Anyone watching this pottery programme with Sara Cox?

[SwedishEdith]

Love ceramics so hope I'm going to enjoy this one.

Can you just dig up clay from your garden to make a pot?

[SwedishEdith]

Are some of these people just hobby potters? I want to do this now.

[TheEdgeOfPhysics]

Yes I watched this. Noone else it seems! The techniques and the characters were cute. It's the new crafty series, cf Bake Off and Sewing Bee. I thought the speed challenge was odd as the faster ones had crap eggcups but it seems that wasn't important. I know nothing about it really though.

[DramaAlpaca]

I recorded it & am watching it now. DS is calling it The Great British Pot Off, and wondering if there'll be a Star Potter at the end, and DH is now considering buying himself a potter's wheel - which is making me wibble at the thought of the mess.

[SwedishEdith]

Hooray, 2 more viewers!

The kiln looks a bit scary - I'd have permanent fears of being locked in one, like some big industrial oven. Do you just rent out a slot in someone else's kiln? I'm still thinking about making my own tiles from garden clay here,

[DramaAlpaca]

I've managed to put DH off getting a potter's wheel by telling him we've nowhere to put it and that we don't have a kiln

I'm finding it all fascinating, actually, as I know nothing about it.

[FartyTette]

There were an awful lot of sex references weren't there? I thought the finished pots were fab - especially major Tom's and the interior design woman's, and I loved the way that the male judge went all teary over the woman with the 60's granny dress inspiration pots.

[WotNoLoobrush]

I watched too. Tom was a well deserved winner. Can't wait for the next one - next week I guess?

[GruntledOne]

I enjoyed it. I found the background information fascinating, and I like watching skilled people creating things. But something needs to be done about the male judge's combover.

[BlueMoonRising]

It was good - it amused me that it was EXACTLY the same format as the other shows of it's type. Two judges, one male, one female. A round where the judges don't know who makes what. A 'surprise' round. A star and a leaver.

But I did enjoy it. I have ALWAYS wanted to try turning a pot, but this is not the time as there will be a HUGE upsurge in interest.

GruntledOne - women consistently bemoan the fact that they are judged on appearance, with justification. Is the male judge capable of doing the job? Does his hair make a difference to that? Personally, I didn't notice his hair.

[Archer26]

I've got this on record ready to watch later. I LOVE programmes like this, bake off, sewing bee etc. I think it satisfies my frankly nonexistent crafting talents.

[5Foot5]

But he does have an exceptionally weird hair-do. Bless him though when he was moved to tears by some nice pots!

I quite enjoyed it, I think I will watch again.

It amuses me that the problem they worry about most is not a soggy bottom but a crack in the bottom.

I wonder where amateur potters go to get their pots fired? Surely it would be a bit hard / expensive to have your own kiln?

[OverScentedFanjo]

I loved it. Had no wifi to post last night.

I would love to be a potter. Have considered having a wheel and kiln. I have used a wheel and made bowls and plate before. I love it.

The handle work was very innuendo!

[OhTinky]

I liked it, watched it on iplayer at 3am with insomnia! Very innuendo heavy which I was quite surprised by.

it's more like sewing bee than bake off as I think it's quite niche but as pp says will lead to a surge in amateur pottery!

[misskelly]

I really enjoyed this too, thought the background info was really interesting. Looked like fun and I would love to give pottery a try.

[Cherrypi]

Loved this show. The final product is such a surprise and the possibility of cracks in the kiln really adds to the drama. I think I preferred it to sewing bee.

[KurriKurri]

I quite liked it - in that I love ceramics and seeing the different interpretations of the bowl brief was interesting.

But I don't see why it needed to be showhorned into the bakeoff/sewing bee format - it didn't really work. As a PP sais -t eh egg cups were judged purely on quantity - some were total rubbish but as longas they had a base and roughly stood up they counted - absolutely not the way any one would ever work if the were going to make egg cups.

Similarly with the mug handles - the woman who didn't finish automatically came last although others had made far clumsier or less well executed handles - bonkers.

Not mad about the man judge - when he;s not crying, he's shouting !

I think maybe each week they could do a brief similar to the bowl challenge, then a very technical piece - showing a specific technique, and a free piece - either thrown or sculpted, - and they could all be done in stages over the course of say a week - while one is drying you start on the next etc.

Cut out the against the clock stuff.

Having said that, there are some very talented people there and it was really nice seeing what they produced. I liked the chap with the side burns and farming lady.

[Florabella22]

I watched it too, full of admiration for the contestants, they have a real skill. Also liked the fact that Sara Cox isn't half as annoying as she is on the radio. Will definitely watch again next week.

[Nydj]

I really enjoyed watching it too but agree that they should tweak the format to suit the medium of clay. Loved how different the sets of five bowls were.

[PuckyMup]

Watching this on catch up. Turns out I used to work with one of the potters. Finding it weird to see them on TV :D

[MissWimpyDimple]

We liked it too.
Agree about the times round though, I get that for baking and cooking you need to work to a strict deadline, but for potting and sewing I just can't see why you would ever try and churn something out in a short strict time frame.
Think the blond guy with dreads should have gone though.

[Archer26]

Watched it, loved it. Spent most of the episode sniggering. Male judge is annoying though. Who cries over bowls?!

Agree with pp posters, why do the eggcup challenge. No skill involved.

[BMW6]

I loved it - esp the eggcup challenge!

[annandale]

We watched it, but found the innuendo a bit constant so turned off when they were doing the handles. I really liked the female judge though,she was great and I liked her ceramics.

[GruntledOne]

I always struggle with the whole time thing even in cooking shows where the reality is that you wouldn't in RL risk the entire dish for the sake of 5 minutes. But I suppose the problem in these competitions is that if they don't all have the same amount of time it isn't fair - and some competitors would go on for days endlessly refining their creation.

I don't have a problem with the innuendoes, that's part of the charm of BakeOff.