Great pottery throwdown 2025

[AlicePottery]

Anyone watching?

I’m surprised but I suppose the point of a pot even decorative is to hold things

Francesca chose a base with an s crack, but her decoration was good.

Hellmouth fireplaces next week - how exciting!

Some colours (copper oxide or silver nitrate for example) become metallic during reduction firing.
Reduction firing is where all the oxygen is burnt away (not really something you can do with an electric kiln) and the reduction atmosphere is maintained long enough to 'fix' the colour.
A good example is copper matt (matte? mat?) raku, the glaze looks black before firing and can become a whole rainbow of colours if you get the reduction atmosphere right.

Thanks for the technical info, Alice. It’s just a bit odd that they were so insistent beforehand that they would go red - but almost none of them did, and they didn’t really mention it again!

If they'd have been fired in a 'proper' kiln then they probably would all have gone redder, but seeing as they built their own kilns which were full of holes (for oxygen to get in) it's not really surprising they didn't come out very red. The glaze mixes themselves will have played a big part too but from what I understand it was a pre-mixed glaze that they diluted so I'm not sure what exactly was in it and don't know how what the variables were (I've done something similar but made the glazes from scratch).

Thanks @AlicePottery Are there special kilns for the work that Throwdown could use? Can you think of any other skill/thing that the potters could make to then build a kiln themselves?

It was this really, a comment for each about what had or hadn't happened and about what each person did differently with their glaze or kiln.

They sort of did hint at things that potentially would/wouldn't work throughout the episode. There was mention of the different media used to dilute the copper (I missed some of this bit as DCat walked on the remote control), also a few comments on the thickness of the luster (the thinner layers went red/pink) and they did point out gaps in the kilns as they were building them. But I agree, it should have been clearer. The first seasons were great as they had historical interludes like they used to have on GBBO.

There are so many different techniques in ceramics the possibilities are endless!
I did an amazing but terrifying workshop with an alternative firing technique. It involved firing a gas kiln to about 800⁰, cutting off the gas, restarting the gas without lighting it thus filling the kiln with gas before it spontaneously reignited itself. The results were beautiful, but I'd never do it again 😅

I wouldn’t want to write the risk assessment / safe system of work for that technique.

They were lovely shapes but the colour fail was disappointing for all of them.

Yes! I think he usually looks like Tweedledum (or Tweedledee)

If the fact that they had to build the kilns themselves meant that the kilns weren't good enough for the firing to work, I'd have preferred them to use 'proper' kilns. Seeing them build them didn't add anything to the programme and the lack of red spoiled the finished pots.

Completely agree - usually the show is good at focusing on what matters so building the kiln seemed pointless

The kiln building would have been better as a slightly longer Challenge inbetween the main pieces, with a simpler pot. It seems such a shame to go to all that effort for the final effect not to work for any of them.

Too many elements in the task this week. Looking forward to next week though.

I agree that there was too much going on this episode. I would have liked to have seen them build their own kilns as the main event on something a bit easier, even just not having the copper lustre this time. I think the fact that none of them went red showed there was too many variables.

But, I did enjoy seeing how the two gourd shapes were made, especially as 2 separate pieces or as 1, like Nathalie did. You could see how much better it was in shape, so well done her for giving it a go, I do think she deserved to win this week.

Gutted that Diane was so close to going, I really like her. I do think it was Francesca's time, the 4 that are left deserve to be there. It kind of feels like any of them could nudge up on the next 2 episodes and win it.

It might have just been the editing but I really think Diane should have gone. Pushing yourself and failing is far more forgivable than not trying IMO. But Francesca has been on thin ice for a few weeks so no real harm done.

I'm confused that last week an S-crack didn't warrant a mention, and @AlicePottery sais they aren't really within the potter's control, but this week an S-crack was unforgiveable and showed a basic flaw in Francesca's abilities.

I think it was to do with the fact Francesca saw a flaw after throwing that she said herself “looked like an s crack” waiting to happen and that they’d all had the time to do two gourds for each section and match them together, but she’d gone ahead with that one anyway. She hasn’t been strong all the way through, either (her decorations are usually lovely though) whereas Diana has produced some decent stuff and came first in this week’s Challenge.
I’ve noticed in previous series that they try to put stronger contestants in the semi and final and unfortunately Francesca’s lack of attention to detail and track record seem to have ruled her out.
Diana will be lucky to make it through the semi final imo, unless she really pulls it out of the bag.
They are all 1000x better at pottery than I am btw! Sometimes the editing can make certain contestants look a bit arrogant, but when the person leaving is announced they all seem genuinely sad, so it must be an amazing bonding experience. Has to be, I suppose, as they spend so much time together.

I agree, as they were judging they pointed out that she'd chosen the defective pot because it looked better which was a bit daft for a functional piece.

And with Diana being first in the throwing challenge while Francesca did poorly, it was inevitable really.

I thought the green and white was nicer than the planned red. I liked Francesca's aesthetics but appreciate the crack was an issue. Diana seemed to just not try very hard.

Diana said today on her Instagram that she was absolutely exhausted by the quarter finals. It's a very intense experience and she says she was feeling every year of her age by this point. I'm glad that she's still coming across as her lovely self though.

There was so much crammed in we weren’t shown anything properly. I would have welcomed Keith telling Siobhan (me) about the variables and potential outcomes with the copper lustre too. Instead it was all “it turns red” and then a the end we were looking at mostly green and one completely black. with no idea how we’d got there.

Siobhan's dress was lovely.