Thank you. There we go.
Thank you.
This is exciting.
All right, so, off you go.
Is this actually happening?
Yeah, we're getting out.
We're getting out of Gladstone
for the first time in nine weeks.
The bubble's been popped.
Which direction
we're heading in?
That way.
Stoke-on-Trent has over
three centuries of ceramic heritage.
Illustrious producers such
as Wedgwood,
Royal Doulton and Portmeirion can be
found here...
Come on, come on.
..alongside an iconic manufacturer
first established
over 135 years ago.
Ooh! Duchess China.
Oh, wow!
Such a cool building.
Duchess China has been creating
classically designed fine bone china
since 1888,
and is renowned across the globe
for its dinner-and-teaware.
Mugs. Plates.
Clues, clues.
Right, coats, please.
Thanks!
Any clues in the hessian?
I can see round things.
There's something
a bit platey about the whole thing.
Definitely a bit platey.
Welcome, potters, to Duchess China.
Now, your second challenge this week
is a spot test,
and to tell us how it's done,
please give
a very warm welcome to Lee.
Lee, please come on out.
Hello, there. Hello.
Pleased to meet you.
Lee Price is considered one of
the best ceramic artists in the UK,
specialising in hand-painted bespoke
fine bone china.
During his time at Duchess,
he's worked on commissions
for many VIP clients
ranging from the Sultan of Brunei
to Sir Elton John.
Ooh! Whoa. OK.
Your second challenge will
involve replicating
Lee's incredible design.
Now, Lee, how long have you been
working here?
I've been in this industry 35 years,
since I left school.
Wow. So,
no problem for our potters, then,
who will learn it in
the next ten minutes.
Great. Lee, why don't you show us
how it's done?
So, what we're going to do here
today, we're going to do
a first fire painting stage
using two mediums -
aniseed oil and fat oil.
The fat oil gives you
a nice thicker tone to the colours.
So, the fat oil is for
a richer colour? Yeah, yeah.
And if you want that more, like,
for want of a better word,
watery effect...
Watery, yeah, go into
the aniseed oil.
..you use the aniseed oil? Yeah.
I'm going to show you a leaf.
Dip into the aniseed oil
very, very lightly
and just go into
the colour like that.
Are you watching closely?
And now I'm going to show you some
tone work of the leaf
over the yellow.
Go into a bit of fat oil.
And you will be giving them
a plate with the outline on it?
Yes. So there's your leaf there.
So it really appears that subtlety
is the key.
You can get so much detail in that
one small space.
Yes, yeah. That's subtlety, Dan.
So what I'm going to do now,
I'm going to show you the petal.
So, basically every time you go into
a different colour,
just wipe your brush out
and you just go into a colour.
What would you say was
the main skill in this process?
The brush. And charging it up with
the right amount of colour?
Yeah, yeah,
with the right amount of colour.
So, the c*ck stick is
for what we call wiping out.
So, when it starts to dry,
you can actually take
a bit of the colour out.
What I'm looking
for is nice delicate colours.
I'm looking for the tone work
in their leaves, and go for it.
Great, thank you so much.
Potters, bravely go back
to your benches.
This is going to be judged blind,
so, Lee, would you mind taking these
two lads off
and maybe give them a tour of
the factory?
Or actually put them to work -
it's about time they actually
earned a living. Yeah, no problem.
And we'll see you afterwards.
Thank you very much, off you go.
Cheers. Good luck.
Thank you.
All right, potters, you've been
given one hour
to decorate your plates,
and your time starts now.
Remove the hessian. Off you go.
Decorating challenge.
I'm a little nervous.
This is me, I'm in my happy
place here.
I want to do it justice today.
It has to be my week.
It's a very special place.
To see, like, you know,
a proper working pottery.
Very cool.
Hello, Siobhan. This has worked out
very well, hasn't it?
Oh, I am absolutely thrilled.
Genius, yeah. Yeah.
You'll give me that tenner later
on. OK, awesome, yeah.
Thanks for this one.
Yeah, yeah, no problem. I get
to have the plate as well? Yeah.
They're very gentle shades,
like watercolours,
but of course you're working
with oil,
so it does have a viscosity that
watercolours tend not to have.
Think it's a lot harder
to do than what it looks.
Maybe got a bit too much oil
on here.
What's the plan?
Paint the plate.
Done! Sometimes things ARE
that simple.
Halfway through, potters!
Halfway through.
Oh, dear.
At the moment, I'm just trying
to work out how
to stop getting pools.
Here I'm getting it pooling
into blobs
and that's not what I want.
I think maybe I've got
a bit too much oil on there
and I need to dry it off a bit.
I think it's just the technique
and getting that perfect kind
of loading on the brush.
The pigment is really strong
so trying
to get it looking smooth
is wildly difficult.
I'm trying to go
for that 3D realist vibe
that he had on his plates.
Lee is a master,
and I am trying my best as
the apprentice.
Ooh, you've got quite a lot done.
How you doing?
You've got all the coverage there.
First layer of it.
I'm adding a few extra colours
in a hope to outfox Donna.
Oh, man!
I can't think that Dan could beat me
in this challenge.
I'll cope with Steven and Dave,
but... not Dan.
Loads and loads to do.
Potters, that's one minute left,
one min...
No, I'm joking.
Ha-ha-ha! Whoo-hoo-hoo.
Jeez Louise!
I'm going to clean up some lines
in between
the kind of veins of the leaves.
Just trying to detail
a little bit with the toothpick.
Trying to give it that definition
to make a little bit more 3D.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, that did nothing.
That didn't...
That didn't do anything at all.
It was working before you came.
It was, yeah.
It's quite nice just feathering
the edges.
I think I've left it too long,
it's not coming off.
Five minutes left, potters!
Five minutes left.
I'm happy with it.
I think in the last five minutes
I'm just going to try
and sharpen up the leaves
a little bit.
I'm just trying to neaten it up.
I'm kind of happy with my colours.
Is this the most fun you've had in
your life?
I think so, yeah,
ten out of ten.
I want to have the winning plate.
Need to win one of these
second challenges.
Potters, you've one minute left.
One minute.
Don't touch the plate. OK.
I'm pretty chuffed
with how this is coming on.
If I had another couple
of hours, I'd be all right.
Oh, man. This is difficult.
I'm just really struggling
with these petals.
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one.
Brushes down.
Step away from your plates.
HE EXHALES
The potters' plates will now be
fired overnight,
ready to be judged back at Gladstone
in the morning.
That was quite stressful.
I'm just nervous about how
the colours have worked.
Tomorrow will be a big day.
This week has probably been
most challenging.
All four of us are really upping
our game
and all desperate to get
to that final.
So, yeah, this week,
the second challenge,
it's going to be more and more
important.
Hello.
- Hi.
How did you find it?
Oh, it was fun.
Harder than it looks.
Very difficult.
Wow, really good.
Lovely subtle tone work here in
the leaves.
A bit wishy-washy on the petals.
Could've done a bit more vein work
in them.
But, overall, I love it.
Excellent.
Wow. Oh, wow. Totally different.
So, this time we've got yellow
petals, which are very good.
The green centre -
could've left that out.
Yeah. I would say, more detail on
the leaves.
Yeah, it's very subtle, isn't it?
Very subtle.
I love the pink. Nice leaves.
I love the shading of
the petal there.
Nice tone work coming through on
the green veins.
Cleanly painted.
I can't fault that. I love it.
Great. Brilliant.
Different again. Yeah. Wow.
I mean, isn't it amazing how
they can take the same pattern and
it all looks completely different?
Petals look lovely.
Nice subtle veins.
There was a bit too much blue
in the brush with the pink.
But, overall, cleanly painted.
Yes, I'm pleased with that.
Well done. Really great effort.
Thank you.
They're not bad, are they?
Very good.
They deserve to be in a semifinal.
Definite, yeah, definite.
Now, Lee, Keith and Rich will rank
the potters' paintwork
from worst to first.
In fourth place, we have this one.
Dave. Yeah.
I would've left the green out
in the centre.
But, overall, as a nice light
painting,
very, very good.
Thank you.
In third place, we have this one.
Ah, Dan. That's me. Yeah.
There was a bit too much colour blue
in your brush
but I love the vein work -
fantastic. Cheers.
So, in second place, we have
this one.
That's me.
Donna.
Leaves, fantastic.
I love the subtle orange tone
at the end of that leaf,
absolutely brilliant. Great effort.
Well done, Donna. Oh, man.
I'm proud of you.
Ever the bridesmaid.
And the winner is this one.
Steven! Excellent.
I love this one -
I love the leaves, the petals,
everything about it.
I could see this in my own studio
at Duchess.
Wow.
So, really good achievement.
That's an accolade. Yeah.
Well done. Thank you.
Oh, nice work Steven.
Well done, Steven.
You've got a job waiting for you,
fantastic.
Well done.
I'm chuffed.
It's that reassurance that you get
just being further up
the ranks in the second challenge,
but still, it could all go horribly
wrong with the toilet, you know?
You never know what's going
to come out.
Did my best. The others are just
really good, you know?
I'm not despairing.
But if I am going to make
the final,
it's because my toilet decoration
is awesome.
So I've got to do my best
to make it awesome, really.
I didn't beat Donna,
but close to Donna.
She didn't win it, either,
and she definitely wanted to win it.
She can't beat us at everything!
There's a limit.
It's day two at the pottery
and the toilets have been
bisque-fired
and are now ready
for their decoration.
This morning, my thoughts are mainly
focused on what is going to come
out of that kiln.
Am I going to have a nice toilet
to decorate or am I going to have
a load of bits? We'll see.
No cracks. Ah.
No cracks I can see.
Collecting it from the kiln,
we're going to have
to carry it up the stairs.
So I'm not looking forward
to doing that.
Hope I don't drop it now.
Ooh. Decoration's been my weakness
throughout the whole thing.
And there's no hiding on this one
cos it's a huge piece of clay.
Just got to keep it soft,
keep it gentle.
Don't go crazy.
I always go crazy.
I am going for it today, I really
want to get into that final.
I don't want to get this far and
then get pipped at the last post.
I want to be there.
Welcome back, potters.
Your toilets have been bisque-fired
and are ready for decoration.
Keith, any advice for our potters?
We're giving you a white engobe
to create
a smoother whiter surface.
So hopefully, that should really
enhance those underglazes.
We'd like to see a range of
decorative techniques
on display here,
to give us that high standard
floral design that's synonymous
with Victorian toilets.
Great! OK, then, potters.
You have four and a half hours,
and your time starts now.
Everyone happy with how their toilet
came out?
Shocked, yeah. All in one piece,
no major... Well, no cracks.
It's come out totally
as I had hoped it would.
All of those anxiety dreams that
I've been having about cracks
and cracked pipes,
there was nothing to worry about.
Did you have sleepless nights
about your toilet?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, this whole competition,
I've probably had maybe two nights
where I've not dreamt about pots.
And it's all negative stuff. Oh.
The one thing that the judges always
say to me in my dreams is rigid.
Rigid? Yeah, it's just too rigid.
Ooh. Wonder what Freud would make
of that.
Before the potters can
decorate their toilets,
they must first coat
the surface with an engobe -
a thick slip containing glaze.
I want to try and get a couple of
coats of this on so that I have
a nice even flat surface
to work on the decoration.
As well as smoothing
and sealing, it should also help
to enhance their
coloured decoration.
It gives it a nice white background
so you can get lots of colour.
It's really transforming it,
isn't it?
I might just stop.
You know, it doesn't need
all that floral nonsense.
But not everyone is enjoying
the engobe.
There's some
quite difficult places to get to.
You know, like under the rim.
So I've got my little brush as well
to fill in where I can't get
the big brush.
And Dave's not the only potter
worrying about their rim.
I don't know how
the flush is going to be.
I have a feeling that we might be
getting a bidet kind of...
..action. Is that because of
the direction of the holes?
Yeah, so the holes are coming
in this way
instead of going down that way.
Rather than down.
So you could sit and get cleaned
at the same time.
And is that because of
the bisque firing that it came up
a little?
No, no, that's because
of my workmanship.
It's all, all Donna.
Yeah, it's all me.
Yeah, rather frustratingly.
Potters, that's one hour gone.
One hour gone.
With their toilets finally
a brilliant white canvas...
Just made such a difference
to the clay.
It's made it loads smoother.
..the potters can now use
an array of glazes
and oxides to help bring their
designs to life.
I'm doing it by hand.
It's a Victorian botanist's diagram.
Because it is fine detail,
it's one of those things that when
you hurry it,
it goes bad really quickly.
Like Dave, Donna's relying on
her hand painting prowess
to realise her floral
family tree design.
Just using blue and white.
I'm going to keep it
really traditional.
I like that kind of two colours,
just varying tones
and textures of the same colour.
Cos once I get to this stage,
it's like I feel very, very calm.
This is probably the most calm
I feel when, you know,
when we do the challenges.
Donna might be staking all on
a steady handy,
but Steven's relying on
intricate stencils
for his delicate dandelion design.
So, I'm going to kind of offer them
up to these gaps
and then just kind of dab with
a light yellow
and then I can add
the green over the top
to build up that leafy texture.
What are you putting on there?
Yellow and white.
Right. Cos it's a weak base.
OK. So I can go over with greens
and yellows.
OK. Yeah.
But Steven isn't the only potter
concerned with colour.
It's inspired by my grandfather
and his huge handlebar moustache.
And his rose garden.
Just debating what colour
the moustache will be.
He was ginger so he had
a big red moustache.
So, the red moustache would
make sense.
But just whether it'll work
with the theme.
Potters, the final hour!
You've one hour left.
At least we're seeing four
toilets
that structurally are fairly sound.
And that's great.
Especially when you get to
the semifinal,
you don't want to be judging on
who's had bigger cracks than
the others or what hasn't
actually worked.
So, the judging will just come down
to decoration
and how that water is going to flow
round that rim.
Completely.
Pretty happy with this.
It's as good as I can do, so...
This is the bit where you really
start to see it come alive.
Donna has just gone
for that classic blue
and white kind of feel, hasn't she?
Yeah.
Yeah. But we saw in her roast
dinner set,
just with that one red colour, she
managed to build tone and light...
Yeah, yeah. ..and shade.
I mean, if she can recreate
that quality
of brushwork on that toilet,
it's going to be special.
I know.
But Dave kind of lost his way a bit,
in the early part of the process.
Yeah, I just hope that
the brush work is up
to scratch, you know? Hmm.
Those beautiful botanical
illustrations have... I know.
..such a lovely quality to them.
Yeah.
I just hope that that same kind
of sense is captured.
This is a really,
really ambitious decoration task.
I think particularly
the fine brush work.
It's really hard.
Yeah, Steven. It's a bit...
..the decoration isn't looking,
it's not really popping.
Yellow's going to look quite weak
on white
so now I'm going to start layering
all of these over
the top just to bring them out.
I mean, with Steven's
you know, it's whether those
little decorations will kind
of punctuate the whole space.
It could look quite nice.
It could, yeah, yeah.
But it's just whether there's enough
contrast between that underglaze
and the white.
Well, whereas Dan's, I mean,
I think we're seeing a new person.
Yeah. We've seen him go all out and
throw everything at it previously.
Yeah. Yeah.
But this is showing restraint.
I think I'm getting more confident
with the underglazes.
I was a bit scared of them at
the beginning.
I piled them on
to avoid any risk
of it looking sketchy
but I'm being a bit more fluid
with it now.
Oh.
I MOUSTACHE you a question.
Do I look like a toilet?
That's my question.
I really want to paint a moustache.
Here.
Potters!
Half an hour left.
Yeah? Yeah, it's good. We look good.
Almost there.
Are you doing the inside, Steven?
Yeah. Yeah. No, I can't do it.
I can't do it, I don't have time.
So there's not actually
a hell of a lot to do on
the inside because those
kind of seed pods are
effectively transparent,
so I'm just going to put
a few lines on this.
I'm going to do the cartoon.
I mean, it's a slow business
and I'm trying to go as fast
as I can.
But just worried I'm going to run
out of time.
Got these little pin nozzles
so I'm going to follow
all the curves.
My plan is to get the outline on
using this slip trailer.
Donna, that is ridiculous.
Can you stop now?
That dream of rigidity kind of,
like, got to me
so I've just included
a few sort of third lines
just to tie it together
a little bit.
Just keep trying not to hurry
and not to ruin it.
Potters, final five minutes!
Glaze those toilets.
To ensure a sanitary sheen,
the potters must apply two coats
of transparent glaze.
So this'll put a glossy surface on
it and it makes it more hygienic.
I'm just going to do one.
I want to kind of keep
the disturbance of
the underglaze to a minimum.
Five, four, three, two, one!
Tools down, step away from your
toilets.
Well, well done.
Oh, my God.
The potters must now take their
toilets to Rose for
one final firing.
Hello, potters.
Oh. There we go.
Are they heavy? Oh, just a bit.
When they next see them,
it will be Judgment Day.
Overall, very happy.
I've got really nice detailing
on the green.
And the red looks fabulous.
Yeah, I think it'll look great
when it comes out.
Yeah, I was really happy, like,
I mean, it's a toilet.
It's huge.
It's heavy and it's all in one piece
so I'm really happy with the make,
I'm really happy with
the decoration.
What I've completed
in my head,
what actually comes out
is another matter.
But, yeah, the plan,
it's the sort of thing Victorians
would like.
A little bit of botany.
It's so hard to tell.
I mean, they are very kind
of pastelly
and very chalky when you put on
the underglazes.
So I'm hoping that those colours
pop a bit and stand out.
It's, you know, I gave it my all
and that's all I can do.
It's judgment day
and after a 24-hour gloss firing
the potters' toilets are ready
to come out of the kiln.
Hi, Rose. Hi, potters. You excited?
Ooh... Terrified. ..yeah.
The only thing that's standing
between me and the final
is that toilet.
Right, Donna. Yeah, let's do it.
I just hope that it's a really kind
of loud, ostentatious
Victorian-type toilet
when it comes out of the kiln.
Oh, I am well pleased with that.
Yeah, look!
Right, Dan... Yeah...
Toilet is about to come out of
the kiln.
Extremely nervous about
how the moustache comes out.
It weirdly works. Yeah!
It's a moustache on a toilet. Yeah.
Really pleased with how bold
and vibrant the colours are.
I think it'll flush really well
as well. Like with this lovely rim.
The potters won't find out if
their toilets are fit for purpose...
Ooh!
..until the judges flush them for
the very first time.
I'm really, really happy with it.
Just need to see how it works.
It's a massive accomplishment,
yeah, yeah. I feel really proud.
Considering I didn't have a plan,
I mean, it's pretty good.
Yeah, happy days!
Four hand-built toilets,
all plumbed in
and ready for judging.
And at stake,
there's a place in the final.
Congratulations, potters.
You made toilets!
I for one genuinely cannot wait
to see four toilets flush.
Shall we start with the judging?
Yeah. Off we go.
Donna, where do I start?
It's just tremendous.
I think the way you've created the
design so that all of the sort of
inner workings of the toilet are
all concealed by this huge frontage.
Yeah. It's just inspired because
what you've given yourself is just
a vast blank canvas
to really showcase
your wonderful brush work skills.
Honestly, Donna, you should be proud
of it. Thank you.
You should be proud,
cos it's bloody brilliant, mate,
and you know what? Quite frankly,
you kind of went for
the hardest kind of design concept
because you've gone
for that typical blue and white,
but, boy, have you carried it
off really, really well.
It's absolutely wonderful.
Anyway, I'll let him talk now, cos
I'm crying over a bloody toilet!
This show is ridiculous.
You haven't seen it flush.
Well, let's find out then. Yeah.
OK. Yeah, do the honours. OK.
Ooh! Wow. A very exuberant flusher,
isn't it? Yeah, yeah.
I quite like that as a flush.
It's all drained away.
The curve in the bottom of
the bowl is very good,
so it's taken it all down
into the P bend. Super.
I think if I had one criticism
it would be that you didn't do any
decoration on the inside
of the bowl. Yeah, absolutely.
But it's absolutely sublime. Yeah!
You should be really proud of it.
Yeah, thank you.
Well, lovey, the shape
of it is wonderful.
I mean, I must admit,
both Rich and I
when we were watching you put
that bowl on that P bend,
we were very concerned, weren't we?
Yeah, just... the consistency
of the clay
and the way that bowl was sitting
down, it was like, is it gonna stay
together, is it gonna be upright?
It did it, just! It has. Yeah!
I mean, looking down it,
it feels like the bowl is maybe
slightly off centre.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
But you know it's intact, it's neat.
Yeah, I just think it's got bags
of character.
I like the fact that as you walk
around it you discover new things.
The little illustrations on
the back. Yeah.
I'm so pleased you had time
for that.
Yeah. One slight comment
I would... have
on the decoration front is that
maybe I would've accentuated these
with a few black lines.
Yeah. Just... to get that definition
of that flower,
flowing all the way
down through the toilet.
OK, shall we go? OK, then.
Whoa. Ah...
OK, so it's... Well, yeah.
It's the... But that's not...
It's the inlet pipe here.
Yeah, but I think you'd had silicon
around that. Yeah.
You know, that's absolutely fine.
And you've got enough water
in that P bend there. Yeah, wow!
It's... really, really nice.
There's a little bit of residual
water captured around
the edge of the bowl. It hasn't
quite drained. Yeah. It's sort of...
That bowl has sat down a little bit.
But, no, I mean, wonderful, Dave.
It is really cool. Thanks!
You should be proud of your toilet.
It... reminds me a bit of
a mushroom.
It's very organic... feeling. Yeah.
The way it hasn't got any kind
of straight edges. It's all curved,
kind of, curved edges
and smooth lines you know.
I love the dandelions on
the inside of the bowl.
There's a real nice freshness
about them, but I would've loved
to have just seen them
a bit more accentuated... Yeah.
..with a few black lines... Yeah.
..to really lift the dynamic
of the design out. Mm-hm.
The sprigs, I know you cast
directly from the flowers. Yeah.
And I almost feel like the
underglaze actually has covered up
some of the subtlety in those.
Yeah, yeah.
Cos, when you look around the tops,
you can see a bit of texture, but...
Yeah. ..I just think... the
yellow underglaze is sort of
a bit too opaque and it's
just covered much of that up. Yeah.
I mean, I would say, actually, to
the touch,
it feels a little bit matte.
Yeah, I think I just made a mistake
of not... layering the glaze on.
I only put one layer on when
I should've really gone with two.
Yeah, it needs a really good
double coat of... Yeah.
..fairly thick glaze to kind of
get... that gloss to it. Yeah.
Right, well, we'll see how
it flushes. Right, here we go.
Whoo!
There's quite a few directions going
on there. It's like a laser show.
OK, it all goes down the hole,
which is good!
You've got a, a bit of pooling
there. Yeah.
You've done incredibly well
in the construction.
It's a unique sort of approach
to it.
Yeah, wonderful. Thanks, Steven.
Thank you. Well done, thank you.
The first thing you notice about it
is the actual structure itself.
It's a wonderful structure,
I love it.
The moustache element...? I don't
know if I'd necessarily immediately
know that they were a moustache.
The one at the back looks like
somebody's not done
a particularly good job
of cleaning the bowl perhaps.
But the beauty in that linework, it
looks like a Quentin Blake drawing
or something. Yeah. It's just got
that lovely lively energy.
When you first came here, subtlety
wasn't your strong point,
but you've managed to give us that.
The decoration is
so fluent and free.
I feel like you've really, really
grown and this is what this...
This is what this whole
thing's about.
It's about you
learning. And it's fantastic. Oh...!
It's fantastic. You're making me
cry, Dan. Yeah, I d...!
All right,
let's see how it flushes.
Do you know what, Dan,
the minute that water went over
that design on the inside,
the design seemed to come to life!
Yeah, yeah. Even more!
It was fantastic. It's wonderful.
I've never seen Keith so excited
about a toilet.
I have!
No, I...
You know, I think what it is, I
think it... I think it's you, mate.
Right. It's you.
It's because you've come on so far.
Wow, thank you. I think you've done
a really fantastic job, Dan.
You've really excelled yourself,
lovey. Thank you. Really, really.
Well done, Dan. Thank you.
Yeah, really well done.
Brilliant, it's brilliant. Cheers.
Yeah, that was quite intense.
Wow!
Not used to those sort of emotions.
And certainly not from the judges!
My two ambitions would've been
to get Keith to cry
which think I've achieved,
so tick that one off,
and to get Potter of the Week.
And this is my last chance.
Dan did... an absolutely amazing job.
He really brought
his decorating game this week.
What a time to bring it
in the semifinal.
So, yeah, I think that he might have
it in the bag this week.
If we judge it on tears,
Donna got a few.
And Dan got a few.
The only people who didn't get
tears were me and Dave.
I was fourth out of four
in the second challenge.
The toilet was not perfect.
However, there was a lot of
positives.
It's in the balance. I don't know.
The semifinal
and, of course, this year,
we have the return of the toilet!
Oh, my gosh.
How do you think they got on?
Just the mere fact that there were
no cracks whatsoever
in any of those toilets
was amazing in itself.
Yeah, they've done so well.
These potters are extraordinary.
Yeah. Who deserves to be in the
final?
Well... Well. Yeah, shall we say it
together? BOTH: Donna.
She just thinks about
every challenge,
every brief in its entirety
and she makes sure
she's got a clear plan
for every aspect of it.
She's like the philosophical
opposite of Dan, really.
Yeah. That's it, yeah!
He is a bit of a loose cannon.
He doesn't like to follow the rules.
You know he doesn't plan,
he just comes in and he...
..and... goes with the flow.
But I would argue the flush in his
toilet was better than Donna's.
Yeah. His decoration was very
lively and it went into the bowl.
And Donna had kind of completely
neglected the bowl.
I think she spent so much time on
the rim, which was exquisite,
but there was nothing in the bowl.
What about Steven?
Well, he came first
in that second challenge.
I think he was quite surprised.
If only he'd just enhanced
that brushwork on the toilet.
Yeah, it just felt
a little bit insipid.
I don't think the decoration had
the kind of impact
that some of our
other potters' decoration did.
We haven't spoken about Dave.
Well, I mean, Dave's was a...
It was a combination... of his
humour... Yeah.
..with those illustrations
on the back
and those
botanical kind of drawings.
Yeah, abso... He's... He's excelled
himself this week, really has.
I mean, he came last in the second
challenge. Yeah. Yeah...
And I think herein lies the problem.
You know, Dave's toilet had loads
of wonderful things about it...
Yeah. ..but he was fourth in
the second challenge
and you've got Steven whose toilet,
you know, lacked in some areas,
but he came first in the second
challenge.
Oh, gosh, OK.
Well, it sounds like you need
to do a lot more talking.
So I'll leave you to it,
I don't envy you guys.
The judges have made their decision.
First, the good news...
This week's Potter of the Week is...
..Dan, you are Potter of the Week!
Yeah, buddy!
Well done, man. Well done.
Well deserved. Thank you.
Nice work, dude. Thank you.
Well deserved.
Oh, thank you! Gosh...
And that's it. Thank you.
- Yeah.
Good.
Unfortunately, it's not, no. We did
contemplate no-one going. Yeah.
That's how difficult this has been.
This has been a real conversation.
But the person who is leaving
the Pottery this week, is...
..Steven.
Aw... Yeah... I knew it.
I'm gonna break your leg...!
It's broken down a few barriers
within me,
I think, of just trying to,
you know...
Just having a bit more fun with
things and not, kind of,
having to be so serious.
And you meet such incredible people,
and, you know, I've had some
really good connections with people
that will just last forever.
So, yeah, it's completely changed me
as a person and as a potter.
Mate, it's gonna be crap
without you!
No, it won't.
Only one more week,
Dan, you'll be all right!
I don't think I can do it
without you!
I do feel blessed to have been a
part of it, yeah.
So, as Steven bids farewell
to the Pottery...
..with his moustachioed toilet,
Dan can claim his first
place in the Throw Down Gallery.
Potter of the Week, finally!
Amazing.
Stunning. Bit shocking, still.
Still shellshocked, yeah.
I mean, Dan, he's never been
Potter of the Week,
here he is, in the semifinal,
is he peaking?
Is this his time to shine?
For Dan, it's a real step forward,
this toilet, despite the fact that
he was thinking on his feet a bit,
as he went through the challenge...
It had form, it had presence,
the decoration was exquisite,
the flush was great.
It was on point.
Actually in the final - finally -
in the final! Incredible.
So, that's the semifinal,
and I'm in the final.
Oh, dear!
I don't really know what to say.
I mean, it... You know, it's...
It's... mad, innit?
Ya-a-a-a-a-ay!
I'm so happy!
I'm so happy.
I'm in the final... of the Great
Pottery Throw... Ah-h-h-h!
Next time...
The results are in.
It's so quiet in here today.
Everybody's hyper-focussed.
The judges have made their decision.
Terrified.
Oh, my goodness.
I'm well behind,
The winner...
Oh, no! It's cracked.
Oh, Dan...
..of
The Great Pottery Throw Down is...
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07x09 - Episode 9
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In each episode, a group of amateur potters compete to complete two pottery challenges.
In each episode, a group of amateur potters compete to complete two pottery challenges.