Episode 4 The Great Pottery Throw Down

No, this isn't the bit they used to show between old programmes.

We're over halfway through and I'm getting there.

This is the Great Pottery Throw Down.

Previously in The Great Pottery Throw Down...

OK, are we ready? Here we go.

..the potters played with fire...

-Oh! I meant to do that!

-You're fine, you're fine.

..and some got their fingers burnt.

It's broken.

Matthew rose like a phoenix to become Top Potter...

..while James crashed and burned...

Oh, no! Come on, something work!

..and made his exit from the pottery.

Now our judges, ceramic artist Kate Malone

and master potter Keith Brymer Jones,

have set another three challenges,

including their largest build by far -

a garden sculpture.

I need to get 20 more inches.

Why have I burst into a sweat? It's ridiculous.

A fearsome Spot Test.

It's alive! It's alive!

-And in last place...

-What happened? You were way ahead.

..the Throw Down.

Oh, come on.

MUSIC: I Can't Explain by The Who

-# Got a feeling inside

-Can't explain

-# It's a certain kind

-Can't explain

-# I feel hot and cold

-Can't explain

-# Yeah, down in my soul, yeah

-Can't explain

# Can't explain I think it's love

# Try to say it to you When I feel blue

# But I can't explain. #

There's a lot of pressure mounting.

There's a bit of competitive rivalry starting to emerge in the group.

It feels so empty.

I am competitive. I don't mind admitting that.

So I'm going to give it my best shot.

I can feel the tension in the room.

I think we're all, sort of, feeling quite tense.

It's good to come back being Top Potter,

but there's only one way down from the top.

Bring it on.

-Well, hello, potters. ALL:

-Hello.

Huge congratulations.

The big grand final is within all of your grasps

and we thought, because you've been working so hard,

we'd celebrate by making you work even harder.

This week's Main Make is a mammoth task

because this Main Make is super-sized.

With more details, here's Kate.

We want you to build a large-scale garden sculpture.

Now, this garden sculpture wants to be self-supporting,

made in several sections and should measure five feet in height.

Quite frankly, it's a feat of engineering.

Because it's such a big deal, you've got the whole day

to complete these sections, OK? Seven and a half hours.

So, potters, get sculpting.

Scary, scary, scary.

Sure they didn't say five inch?

Building a five-foot garden sculpture

is a monumental task that will take five long days.

First, the potters must hand-build their sculptures in several sections

using slabs of clay.

After hardening in the drying room, they will be decorated

and fired in the kiln for 24 hours.

Finally, the garden sculptures will be assembled

before being presented to the judges.

So, Keith, look at this selection of beautiful garden sculptures.

Look at this piece here, so beautifully considered

in the round so it works from all sides.

Really beautifully executed.

What we're asking the potters to do

is to make even bigger pieces than these.

We're asking them to really scale up and to do it in sections.

We're asking them to hand-build with slabs, essentially, aren't we?

Yeah, and they've really got to think about how, practically,

they're going to fit these together.

This particular person here has done us a collar and a sleeve

and it's very, very accurate.

I mean, this fits perfectly together.

This really is a feat of engineering.

-It's like building a house.

-In time constraints.

It's a tall order.

The potters will be constructing their garden sculptures

using the slab building technique.

This will allow them to make shapes

that they couldn't otherwise on the wheel.

I've never slab built on a big scale.

No experience in slab building at all.

You need to explain to me exactly what slab building is.

It's rolling out slabs of clay, joining them together.

-So it is what is says on the tin basically?

-It is.

But it's what you do with that slab. You can bend it, you can shape it.

It's entirely up to you.

What's interesting is that we've seen some of them

really be comfortable with the throwing, haven't we?

And now some of them are a bit out of their comfort zone.

-I'm worried we're going to break the potters with this one.

-This is tough.

I'm going to try and do a Matt and be cool and calm about it.

Matt's like a swan, cool but underneath he's going mad.

-Pedalling like fury.

-Yeah.

I'm good at slab building, to be honest with you.

I'm a good slab builder.

The potters are using crank,

a sturdy and tough clay ideal for building big.

Crank clay is stoneware clay.

It's a clay that has sand added to it and grogs,

which is already fired clay that has been crushed up.

And so that gives it a strength for building on a large scale.

I've never really used crank before.

I'm loving this. I love you.

Sally-Jo's design is inspired by the flower Nigella,

known for its distinctive seed pods.

I've drawn out five foot...

of what would be sculpture, but it's based on seed pods,

and I want them to stack on top of each other.

Daunted by the size of the task, she's already rethinking her design.

I'm a bit concerned about the balance of them, so I'm thinking

about, perhaps at the base, doing something much more sturdy.

I've never made anything this big before.

No.

SHE LAUGHS

I'm making a dream tree. It's a three-dimensional,

triangular sort of structure with a circle breaking the line.

So a circular slab, which is going to really test me out.

What you'll end up with is something like this.

I want the combination of a sturdy figure

but with fragility built into it.

I don't know. I've never used this. It just seems like a good idea.

The potters are using slab rollers,

ideal for rolling out large amounts of clay to a consistent thickness.

-Just slowly feed it in.

-And roll it through? Thank you. Brilliant.

This will help the slabs to dry evenly, which can prevent cracking.

That's better. That's what I wanted.

I made a decision to hand-roll my slab.

Although a hefty rolling pin can work just as well.

Pretty heavy work. Apologise for the sweat, chaps.

Not a good look, is it? Trying to stay cool.

Is it because you're not fit that you're sweating so much?

So far, with Keith's tears, now your sweat...

Hopefully we won't get any blood, but there's a lot going into this.

There is. There is.

I'm just looking at Matthew, cool as a cucumber.

That's what this is for.

Of all the potters' designs, Sandra's has the most elements.

There's squares and circles and geometrical shapes.

-You've got quite a lot of slabs going on there, haven't you?

-Yeah.

-There's quite a lot of faces to it.

-Yeah.

She's building her sculpture using 50 slabs of clay.

Two, four, six, eight, nine, ten.

Ten big ones and loads and loads of small ones.

-It's not a problem.

-Some sharp intakes of breath from the judges.

-I think we need to get on.

-There's a lot to do.

-You've got a lot of slabs there to make.

-Yeah, a lot of slabs.

OK, Sandra.

I've started cutting out the bottom of the four pods.

Once the slabs are rolled out, they are cut to shape.

So, I'm now working on my disc parts.

These guys are cutting out.

I haven't done that yet so I'm a bit scared. Look.

I'm building a large fish, in fact. Yes.

It's going to be coming out of the water.

Jim's fish will be covered in scales and textured in a rather unique way.

So is this from the footwell of your Cortina here, Jim?

Is that what's happened?

My Cadillac! No.

Yeah, it's a car mat. Obviously, it's got a lovely texture to it.

So I've created a cut-out for the scales for the fish

and, from these pieces, these will be applied, hopefully,

if I can get the sculpture made, to the main body of the piece.

It's gorgeous.

I'm fairly happy with that. These ones in the drying room.

The potters must decide whether to put their cut-out slabs

into the drying room to stiffen up or to work with soft clay.

-How are yours shaping up?

-They're just there.

What is the slab builder's nightmare?

If you let a slab of clay dry too much and try and bend it,

it'll snap and crumble like a biscuit.

If you try and bend it when it's too soft, it will collapse.

-The whole lot could come tumbling down?

-It could do, yeah.

I think I can get away with bending these around a little bit.

Jane is the only potter who has decided to keep her slabs

out of the drying room.

I didn't really want it to dry too much, so I can manipulate it.

I'm not really a slab builder

so much as somebody that wings it a bit,

so just keep my fingers crossed.

Jane plans to bend her soft slabs of clay

into a column of honeycombs.

It's sort of based on the life cycle of a bee

and the different functions that the honeycomb play,

so I'm going to cut a circular section out of here

and, sort of, put some texture in it.

The base section - it's hugely important to get

these two sections joining together because they will stabilise

and anchor the rest that's going on up here.

-You're confident this is going to be free-standing?

-Yeah.

-Good.

I'm just a bit anxious. It's like they know something I don't know.

Just got to keep your head down and remind yourself

that you vaguely know what you're doing.

-Did you not put them in the drying room at all?

-No.

This is the bottom of the four pods.

Sally-Jo did put her slabs into the drying room...

Just going to... Whoa. It's not hardened up enough.

..but they should have stayed in for longer.

It could easily collapse at any moment.

I'm a bit nervous about this bit.

Would you mind passing me something? I can't let go of this.

There's a bandage in that... That's it.

Thank you.

It's too late. It's too late. It's died a death.

After the collapse of that, I really need it to firm up a bit more.

That's still quite soft.

Matthew's garden sculpture is a nod to Britain's pottery industry

of yesteryear.

That's one of my drawings.

-I thought...

-Wow.

-Industrial, mechanical,

kind of like chimney pots, like, nice tubular chimney pots,

ceramic pipes, looking at the old industry of ceramics.

I love the clay. I like how it rips.

So I'm going to go for, like, sort of, half cut and then ripped.

So you get the contrast between, like, a clean edge and then a rip.

I just love the way Kate's face lit up then.

You're showing the quality of the clay, aren't you?

What stage are you at?

Well, I'm just making the top one. The lower ones had to go back

to the naughty step because they didn't behave.

I tried to put it together too soon and it collapsed.

-It's that timing, isn't it?

-Yeah. It was too soon.

So I'm just putting the lid

on my base section.

It's a little bit flimsy.

I'm just making some little clay props to put on the inside

so that it doesn't cave in.

Jane - she's putting things together too softly.

On the other hand, you couldn't hit it and have those marks unless

it was soft, so it's illustrating the beautiful nature of the clay.

Well, it'll look really effective when the thing collapses!

-I don't think it's going to collapse.

-I'm not so sure.

She's going to go if I carry on.

-Is it holding up?

-It's slumping a bit.

Do you want some sort of support? Push that in there.

That's a good idea.

Calm down, Jane.

It's up!

When building this big, the challenges keep on coming.

Mustn't rush this bit.

Tom is assembling the centrepiece of his dream tree.

This is the bit I'm worried about.

It's a delicate operation.

When you're slab building,

you have to be very careful how you handle the pieces.

If they're not handled well, they'll warp and misshape

and then it can often crack in the drying

and certainly in the firing of the piece.

I don't know if that's going to survive.

Don't let Kate hear me say that.

He's burst out into a sweat again.

Why have I burst out into a sweat? It's ridiculous.

-Look at the state of Tom.

-Attractive bloke.

He's dripping.

-Are you feeling all right?

-Yeah, I just don't what I'm doing.

Like I've got time, I'm sitting here talking to you.

Lovely shapes, lovely shapes.

-Sandra, seriously, what are you doing?

-I don't know.

She's wandering.

It'll get to, like, seven hours when I'm, like, "I haven't finished."

Ladies and gentlemen, you are halfway through your time

to complete the sections for your garden sculpture.

-Halfway through.

-Halfway through the time?

-Yeah, halfway through.

-I've done nothing apart from roll out slabs

so it's a bit scary, that.

The one I'm really worried about is Sandra.

She's got a lot of slabs going on there.

I can't do this.

There's a fine line between ambitious and foolish.

That's one.

One slab down, 49 to go.

Sally-Jo's collapsed seed pod is back out of the drying room.

It's stiffened up but I just can't afford for that to collapse.

Part potter, part...

sort of reconstruction surgeon.

God, my heart is in my mouth as I'm doing it.

It's fine. It's just a little miracle.

The potters have been at it for over six hours...

I'm running out of time.

Kind of...hope for the best. I can't do anything more about it.

Just don't vote me off, that's all.

..and their garden sculptures are taking shape.

I put a little in edge here.

It gives me a base to sit the next section on.

They've had to design them so that their sections interlock perfectly.

I have to add the neck so it can slot into the one below.

Hope it will stack up.

But because clay shrinks as it dries...

..it's essential their measurements are exact.

When you're making a piece of work,

you need to think about the shrinkage.

Size it up.

Usually, for something made in crank, about 10%.

That's something that you should really consider quite carefully

in the designing of the work.

And then you have to think of that

in terms of the pieces fitting together.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens

because there's some thin areas and there's thicker areas

and it's all going to contract and shrink at different rates.

If any of these distort,

well, it's not going to fit.

Talking of connecting things together,

one of the best concepts for me - Matthew's.

-He can just put things on top of each other.

-Like a wedding cake.

It's going up like a skyscraper.

You'll be able to interchange the sections.

Show-off.

I'm going to have to start putting details on.

Keep going for the moment until we get a scary sound check.

30 minutes, guys. You got 30 minutes,

then these sections need to be in the drying room, please.

Naughty, naughty.

I've got loads to do.

If it looks like I'm panicking, it's because I am.

I think it may be intermittent,

rather than trying to do the whole lot.

I just haven't got the time.

It's a very organic process. That's what they say.

-You've got ten minutes.

-Ooh!

That's great, that's great. I think I'm going to cry.

-You're still quite hot, aren't you?

-You noticed?

You should have brought a mankini.

-I couldn't have worked under those conditions.

-All right. Easy.

-The clock is ticking...

-Oh, my God.

..and Sandra's sculpture is still short of the mark.

I need to get 20 more inches. How am I going to do that?

Start thinking about getting these sections in the drying room, please.

-OK.

-Well done, Matthew.

If I just think quickly...

30 seconds, guys.

'With time running out...'

Real big... I know what I'll do.

'..has Sandra reached new heights?'

-Time is up.

-I've finished.

Give yourselves a round of applause, please.

An exhausted round of applause.

Your sections are going to be dry for the next three days

and then we'll see you back here. Thank you very much. Well done.

Off they stumble, exhausted.

Well done. My God.

The potters have wrestled 300 kilograms of clay

into six garden sculptures.

That was a bit of a killer, I have to say.

I feel thoroughly spent.

Calm has transcended after the madness of the afternoon.

That was full on. Absolutely full on.

And now the nervous wait begins, as any errors made during the build

could spell disaster.

I've now got three nights of no sleep as the material dries.

The potters return to Middleport.

And the judges have a challenging Spot Test waiting for them.

If you'd like to remove your cloths, Keith will give you more details.

Oh, that's nice and soft.

We want you to transform those into these -

strawberry pots for growing strawberry plants.

Oh, lovely.

You're going to throw appendages to stick on to your main pot

that you've got there.

Is there a stipulation to how many appendages that we have to have?

-You can have a thousand if you want, Jane.

-That's what I was aiming for.

What you have to do is join them well

and what you must not do is replicate what's here on the desk.

You can adjust it in any way you want. Originality is the key.

OK, judges, if you'd like to leave the premises, please.

You have two hours

so, potters, get transforming.

I'm going to try and create a, sort of, little dragon.

I was thinking about turning them either into ladybirds

or perhaps strawberries themselves, so maybe strawberry leaves.

This is a lovely Spot Test because it shows us

that a thrown piece isn't the finish of a design.

It can be the starting point.

The potters must visualise how their thrown pieces

will sit on the side of their pots.

I've made some cone shape which I'm going to turn up,

so the bottom of the cone I can do some decoration to.

Yeah, I'm thinking, like, tea-pot spouts, big spouts.

They've really got to think on their feet

and design something within minutes.

We really want to see them push the boundaries.

I was thinking 1950s UFOs.

So I'm doing squares and then I'll think about it afterwards

what I'm going to do, cos I don't know what I'm doing, to be honest.

I can't get this off the wheel.

Oh, shoot.

I actually trained making flower pots.

I imagine you've got a nice outdoor area.

THEY LAUGH

Hiya, James. Oh, no, a crucial bit of surgery going on there.

I think I'll just cut that cup in half.

Of course, you've got to cut them in half to put them on there.

As well as technical ability,

the judges will be expecting to see real creativity from the potters.

The pot itself is so nice, it just feels so wrong to be cutting it up.

It's going on.

I want to make sure they're well joined

because that's something that Kate mentioned.

It's difficult to get a neat join because it's very soft.

But I shall try my best.

I'm a bit heavy-handed

so it's not as smooth a join as I'd like it to be.

For me, the joining doesn't have to be seamless.

A join can be shown.

Put them on very naturally and use your application marks

as part of the design. That's how I'm going about it.

But I don't want to see any halfway houses

of something being half hidden and half shown.

I want to see a clear decision made and carried out.

They'll either like it or really dislike it.

You have one hour left, guys.

One hour left. You're halfway through your time.

I've left myself plenty of thickness at the base

so now I'm trying to...

play the rim.

It's like the Wombles, isn't it, actually?

Wombles of Wimbledon Common.

I'm adding my quirky touch to it as ever.

I quite like the idea of these sort of chameleon-like creatures...

..peering out from the pot.

-Sally, that looks great.

-Oh, I'm not sure.

It's like a kangaroo pouch. You can get quite a lot in there.

I was hoping they would look like strawberries but they don't, really.

Potters, you've got ten minutes left. This is your ten-minute call.

I've probably got time for one more.

I'm actually going to try and get one more piece on after this.

It might matter that I've only got three.

You've got beautiful shapes and haven't put them on.

I just don't care any more.

Time to develop the eyes, maybe.

-It's got teeth.

-It's alive, it's alive!

I'm just trying to get as many things on as possible.

I know what they want now. This is so not it.

You've got four minutes left, guys. Four minutes left.

Maybe they'll appreciate a bit of technical skill.

I look over there at the master potter and just think, "God, no."

OK, potters, ten,

nine, eight,

seven, six, five,

four, three,

two, one.

Potters, time is up.

They are looking great, Jim. I would buy that and have that in my garden.

Let's see what the judges like.

"I wonder whose this is."

In two hours, the potters have transformed these chimney pots

into strawberry pots

and they will now have their work judged.

Come in, please, judges. Voila.

Incredible, guys. So original, every single one of them.

Kate and Keith have no idea whose pot is whose.

This one here, obviously,

they've taken the obvious message of it being a strawberry pot.

-I take it these are supposed to be strawberries.

-I think so!

It's really sweet. It's giving a message of what it is.

Could have been a bit tidier but a really nice idea.

Yeah, lovely, lovely.

So, number two. I'm loving this detail up here.

You know, this idea that this is like some kind of animal

from the garden that's peeping over the top.

The honesty with which the cups have been attached - somebody might say

that's messy, but it's very clear and consistent design.

There's a sense of the old-fashioned finger marks

that a pot-maker would use to join handles.

-Great in its originality.

-So, on to the next one.

It's almost lost the sense that it was a chimney

and become another shape. It does that the best out of all of them.

Aesthetically, it's a really well constructed pot.

This lovely apple-pie edge.

I think it's been really tidily attached, whoever did it.

-Number four. It's like a drainpipe, isn't it?

-It is.

Really nicely thrown rims.

I would actually have that one in my garden

if only it had more holes in it.

You've got to have as many holes in it as possible

to get as many strawberries growing out of it.

This one, lovely clean marks. Those dots at the end.

But the design is a bit on the conservative side.

Yeah, I'd agree with you there, actually, Keith.

-Could have been more original.

-OK, last one.

It's just not very well conceived spatially, I think.

-I just keep on thinking of two ears sticking out.

-I don't mind that.

I think it's quite animated but it's just not well executed.

The Spot Test is ranked.

Very hard to decide but sixth place is this one here.

Sandra.

The whole thing was too thin.

The frilly edge is there in some places but not in others.

And the clarity of the message was missing.

Jane is fifth and Matthew is fourth.

Third place, then, judges.

-This one.

-It's mine.

Sally-Jo. We loved the leaf detail on it. Lovely.

That leaves us with two strawberry pots vying for the top spot.

I'm dying to know, is it Jim or is it Tom? Who has got top spot, please?

It's this one.

Ah, well done, Jim.

Simply because it had this great clarity of design.

Tongues and the whole animation of it is just reflected.

-It's very strong.

-You know, one could argue that it's quite messy

but it's very, very obvious and you've made that message very clear.

You've completely transformed the pot.

I'm really pleased.

I didn't know how those strange faces would be taken, actually.

A bit of a chuckle here and there does everybody some good.

Yeah, really frustrating. Jim's far too good a potter

so we're going to have to find some way to hobble him.

I asked if I could buy his pot off him, damn him.

I'll buy his pot first, then I'll drown him second. Yeah.

Jim and Tom on the top spots. Hard to knock them off.

Just so annoying that I'm just one place below Tom again.

-Who do you think is in the strongest position?

-Jim.

He has that life to his work that's animated.

Really adds the sense of life to what he's doing.

-With Matthew, he's so comfortable with the clay.

-He's won me over.

-So, we've got Sandra, we've got Jane...

-I know.

..in the bottom and I just don't want that.

Sandra - she just seemed to struggle with time.

This week, I've been concerned about Jane. She's off the boil.

Her Spot Test - beautifully made but just a bit boring.

The long wait is now over for the potters.

The sections of your garden sculptures have been drying

beautifully over the past three days, so go and get them.

How they've fared will have a huge impact

on who will leave and who will remain in the pottery.

Wow! It looks great, Jim.

There's a big crack.

It's cracked down here

and I think it's because I'm using these blinking wet slabs.

It'll be all right. I'll just hide it with decoration.

It's disappointing. A big old crack there.

I turned it over a couple of times as it was drying and I probably

just applied some stresses to it. This is pretty bad news.

I wanted to achieve an element of fragility, which I think I've done!

It's not just Tom's crack that's causing some concern.

So this is to make it up to the five foot?

Yeah, cos when it was short I thought,

"I'll put a bit on the top."

-I'm channelling Dipsy of Teletubbies.

-Teletubbies, yeah.

It's really quite short.

The potters have now reached the final stage of their Main Make.

They have 90 minutes to decorate their sculptures.

They'll be raw glazing -

applying glazes and slips onto clay

that has yet to be fired.

So we've got the potters decorating on raw clay.

We're doing this for the first time.

Is the raw clay really porous in this state?

Yeah. Raw clay as opposed to fired clay will soak

and absorb anything you put on it.

If you put too much water on it,

it will just turn back to wet clay again,

which obviously would not be good. Cos then it would just collapse.

What would be a nightmare scenario, then? What can go wrong?

If you have too much water in whatever you're putting on,

you can destroy the surface,

because it's raw clay that can go back to mush again.

Obviously the structure could weaken quite considerably,

so they have to watch that.

Yeah, we don't want to take any sparrows out

with these garden sculptures collapsed down!

Red...

yellow and green.

I'm not a Rasta woman, but in the Rasta religion,

red is for the blood that has been spilt.

Green is for the colour of the land, and yellow is for the sunshine.

I am a bit worried about Sandra's.

-There's a lot of water going into the raw clay.

-Yeah.

It's like a muddy puddle. It could crack.

The potters have been given oxides, a powerful metal-based colorant,

to decorate their pieces.

What's this in here?

So what I've got is a copper oxide and cobalt mixture.

It's going on quite thick.

To get the finish they're after,

they must correctly judge the concentration level of their oxides.

Oxide can be a beast.

It just depends if you get your mix dead on, isn't it?

It does, really, yeah.

Knowing the thickness of the oxide application is really important,

because they are very temperamental to use.

You can over-apply it,

where you're expecting a green to come out of the kiln, or a blue.

It turns back into being a metallic.

You can think you've applied enough, and then in the firing,

it will completely disappear.

It's a balancing act, and Sally-Jo is erring on the side of caution.

I'm putting this oxide on quite thin,

so hopefully this will go green rather than going black.

Hopefully.

It should be all right. So...

I've got to decide whether or not I'm going to put a glaze

on these scales to pick out the scales.

It kind of makes sense, cos scales are kind of bright and iridescent

and shiny. But at the same time, it could be too much of a contrast

between that and the oxide, and it could just look terrible.

It's just that decision. Do I put that on or not?

-Glaze or no glaze?

-Glaze it!

-No iridescent colours...

-Do it, it'll be amazing!

Yeah, let's go for it.

-You decided for me!

-THEY LAUGH

Thanks. I can blame you!

Yeah, you can blame me when it's all gone wrong!

This is either going to work or it really won't work.

I don't think there's any middle ground with this, actually.

Jane is applying her glaze with something she made earlier.

Kitchen cloth on top of pizza board, attached to a peanut butter jar.

-That's my family in a nutshell.

-That's my breakfast!

-Are you going to use anything to rub in to the texture...

-Well...

..or are you leaving it naked?

I've got some of the black obsidian glaze,

which I thought I might just put into some of the centre,

just so that there's a little bit of contrast.

I want it to be quite, sort of...

natural, really, and I don't want too much sort of...

squabbling between surface decoration.

Matthew has a more liberal approach.

He's glazing all over.

I just need to get lots of slips, oxides, glazes,

just sort of keep layering it up.

It does have to be exact to a certain extent,

however, it can be freely exact.

It's pretty fun.

Let's hope Matthew's actually got a bit more skill

than just slapping it on and hoping for the best.

Because it's that fine line between it looking really effective,

or someone saying, "Oh, he didn't know what to do

"so he's just slapped a load of underglazes on it."

Jane there,

-I think she's being a bit too subtle with her decoration.

-Yes.

I think she could be a bit bolder with it, really.

Oh!

Oop!

Construction-wise, does this fit with that?

If it doesn't, I'll bring a big angle grinder!

As I go up, each pod is going to get slightly lighter and brighter.

So I'm going to start with a really dark green on this one,

and ending up with white with small green detail on it.

OK, guys, you've got three minutes left.

-Three?!

-Three?!

Three minutes?!

It's not good. It's not good.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, I might seem quite relaxed, but inside I'm going, "Argh!"

The most stressful thing is still to come, though,

is when we put it all together.

I'm still not sure it's all going to stand up in one.

OK, potters.

In five, four, three, two, one...

Your time is up. Step back from your sculptures, please.

OK, guys, because your sculptures are such whoppers,

we are firing them in the huge outdoor gas kiln today,

so make your way downstairs. Thank you.

Gas-fired kilns are the most popular type of kiln used today.

They're a far cry from the old bottle ovens

that burned up to 15 tonnes of coal per firing,

filling the air with black smoke.

The 1956 Clean Air Act signalled the end of the era of bottle kilns,

as the industry turned to cleaner and more efficient fuels,

like electricity and gas, to fire their ceramics.

And kiln man Rich is loading ours up.

Welcome to the gas kiln.

You're standing very proud by that nice, lovely kiln. Look at that!

Because the sculptures have been raw glazed,

they're full of moisture, and very fragile.

You're going to have to take

the early stage of the firing really slow,

otherwise it could just blow the sculpture to pieces.

Rich will be firing them for 24 hours

up to a temperature of 1,200 degrees C.

This has to be done gradually,

or the steam gushing out of them could cause the sculptures to erupt.

Anything can happen.

If there's not a pile of rubble in the morning, then, you know,

it's a bonus.

-We all may end up with more pieces than we thought.

-Yeah!

The sculptures are in the kiln right now.

I just hope that they're not warping, cracking,

glaze sticking to the shelves - all sorts of things could happen.

Um...

There's not much I can do about it now, so you just have to wait.

Judgment day.

Later, the potters will find out who will have to leave Middleport.

But first, there's one last chance to impress the judges.

Kate and Keith are asking them

to throw an object that's been testing potters for centuries.

And they won't stand for anything less than perfection.

POTTERY SMASHES

Hello, potters!

Gather round.

Now, your garden sculptures - they're in the kiln.

Rich is looking after them,

so we thought in the meantime we could keep you occupied.

You'll see Keith has got his overalls on,

I'm armed with a tape measure, Kate is looking stern...

CONTESTANTS LAUGH

It can only mean it's time for a Throw Down.

This is where you go up against each other,

up against the clock, and up against this man.

So what's in store today, Keith?

Well, we've seen you make bowls.

We've seen you make long-necked vases.

Now it's time to make a plate.

Now, a plate, for me, is one of the hardest things to make.

It shows up every single imperfection.

We want you to throw the widest plate that you can,

in the same style and specification that Keith's about to show you.

So, here we go.

You know, when you're throwing,

obviously the centring is really, really important.

Even the king of throwing here has a slight hand wobble

on this. This is a really centring-important task.

Obviously with a plate, you want it nice and smooth,

and a nice flat base.

Now, this is when I really start finishing off the plate.

I'm sponging out all the slurry,

making it really, really nice and dry.

So I'm using the rubber kidney now to really give me

that flat surface across the face of the plate.

It's essential to gently move the kidney from the centre out.

This will flatten the sides, so you end up with a plate and not a dish.

And the all-important wiring.

-That's the hardest part, actually.

-It is, yeah, you're right.

-You've got to keep the wire tight.

-You have.

-Keep it stretched to its optimum.

There's a nice, clean plate.

A nice, clean rim all the way round the side of it.

As well as width, we're going to be judging flatness of surface,

thickness of base,

and we want a stout and healthy rim.

We don't want to see any sagging or flopping rims.

And we have, like, half an hour to do that?

You have ten minutes.

So then, time to throw down, potters.

Get to your work stations. Best of luck to you.

You have ten minutes.

Time starts now.

-Frenetic start, that, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

Come on, Sandra, get that centred.

Wow, Sandra, it's a monster!

What's going on back there?

Look, Jim's very comfortable.

Nice, he's getting it out wide already here.

I think, Sally-Jo, you're looking more and more comfortable

at that wheel.

She's actually using anything that she can that's solid.

So you use the wheel tray to support yourself while you're making it.

Jane's got a rim up.

Nice exterior ridge on your rim there, Jane.

I'm not sure Sandra's is centred there.

Well, no, but she's doing remarkably well.

Halfway through your time, guys, you've got five minutes left.

Ooh, Sandra, what's happened?

Sandra...

Oh, she's... Sandra, you've taken a chunk out of your side.

I'll cut it off, it'll be right.

There you go, gone.

How's Jane doing over there?

The rim's far too thick.

-A lot of clay up there.

-Yeah, a lot of clay up in the rims.

Matthew's doing all right.

Looking good, Matthew.

Sally-Jo introduced a wobble into her rim there.

I know, I just took my hands off too quickly.

One minute left, guys. One minute left.

Go on, Jane, wire that through well.

Some of them are looking good.

SARA AND JUDGES: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,

five, four,

three, two, one.

-No!

-Jim!

He caught it with his knuckle at the end. What happened?

You were way ahead!

KEITH LAUGHS

Well, I was trying to get the shape just right.

The wiring-off of the plate is just as important as the plate!

Right, let's come and have a look, then. Jim, you're up first.

Jim's rim has a nick in it.

36 centimetres.

And is his bottom heavy?

It's a bit too thin in the base.

It's more of a dish than a plate. It's a bit too deep for a plate.

-Yeah, fair enough.

-To me, there isn't a corner

and a change of angle that's sharp.

It's a bit like that, instead of like that.

-Yeah, I know what you mean, yeah.

-OK?

-Right, then, thank you very much, Jim.

-Great job.

Here we go, Tom.

Ooh! 35 centimetres there.

-That's not bad.

-Nice tidy rim.

What Tom's got there, he's got enough meat in the bottom there.

That looks really good. It's a nice flat face,

but the angle here of the outside rim is a bit too steep.

Is this a dish or is it a plate?

It's a...

-plate.

-Thank you.

Hey, Matthew. Hello, hello.

Ooh! 36½!

OK. It's pretty good, actually.

The face of the plate is really nice, and it's definitely a plate.

-Ooh!

-Yeah. Definitely a plate.

-Good.

-Excellent stuff, well done.

-Well done, Matthew.

-Thank you.

34 there.

-I like the face of the plate there, Sandra.

-Lovely.

Really nice and flat.

-It's the most platey plate we've seen, I think.

-I think it is, yeah.

The rim could have been finished off better.

There's a lot going on on the rim there, isn't there?

-Hello, Jane.

-Hi.

Who's going to mention it? Cos this is the elephant in the room,

or rather the dish in the room.

It's very dishy.

33 centimetres.

-And the rim...

-It's more like a cat bowl!

SHE SIGHS

I was thinking risotto, but, yeah, cat bowl.

This is far too deep.

What would you call it? It's a mixture between a plate and a dish.

Um...it's a piece of pish!

THEY LAUGH

-Hi, Sally.

-Hi.

32 centimetres there.

What I'm liking about the plate is the depth of it.

Now, let's have a look here.

It's sort of nice, but it does dip a bit in the middle, doesn't it?

It's definitely a plate.

-Yeah, no, it's good.

-Thank you very much, Sally.

-Cheers.

Right, then.

The judges must now decide who's served up the best plate.

Sixth place, then, goes to...

-Jane.

-Yay!

Which was a brilliant dish!

-It was a brilliant dish.

-Pish.

-Yeah!

Fifth place is...

Jim.

-Yeah, it was a bit of a dish.

-Yeah.

You were a bit careless at the end.

In fourth place is Sally-Jo.

Sandra is third.

Second place, then?

Well, second place was...

Tom.

Well done, Tom.

I think the main thing, really, that brought you down to second,

was the angle of your rim.

Huge congratulations to Matthew, our winner of today's Throw Down.

It was a good, flat plate, and it was a really lovely rim.

Really good all-round effort, Matthew. Well done.

Now, potters, the moment you've all been waiting for,

because your garden monuments are out of the kiln.

Rich is stacking them up as we speak,

so let's go outside and get them ready for judging.

Off you go.

Three out of four's good.

Um... It's good, three Throw Downs first. It's... It's all right.

Disappointing to come second again.

I didn't come last.

-That's the main thing.

-SHE CHUCKLES

I can't make plates.

It wasn't good enough, obviously, you know?

I was so disappointed when he knocked the rim. What a shame(!)

HE LAUGHS

Now I know I can make cat dishes, so there's always...

I've always got a market there.

The sculptures have been fired for 24 hours.

I just hope we're all right.

The potters' prospects now rest

on the quality of what comes out of the kiln

Ooh...

It will be interesting to see

if their constructions have held up to the temperatures of the kiln.

Tragic. Oh, dear.

We're all now a bit worried about how they're actually going to stand up.

I'm feeling fairly unconfident about going into judging.

I think this challenge has possibly stretched me the most.

Some of them are going to be pleased with their decoration,

and some of them I think are going to be disappointed.

Even I, after 30 years...

I close the kiln and I kind of do a little prayer,

-cos it's down to the fire and the kiln time.

-Exactly.

On the one hand, you can't wait to see the piece you've made

and on the other hand, you don't want to be let down.

Well, this is the kind of moment of truth.

Here goes.

Let's see if...

it's some sort of reasonable fit there.

And...

-doesn't quite fit...

-HE LAUGHS

-..which is a shame.

-Hey, Jim.

SHE GASPS

Wow! That looks amazing!

Does it fit?

-It doesn't, unfortunately.

-Oh, sorry!

What about yours?

Oh, I don't know yet.

I just really hope it stands up.

Beautiful.

Lost all the green, though.

It's meant to be green!

Looks promising.

Pretend that's stable.

Oh...

Oh, it's going to fall over.

There you go.

SHE CHUCKLES

Whoa!

-That's fine.

-Don't touch it!

-SHE CHUCKLES

-It's fine!

Ooh! That bit looks good!

It LOOKS good. I'll show you what the real deal is here.

-What's happened?

-Oh...

-Ooh, ouch.

-Oh...

-It's off...

-Oh, no!

-Three pieces.

-The base has come off.

Oh, I see, there as well.

Three pieces.

Oh, that's such a shame.

-Is it the front or the back?

-It's the back now!

-THEY LAUGH

-Look at this bit as well, actually.

I wonder if she's seen that.

There's another one, look.

Both of them inside are just completely loose.

Rightio. So I'll glue this together.

Push that together...

-Not yet, don't, not yet!

-Yeah.

No, Jim, please don't. Just...

Jim, please, don't. No, leave it, leave it, leave it, leave it.

-JIM LAUGHS

-No, please, just leave it.

-OK, OK.

Wow, guys. Look at these beauties!

Sandra, what's happened?

-It's totally fell off, the thing. I can't believe it.

-Oh, no!

Please don't fall apart!

-Look at that.

-Woo-hoo!

-Perfect!

It's a bit of a mess, though.

Wow, look at them, guys!

-SHE GASPS

-Amazing!

It's really nice.

-Ooh!

-Nice. Yeah!

-We were saying it looks...

-It doesn't fit.

-It doesn't fit, no, you're right.

-Oh, mate!

-Oh, no!

-What a shame!

I was shot down in flames!

Trust Tom just to rub it in!

I've got a little bit of an issue, I think, with this one.

You're not alone, my dear.

And that gives me an extra bit of height!

Do you know what? That is what I designed and planned for.

Mine's the shortest.

-But hey...

-But the cutest.

-Oh, that's lovely!

-Beautiful.

-I think it's the other way round.

-Yours is really tall!

So how happy are you?

-I'm very happy, thank you.

-Very happy? That's cool.

Thank you for asking.

'The sculptures have been assembled...'

Welcome to the Stoke-on-Trent Sculpture Park.

Wow!

'..and now it's time for them to be judged.'

Wow, potters.

-Hi, Jim.

-Hi, guys.

Well, Jim, your design concept

was this fish leaping out of the water,

which I think you've achieved.

You don't have any cracks on the main sections of your piece.

Obviously, it's not quite fitting.

You were in two minds about using

-your white glaze, weren't you?

-Not at all, actually.

-No. I...

I think it really works, Jim, before you say anything else.

I think it really, really works. I'm really pleased with that.

I really like this as a design feature.

It's gone an amazing pearly, glittery kind of white.

I would have liked to have seen more of them all over the fish.

And I think one of the really successful things of this design,

you were asked to make something in sections and, in fact,

that section is invisible because you've repeated that angle

up through the head.

You do seem to have this knack of doing something very simple,

looks so quick and easy,

and as we both know, that's not. That's a talent.

-Did I notice that you actually put something on this?

-I did.

Yeah, what was that, then?

Well, I sponged copper oxide in the centre of each panel,

cos I wanted the green to come up,

-but I've obviously put it on too thinly, and it's burnt off.

-Right.

It hasn't come through.

But the use of oxide on the base is really nice.

I think it works really well with the texture that you've gone with.

In fact, this, for me, is a separate sculpture to this.

I think the use of shiny and matt works

and I think the seed shapes just about work.

You did have a struggle, you know, your big pod fell to pieces

and you got it back together. You know, all power to you.

-You did well.

-Yeah.

Obviously, we can't get away from the fact that we've got

some cracks here, and obviously we have a crack round the back.

It is a construction issue,

but I think the proportions of each section are really nice.

I'm really liking this kind of texture.

I think this has worked really well with this particular oxide mix

that you've got here.

That blue you put in around the edge,

-I'd have loved that to have been that bit more accurate.

-Absolutely right.

I understand this is the first time you've done slab building?

-I've never done anything like this before!

-Pretty impressive.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

-Hi, Sandra.

-Hello.

-Can we speak to you over the sculpture, Sandra?

-I'm sure you can.

Mmm. It's very much helped by the antennae.

SANDRA LAUGHS

You know, otherwise we'd be missing a little more,

but you've had a problem, haven't you, with the back?

-It blew off in the kiln.

-Yeah.

-And so you've stuck this on, have you?

-This bit.

-Glued it back on.

I would have made the bases taller to start off with.

Yes, I actually missed out... One of these is not there.

-You lost it in the kiln or you didn't make it?

-I didn't make it.

-There was no time.

-There was!

You had as much time as everyone else.

But they're cleverer than me.

So you've exceeded the height request.

I might have gained a little bit of height just with this section here.

-OK.

-Have you gained height here as well?

-No, that was intentional.

-Was it really?

-I don't think that plug has worked.

I maybe would have wanted to see a bit more surface design on there.

-Yeah, I don't necessarily think the black insides work.

-No.

You know, to me, it just doesn't visually work.

It looks as though it's something half done.

I really love the idea, but to me I just don't feel it holds together.

It's fantastic.

This very simple but very effective way that you half cut through,

and then tore the crank body apart to show us this rough edge.

And you've been really clever with the design,

because if something had broken, we wouldn't have noticed!

-Exactly, yeah.

-It almost looks alive.

It could be something from the past,

but it could also be something quite science fiction.

It's got your mark.

There's a sort of punk anarchy in it, which you know, your hair...

It's all you. I'm really impressed.

The thing with you, Matthew, you have a great affinity...

You have a great affinity

-to use the glazes and the oxides to their optimum.

-Thank you.

It's fantastic.

Kate and Keith have got to decide who is Top Potter,

and who is going to be leaving the pottery.

While they come to that decision, you guys can have a breather

and we'll see you back here in a little while.

I think the outcome of this is I'm out of here.

And...you know, I've exceeded my expectations.

I just wanted to last after the first week, and I did.

It's like waiting for the inevitable, really.

Jane looks like she's struggling and she's demoralised

and thinking, "This is the worst, it's all going to happen."

Maybe it'll be somebody else - who knows?

The issues weren't particularly my skills in making.

It was just the timekeeping.

I don't know what's going to happen. I'll have to wait and see.

My fate is in their hands.

Judges, here we are again, with big decisions to be made.

Let's start off with the happy business, please. Top Potter.

Well, Top Potters, we think, are between Matthew and Jim.

I think the two of them stand as sculptural pieces with Jim's.

It's a really cheery piece, whereas Matthew's is rather a serious,

crazy piece.

Jim's Spot Test this week was brilliant.

Now, he really did transform that main pot into a strawberry pot.

There was this sure methodology.

Such an exciting thing to look at.

And Matthew won the Throw Down. His plate was really competent.

It was well finished and really well executed.

But what about who's leaving this week - are you as certain about that?

Well, we have decided two that haven't really stepped up

to the mark with design and construction,

and they are Sandra and Jane.

And the little antenna on the top...

It's a sort of design insult to try and get the height up.

Sandra's construction is very good - there's just not enough of it.

She did even admit to us that she'd left a whole section out.

Let's talk about Jane and where she went wrong.

Well, where do you start? I'm just so disappointed with it.

The simplicity of the design... It's far too conservative.

This looks as though it's going to snap and fall at us

so it makes me feel insecure.

I wouldn't want it in my garden. Then it's cracked,

and she's scratched it and the glaze doesn't work.

In the Throw Down, Jane came sixth,

and then with Sandra, Sandra was sixth in the Spot Test?

-She was, yeah.

-She was. I'm totally, totally in a dilemma about this.

I just don't know what to do.

Gather round, potters, gather round.

As you know, potters, each week the judges decide who is Top Potter.

Keith and I have agreed that the person

who we've chosen to be Top Potter has done well in the Spot Test

and the Throw Down,

had a clear design message that really strengthened

through the process, showed us clay in a really energetic and great way.

The Top Potter for this week is...

..Matthew.

-THEY APPLAUD

-Well done, Matthew.

Well done, Matthew. Second week in a row!

-Yes.

-Gosh.

And now to the more difficult task - who is leaving the pottery?

You've really struggled, haven't you?

It's been so, so hard, and I have to be honest with you,

it's been a decision between two of you.

Now, the person who's going through has gone through

by the skin of their teeth, and I mean that.

And the person leaving the pottery is...

..Sandra.

Oh, Sandra!

Oh, no!

Sweetheart, we're going to miss you so much.

They really struggled.

We literally did think of a double elimination.

That's how close it was,

and that's how close Jane came to actually going.

'We just felt that at least Jane finished her concept.

'She finished it, yeah.'

I hadn't fulfilled the brief, so it makes sense

that I got eliminated at this stage.

Well done, Jim, great work.

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

'She admitted herself she was missing a piece.'

'Frustrating because she's a great character, great touch,'

really very frustrating.

I don't want you to go!

Sandra's just been voted out, which I'm really devastated about.

She's a really good friend.

It's really hard...

Really struggled.

Can we have a group hug, please?

THEY ALL TALK OVER EACH OTHER

'I'm quite surprised at being Top Potter again.

'Keith was quite emotional and it was nice to see people'

be like that about the subject that they're truly passionate about,

and, yeah, I think him saying that I've got an affinity with clay

and glaze, it's something I'd be happy to have on my gravestone.

Next week is the semifinal. Really can't believe I'm there.

I just have to give it my best shot.

You're up against it now, I think, you know,

can't let the guard down now.

I don't know what I'm doing with it, at all.

The potters...

SHE GROANS

..face their most delicate build so far...

Did I make you jump?

..a bone china chandelier.

GASPING, CRASHING

Plus a mesmerising Spot Test...

-I were going under then. Was going to be at your command.

-Yeah.

And a Throw Down that refuses to play ball.

Don't tickle it. You're the boss.

But who will be heading to the final?

That's fighting talk.

And who will be heading home?

He's absolutely done nothing.

It doesn't tell me anything.