Pottery Throwdown - 8th January

[NumbersStation]

Coming back - to channel 4. Let us hope that they don’t muller it like they did GBBO.

Melanie Sykes is hosting. I wish they’d kept Sara.

Let us hope channel 4 grab Fern and resurrect my allotment challenge too.

@Veterinari
We disagree on our assessment of a participant. That’s fine.

Let’s move on.
I hope Claire wins, she’s ace. Wee Scouse Jacob is also fab. I still miss Rainna, she was a blast.

Nevermind Rosalind's baby voice or Clare's eyebrows. How has nobody mentioned........... Sykes' shameless flirting and hanging around Matt constantly?
She doesn't even try and be subtle about it!

I wish they’d bring Sewing Bee back. I read that it was coming back this spring but there seem to have been no updates as when. It’s just gone very quiet. I love the pottery, sewing bee, the art one (can’t remember what it was called) even though I’m absolutely hopeless at all the skills involved. I used to love Bake Off but the challenges have got so ridiculous I can’t get into it these days, biscuit chandeliers was just daft and seemed more about engineering than baking

Totally agree! Love sewing bee, do hope it's back this Spring. and on GBBO... I just feel they set them impossible tasks, reduce the time for them to do it in... sit back and wait for drama.

What is the name of the guy who fires the pots? He is rather handsome....

I'm probably wrong... but Matt comes across like he is expecting to win. Whereas the others are in wonder are at being there in the first place! Having said that, it wouldn't surprise me if he did...

We disagree on our assessment of a participant.

I think we are disagreeing about whether it is necessary to be bitchy about a contestant actually.

Kiln Guy is Richard Miller.

He has a website. And a twitter account.

Apparently.

And hands?

Yes GBBO sets 4 hours to create a 3 tier wedding cake that would take an expert 2 days and even then they’d maybe have to work into the small hours to get it done. It’s mad. Though sewing bee did that too. Not enough time and buttons and zips going unfinished which is a shame as it’s not like they aren’t capable of finishing things beautifully.

My friend was saying Matt has an expecting to win attitude too but I don’t pick up on that at all 🤷🏽‍♀️.

Veterinari
We disagree on our assessment of a participant. That’s fine.

Reading, comprehension and interpretation really is a skill isn't it

Anyway
I always wonder how they structure the contestants' time in the competition - I remember reading that the bakers on GBBO bake everything in a weekend but with the time for making, drying, glazing, firing etc the potters must need to be back and forth every 2-3 days - how does it work? Don't they have jobs?

I wish they’d bring Sewing Bee back. I read that it was coming back this spring but there seem to have been no updates as when. It’s just gone very quiet.

They've been promising to bring it back for two years, and I keep getting very excited about it, and then nothing happens.

And I agree about Bake Off - used to be a delight of a programme, and then the challenges got silly, the time allowed was ridiculously short (if something has to rest overnight, it has to rest overnight FFS! Similarly if something has to be chilled, it has to have time to chill) and I got sick of it - and don't even get me started on the Hollywood Handshake . . .

I thought Rosalind's work was lovely - and I said so. She is very girted. I also think she seems a genuinely kind and gentle person. But her voice cuts through me like a knife, and I commented to that effect.

I'm sure that there are people who would find my voice/accent/tendency to swear like a docker difficult to cope with, too. Such is life - and such is human nature to comment.

Also - hope either Claire of Jacob win (preferences in that order).

However I do love Rosa and Matt, too (and had Rosalind got through I wouldn't have begrudged her - as I say, as a potter, she is excellent).

*gifted, not girted

I got irritated with Sewing Bee when they had ridiculous challenges like making things out of tent material. Who the hell would ever do that in their right minds?

I love Claire, who throws like a dream and chirps things like ‘My knickers are wringing!’ And Rosa, who I think has a real design gift — her sgraffito jug was gorgeous. I get distracted from Jacob’s talent by his wonderful skin. Matt seems like someone who is working through some things...?

Shadenfreude increasingly the premise of bake off and sewing bee was to set them up to fail and then criticise them for scruffy finishes or not finishing etc. I just can’t see the point in it. Even the most expert and efficient couldn’t turn out an elaborately decorated 3 tiered vegan wedding cake in 4 hours or a ball gown in 5 using a pre-war treadle machine,, all while being filmed and reminded how much time they had left. That’s not entertaining it’s quite stressful to watch.

Remember that it is heavily edited though. They show the bits that increase the tension for the viewers. I don't know how successful a programme that only focuses on the nice calm bits would be.

I do suspect it is a little less stressful than it appears to be on the final programme.

I've potted for years,there's always a level of tension ime, glazes come out completely different to how you were expecting, things blow in the kiln after weeks of working on them, general disappointed when something doesn't work or you have an idea that you just can't seem to translate I to clay, it's not quite the relaxing activity it's always made out to be so I can imagine with cameras as well it's not that heavily edited!

There's often swearing, tears and frustration in my class

The programme is 47 minutes long. They've used the best/most entertaining/tension building bits.

I have to say... if I was on GBBO, pottery throwdown, sewing bee or whatever, and time was against me and someone narrating the show came over to chat, I think I actually would say f**k off

My thoughts exactly Roussette
They could edit it out but I'd certainly be saying it

I'd be the same. On GBBO, it was always kind of presented as 'Oh, whoops, here come the judges, especially Nasty Paul, who will say "Did you intend to use 700 g of plain flour? Hmmm... " and then walk off, leaving me hysterical', but in fact, it doesn't matter whether it's Paul and Prue being judge-ish, or Sandi, Noel or Mel quipping in a vaguely friendly way, it's still taking up time I don't have!

I used to pot, too, and while I was a hand-builder rather than a thrower, really, I absolutely agree that glazing and firing are basically tense anyway because they're unpredictable, and if you're as unreliable a thrower as I am, throwing is also not a calm procedure...

I think it's a pity they're doing the build a toilet thing for the final.
It's for the semi-final, isn't it?

I think Rosalind was the right choice to go. Jacob had a bad week but he is overall a better potter. The judges said her throwing is weak.

I want Claire to win; she started well but is getting even better. I liked that she seemed to be getting more confident with design and expression in the sgraffito challenge.

They've been promising to bring it back for two years, and I keep getting very excited about it, and then nothing happens. The Sewing Bee IS back, isn't it? The last series was on last winter.

I think last night's result was, unfortunately, the right one. Somewhat surprising all round.