Episode 6 The Great Pottery Throw Down

It's the quarterfinals and, cor, what a scorcher!

Things are certainly heating up for our six remaining potters,

who have pulled, thrown, coiled and slapped their way this far.

However, now it's all about their flanges.

It sounds a touch uncomfortable.

This is The Great Pottery Throw Down.

Last time, the potters camped out...

-Morning, guys.

-..for an ancient pit firing.

Whoo!

Richard finally turned his back on history...

Oh, my goodness, how beautiful.

..with a modern masterpiece that won Pot Of The Week.

-I'm speechless.

-That's never happened before.

But with the judges unable to separate Freya, Cait and Ryan...

It looks like that.

..no-one was sent home.

I'm really frustrated.

Now for the first time in the competition...

Has anyone started the flange?

..two potters will be sent home.

Character-building, that.

So whose Russian dolls will fit the brief?

Oh!

Whose Spot Test will reveal the touch of an artist?

Oh!

And who can feel their way through a Throw Down...

What?!

..that has to be seen to be believed?

I'm getting worried now, I'm getting really worried.

# Makin' time

# Shootin' lines

# The people have their uses

# People have their uses... #

This week there is a lot more uncertainty

and two people are going to go home.

Last week I was that close to going,

and I really have to pull my socks up

to stay in the competition.

I'm a bit worried about hand-building,

but we will see how it goes, I could be the dark horse in this one.

I won Pot Of The Week last week.

This week I am hoping to do the same with my hand build.

You know, I'm confident.

Just four days and three more challenges stand

between the potters and a place in the semifinal.

Well, good morning, potters.

-POTTERS:

-Morning.

This week, Kate and Keith would like you to

hand build a family of four Russian dolls.

The two halves of your dolls must close together

and fit together using a flange and gallery.

Keith, what is a flange and gallery?

A gallery is a section of the pot on the rim where you have a small step

and the flange is a section on the rim

of the other one where they fit together.

When you think of a Russian doll, you think of the traditional shape,

but you can do any shape you like.

What's important is that the four pieces fit inside each other and we

want these pieces to be intricate and beautiful.

OK, potters, you've got four hours to hand build your Russian dolls.

Time starts now.

There's a huge amount of pressure now

since we know that there's two people leaving. We're feeling it.

Last week, I was in the bottom three,

so I feel I've been given a second chance.

I've never made a Russian doll before.

I don't see why I would, in clay.

We'd given the potters a hand building task before,

but this is really different.

There's a lot of technicalities involved in this.

Four Russian dolls, not only do they have to fit inside each other,

so they have to get the shrinkage and the proportions right,

but they have to actually fit together.

Building a gallery and a flange to fit properly is no mean feat.

We are not expecting a tight, snug fit.

But we are expecting to see a lovely clean gallery

and we are expecting it to work.

One of the things about hand-building,

they are coiling and they are pinching, aren't they?

It doesn't have to be round.

They can be mobile phones, or they can be robots or houses.

They can pinch away from the round,

but they still have to keep all our criteria in mind,

and I'm hoping to see them really think out of the box, actually.

Richard has decided not to think out of the box.

I'll start with the largest one first.

He is thinking out of the pyramid instead.

Canopic jars, and these were the jars which

were laid next to Pharaoh, and they contained his bodily organs.

I was looking at them and I instantly thought Russian dolls.

The tops of Richard's Russian dolls

will feature Egyptian gods in the form

of a jackal, a hawk, a baboon and a boy.

Obviously you had Pot Of The Week last week,

but just focus on every aspect of the design.

Absolutely. Last week is last week,

we can't live in the past all the time.

The potters are hand-building their dolls using the coiling technique

but, for speed, some are using an extruder,

which forces clay into usable lengths.

Women first, let them out of the way.

Richard just enjoys watching us struggle!

We need more hands, really.

Look, I'm using my head.

Nam's begun with a technique that's a little less strenuous.

This is how we make pasta in Vietnam.

Nam's Russian dolls are inspired by the shape of the Lotus pod.

He is making the tops and bottoms separately

and the distinctive look of hand-rolled coils

will be a crucial part of his design.

You are smoothing the coils on the inside,

but you are leaving the coils on the outside?

-On the top one, yes.

-On the top one?

Yes. What I've done, I have kind of customised my formers

to allow me to have a certain shape.

When I press the clay in it will give me a leaf-like shape

and I know that when I get these out on the outside they have got...

-Grooves like contours?

-Yeah, correct.

I did practise once in my house.

My partner didn't like it, though. She is my biggest critic.

The critics you have got to worry about are these two judges right here, Nam, to be fair.

I was going to say, your partner's not the judge, so don't worry.

We are. You better worry about us.

Yeah.

While Nam is coiling on the inside of customised bowls,

all the others are coiling around the outside

of objects known as formers.

Made from absolutely anything, they could find or make.

I've got these 3-D printed formers.

I am going to start with the smallest one and work my way up.

I decided on using the rhyme of

There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly.

Cait's nursery rhyme dolls will start with

the old lady and each one she'll contain

will be decorated with what they've swallowed.

They start to look a little bit like

-sarcophagus mummies, don't they?

-Hey, don't copy Richard's idea!

-Oh, yeah!

-You might win, I'll take it.

No!

But coiling around a former isn't working for everyone.

I don't know what I'm doing.

I've been trying to make,

this is the fourth doll I have made and it is all fail.

I don't know how to do it!

I am going to do something to bring awareness of global warming,

illegal hunting, overfishing and pollution in the sea.

Clover's endangered dolls begin with a polar bear.

It will contain a seal, containing a fish and finally a piece of coral.

But attempting the smallest design out of all the potters

hasn't meant less work.

I still have trouble taking it off my former.

It's not working, is it?

-But if...

-No, no, no. You've got the rough shape,

you've got the proportion.

It's not going to work.

I think I need to start again.

Whilst Clover wrestles with the smallest design...

Has anyone got masking tape?

..Ryan's could well be the biggest.

I am making a family of fish today.

I made some formers out of Styrofoam,

starting with the largest one first.

An old fisherman's tale, you know.

I caught a fish this big, it got away.

And then that fish was actually that big,

and then it was actually that big and then actually that big.

So it is that whole, like, fisherman's tale, really.

Ryan's enormous fish will be severed at the head to reveal

each smaller catch inside.

He needs to add lips,

fins and hundreds of scales, and to perfect his flanges and galleries,

he's got a secret weapon.

My dad has made me this lovely little tool,

-which I don't know if it is going to work yet.

-I like a tool.

-What is this going to do?

-I want that tool, thanks very much!

What is that going to do?

Well, my dad thinks it's going to be...

-Roll and cut.

-Yeah, roll and cut.

That's amazing.

Like a can opener, basically.

And I made some of these little looped tools

to make some fish scales as well.

-OK.

-This is exciting.

Your tools are just fantastic.

I want to meet your dad. Does he want to come round?

Freya has also chosen to go large for the quarterfinal.

This is my inspiration.

These African masks I have around my house.

So my design is,

I have got these four talking heads and the middle one has

got a tongue that pokes all the way through to the beginning one.

Like that.

Of all of the potters, Freya is

attempting the most work at the hand-building stage,

adding separate clay features

and pinching the surface of her interlocking masks.

But even with all that work,

there is something missing with her design.

There isn't going to be a typical flange.

They lock into each other like teeth.

-Oh, I see.

-So they register into each other?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Sorry to tell you but the part of the criteria is that

it has to be a flange that fits.

You can't just have that.

That is the point, OK.

Is that a big old spanner in the works or is it doable?

Yeah, it is a spanner.

OK, potters, you've got one hour left.

This is your one-hour call.

-That woke you up.

-It's just coils, it's just coils.

This bench is cursed.

Cursed, I'll tell you.

I've just started to cut my pots in two and I am now trying to get

the formers out of them.

The wall is really, really thin,

so I have not got masses to work with for creating a gallery,

so that is going to be really fiddly.

Has anyone started the flange?

If the potters can find the time to create a basic flange and gallery at

this building stage...

I think getting the gallery to fit

is probably one of the hardest things to do.

..after the dolls have dried,

they'll be able to trim them

to ensure the perfect fit that the judges

will be looking for.

I'm going to try and make the flanges as thin as possible,

because they need to fit in each other.

So I'm going to wet my surface...

And let the coil adhere to it.

But they also need to ensure that none of this extra clay

will prevent the dolls from fitting inside one another.

There's so much that can go wrong. You can underestimate,

you can overestimate, so it's even more critical now.

But having finally managed to take

her miniature dolls off her formers...

I decided to make the last one solid, to save myself some time.

..clover now faces creating tiny galleries and flanges.

I'm trying to fix this gallery and fringe here

because they were a bit too loose,

so I'm adding a bit more thickness into it.

Now I need to make sure the smaller ones fit in.

OK. I may need to thin a little bit...

Definitely snug, isn't it, when it went in there?

-Yeah.

-You seem calm though.

Ah...grr!

You've moved on a bit from the panic.

After my panic eased, start feeling the joy of it now.

But at this stage of the main make...

I've added a coil and then I'm going to carve a gallery from the top.

..there's no joy for Freya.

It's a bit of a last-minute thing.

I've failed miserably on that.

For some reason I just thought I could

get away with creating a different sort of opening.

And Freya is not the only one struggling.

It's... It's just very sticky.

Potters, you've got 30 minutes left.

Time just seems to fly, doesn't it?

How are you doing?

I'm getting bored of saying...

"Oh, I'm running out of time."

Is it a case of that you've got sort of

25 minutes but you need 30 minutes, ideally?

Still need to do the galleries and flanges to them.

Maybe an hour? Two hours?

-A day. A week?

-A week.

With her flange and galleries constructed,

Clover has begun working on the surface decoration

of her endangered species.

As has Ryan, with his fish fins and the tail for his biggest catch.

Speed fish scaling.

-That's what's going on here.

-Speed fishing.

-Speed fishin'!

To keep with the sort of water theme, are you like a swan,

where you seem to be gliding along but you are furiously paddling

-underneath?

-I am furiously paddling underneath right now.

-Yeah.

Rather than going into the drying room,

the potters are covering their pieces

in clingfilm so they don't dry out

too much for the trimming stage when the clay

still needs to be a little moist.

Ten, nine, eight, seven...

Are these going in, Cait?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-OK, six...

OK. Five, four, pop that under your arm.

Three, two...

..one. Time's up.

Whilst the hand-built Russian dolls dry

and become leather hard, ready to be trimmed,

there's just time for a challenge at the wheel and it's a Throw Down that

no-one saw coming.

This week, Kate and Keith would like you to throw the widest bowl you can...

..blindfolded.

What?!

-Really.

-I'll just take my glasses off.

That's me done.

The reason for blindfolding you is that you really do get

a sense that your fingers and your hands are your eyes.

So, off we go.

And you are really feeling that clay through your hands.

You can feel when the clay is off centre.

You need to gauge how thick your base is

and how wide you want to make the bowl.

You are constantly using your fingers as gauges.

So now, I am bringing the clay up, I'm just being really controlled...

Now, I am using the flat of my left hand on the inside to really just

bring that bowl out.

And I'm visualising the outside shape

and then I'm going to rib up the side,

making sure that I've got the rib at an angle that's not going to destroy

the pot and then I'm just going to tidy up the rim,

just lightly place that on there.

So, there we go.

Wow!

APPLAUSE

-OK.

-OK, so...

Potters, blindfolds on, please.

You have ten minutes...

-Ten minutes?!

-To throw the widest, neatest bowl you can.

Potters, get potting.

Just try and relax into it and enjoy it.

# I know you deceive me, so here's a surprise... #

Your hands are your eyes.

Just remember the danger is, if you go too wide,

it will collapse, go too narrow, it won't be wide enough.

# I can see for miles and miles... #

Ryan's is going wobbly here.

Not a peep out of him.

-Nam, why are you making a plate?

-What?

Lovely, isn't it? Lovely, lovely challenge.

Remember, things seem bigger when you can't see them.

Story of my life.

Things seem bigger in the dark.

Don't overdo it.

Decide when you think you've got the clay to its optimum.

I am getting worried now.

Getting really worried.

# I know that you have, cos there's magic in my eyes... #

You've got one minute left of this Throw Down.

Remember, you've got to wire it up at the end, OK?

# Miles and miles and miles... #

Oh, no.

Hey, Clover.

-Yeah.

-I've come to you at quite an intense moment.

I know. I know, my bowl has collapsed.

-Sweetheart...

-I am just trying to shape it now, really.

There's not much I can do. The wheel is not going to go.

At least you've got something, all right?

OK, here we go.

Ten, nine...

These things need wiring off.

..eight, seven,

six, five...

Take your time with it. ..four, three, two,

one. Time is up.

-Well done.

-Get back. Hands off your bowls, please.

Hands off your bowls.

-Well done.

-Wow!

Keith and Kate are looking for level-sided, neatly rimmed bowls.

Each one will be measured and

they'll reveal who has thrown the widest

after everyone has been judged.

-That's not bad.

-We'll be the judge of that, obviously.

Of course, of course. That goes without saying.

You could have used more of this clay

down the bottom to sort of really

belly it out. It probably would have given you an extra centimetre or so.

-Shall we measure it?

-Yeah.

OK. Thank you, Richard.

Well done.

I would say that the rim is a bit too thick.

The clay in the rim should have been on the side of the pot.

This is a wider bowl than I've ever made with my eyes open.

It's true. I think you probably

concentrate more when your eyes are closed

and you really do need to use all the other senses.

What I like about it is looking at a rim that's nice and thin.

It's a really nice shape on the outside, as well.

Oh!

You have kept it a bit on the conservative side,

but there's a sense of purpose to the bowl which is really good.

Have you any idea what happened?

I went for the contemporary design.

Well done(!) It's, you know...

Yeah, it's collapsed.

Tough one today for you.

I'm sorry.

So, which blindfolded potter threw the neatest and widest bowl?

Sixth place, dear Clover.

Your piece collapsed because you had too much weight up in the rim.

Fifth is Nam with a bowl 26.8 centimetres wide.

Freya's bowl was 30.5 centimetres,

but with uneven sides, so Cait beat her to third place

with a bowl of 30.1 centimetres.

Well done, Cait.

So in second place, 30 and three millimetres was...

was Richard.

-Thank you.

-Good, fine high and wide bowl, Richard.

So, first place, Ryan.

Well done, Ryan.

APPLAUSE

30.9.

You really accentuated the inside of the bowl.

A nice, delicate rim.

Really showed me that you were really using the senses.

Well done.

I think that is now going to help me with my hand-building as well.

You know, that bit of confidence. I think I needed that.

Six millimetres.

I've got to be honest,

Ryan's bowl was a really good bowl, so fair play.

The right chap won.

I feel fantastic.

I think all my throwing needs to be done blindfolded.

I think I'm the weakest link so far.

Haven't won anything. Absolutely nothing.

So if there are three people down in the bottom

and they have to get rid of two, I'm definitely one of the two.

The Russian dolls have been drying for two hours.

My dolls are the perfect dryness to work on the trimming stage.

It's a little bit dry.

The potters now have just 60 minutes to trim and refine all four of them.

I've got a huge amount to do in a short period of time.

Ideally, I'd have another hour, I guess.

The most important thing that I want to see the potters doing is

making sure it all works.

They've got to check they fit inside each other.

They can embellish, they can clarify the gallery.

We've got to see them really pulling it together at this stage.

How are you doing?

I'm doing the galleries and flanges, so I'm adding a bit of clay to the

base and I removing a bit of clay from the top.

You are up against it, really, aren't you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need to have the galleries and flanges done.

-Yeah.

-I've left it...

That's the main task, isn't it?

For the potters who already added

these connecting pieces at the hand building stage...

It's a bit wet, still.

I distorted it a bit early on.

..they now need to begin carefully cutting away

the clay at the joint to create a perfect seal.

Just figuring out which way the top went on.

Obviously, it's going to take a little bit of fiddling.

Any inaccurate trimming and their pieces

won't meet and the doll's form will be ruined.

My dad gave me this tool.

He made it for me and this creates the recess here.

It's just like a can-opener, basically.

Are you quite happy with them fitting together nice?

They do fit together.

It fits. OK.

But even if the dolls do slot together...

It's in.

..the constantly drying and shrinking clay

will need even more trimming...

Oh, God.

..to ensure they still fit inside each other.

Yep.

Just flattening it so they fit in.

Cos at the moment they are a bit too tight.

Having built his tops and bottoms separately from hand-rolled coils...

..Nam now has a problem.

-Hi, Nam.

-Hi, Sarah.

How you feeling, bud?

I'm feeling really stressed at the moment.

-Yeah?

-What's going on?

-I don't think my forms are fitting.

Oh, sweetheart.

OK, be calm.

I messed up one, definitely,

-and it was that one there.

-OK, yeah.

It's affected everything.

OK, so what you are dealing with here is that basically

you've messed up with your sizings on one of your pods

and one of your pods isn't possibly going to fit together that great.

Yeah? But the other three are good.

Hopefully, if they all survive the firing,

the worst that you are looking at is

-one of them isn't going to fit that perfectly.

-Yeah.

And I reckon you're probably not going to be alone in that.

Once trimmed and fitted...

Come off.

..the potters can finish any surface work.

That's the little seal.

These are the ears belonging to the jackal going on.

It's all a bit higgledy-piggledy.

My darling doll faces, you've got ten minutes left, OK?

This is your ten-minute warning.

That's insane.

Not super happy with having to rush on the decoration because I would've

liked to have put a bit more on.

A fish rising is a symbol of life improving, at least, Ryan.

OK. Hope my life's improving!

But then fish out of water is bad luck.

Oh, right.

It could go either way.

Oh, so little time left.

Potters, you've got one minute left.

All your things need to be in the drying room

at the end of this minute and I mean it, OK?

She means it.

-Are you all right, Cait?

-Yeah?

-How is this minute

going to work for you. Are you done?

I've got a cow and I've got an old woman.

I've got a dog which may need to be

done in decorating and I've got a bird

which will definitely need to be done in decorating.

OK, you need to start getting your things to the drying room, please.

Ten, nine,

eight... Hurry, but calmly.

.seven, six...

Flying fish.

..five, four, three,

two, one.

OK, time is up, guys.

You've got a couple of days' break now, so escape while you can.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Cheers, bye.

That was a disgusting task.

Drying and firing will take 48 hours.

And as the heat of the kiln can alter the size of their work...

The moment of truth.

..it's been an agonising wait for the potters.

The biggest issue is that they may not fit.

I have to decorate as well as I can and look on the positive side.

Two people are going home and they're going to choose someone

with the dolls that don't fit into each other.

Bottom line.

Faced with reality,

I'm the one that hasn't won anything in the Throw Down or spot tests

so far. Haven't won any best Potter Of The Week either, so, yeah,

I have my suitcase ready.

The potters now have two hours to do a final check on fitting and then

glaze their Russian dolls.

Yay, we have a lid.

-Oh.

-Am I the only one that's got a really loose bottom?

I can't pick it up on the top.

Oops, eye just fell off.

It's not going to fit.

There was a flaw and it's cost me pretty big.

Way too small.

Once there is glaze on that, that's going to be a bit...

That's not going to fit, really.

We've got a bit of a tight fit with the lid.

Should be all right. Just rubbing this round and it'll loosen it up.

They are pretty loose, but then again, if I make it too tight,

it may not separate them.

It's earthenware clay and it's soft

and it's quite easy to file away the clay.

I've got my special tool that my dad gave me.

At this rate I'll spend the full two hours just filing.

Yeah, I know. Me too.

Filing frantically just to try and get this to fit a little bit

neater than it is already.

It's just hitting on the base a bit there.

Oh. My fin just broke off.

Richard is the first potter who's ready to decorate.

These are the sort of colours we'll be going for.

They'll be a bit brighter, obviously.

The yellows and blues and reds.

You know, it'll be a lot more standout.

When they decorate their dolls,

they can go quite traditional if they want.

This is a lovely set of typical Russian dolls

and the decoration itself, it's all the same.

It carries right across from top to bottom.

Here is a quite traditional set.

There's a lovely continuity between them

and although they work together,

each penguin is different.

They've got two hours, haven't they, to decorate these pieces?

So were looking for meticulous and precise glaze application here.

I want to see consistency with the glazing

and the decorating throughout the whole set.

Two people are going here.

They have to get this right. It could be the make or break.

-Oh, God, this is, like, never-ending.

-Yeah.

Are you going to do a bit of decorating at some point?

Pop a bit on for the last five minutes?

-Oh, it's nice, that noise.

-Yeah, isn't it?

It's lovely.

Yeah, I will do some. I'm getting round to it, Sarah.

OK. You are going to keep it quite simple design, anyway.

-I remember you saying.

-Yeah, I mean that's...

Lazy, isn't it?

The front will be the colour of the animal itself and the back would be

related to the message I want to send out.

On the back of the polar bear, it's about global warming, ice melting.

So the majority will be blue, a bit of green and a watery effect.

And on the seal, it's about illegal hunting,

so it'll be really bloody red.

I want to use the sponge technique to create gradual colour change.

I'm masking out the area that I don't want the sponge to touch.

-How is it all going?

-Yeah, good.

One was a little bit tighter than I expected

so there's going to be a lot

of oxides on here. I'm going to do blues,

and I might do each fish a slightly different colour

and try and highlight some of the textures and the scales

-and things like that.

-What are these, Ryan?

Are these intentional?

No, they actually came off when I was putting stuff in,

-but they needed to come off.

-They needed to come off, right, to fit.

Any tips?

No. I'm just the judge.

I've sketched the design just so that I've got a rough idea

of what it's going to look like on the form,

but mostly it was so that I know what way they fit together so

that I can keep track of them and then file accordingly.

I'm running out of decorating time.

Just getting rid of clay, basically.

Potters, you have one hour left.

Halfway through your time.

-Way behind.

-Yeah, me too.

Your decorating is a bit less complicated, I think.

I filed quite a lot down.

They probably still won't fit.

Honestly, they probably won't.

I'm not being negative.

It's just how it works.

They just keep moving in the kiln.

They'll shrink again and change shape, and they just won't fit.

So, it's best that, like, I just did excess filing, just to avoid that.

Giving my old woman a bit of a purple rinse.

You're a dark horse.

Look at this. I didn't know you could do all this detail.

This is a little bit darkness that you're sending out.

Cute little characters there, and the children are like, ah...

Then you turn it round.

Need to be supervised by the parents.

Character-building, that,

some horror pictures on the other side of cute little animals.

I haven't done the face yet, and I need to crack on, really.

-It's nice.

-I've spent so much time on the back of it.

Oh, wow, that looks interesting.

Yeah, it's a little bit of lace impression, pressing on to my forms.

Oh, excellent. How are you finding after the biscuit firing?

I found that one of my pieces doesn't fit into my whole set,

so I've only got a set of three at the moment.

It's such a shame.

How do the other pieces fit together?

They all actually fit really nicely.

Well, it's not over till it's over, mate.

It's all to play for.

This is just an oxide.

It's quite a simple sort of, like, stain.

I just don't want these to be white-white.

Which animal is this?

Because I know, in ancient Egypt,

they looked slightly different to their modern equivalents.

Yeah, this is the jackal.

Because it looks quite sort of model kangaroo.

Absolutely, yeah.

Jackal, eagle...

Yeah.

-Sheep.

-Monkey.

Monkey.

Monkey. Didn't have sheep.

My dad's a farmer, and it's terrible

I can't tell a sheep and a monkey apart.

Is this a proper thing for doing it with and everything?

-It's a little blow pot, yeah.

-Little blow pot!

God, look at that! It looks like a murder scene.

Yeah.

Are you happy with your decorating here?

Um, so far, I'm fairly pleased with her,

but I've got 20 minutes left to do the last three.

Crack on, Cait.

Yeah, I need to just get on.

OK, potters, you've got ten minutes left for this decorating stage.

At the end of the ten minutes,

you need to have all your stuff on a ware board, please,

ready to get down to the kiln.

I'm on my second of four dolls.

There's not enough time at all left.

I'm taking way too long to do them.

In the final minutes, the potters glaze their dolls,

either by dipping them in glaze, or painting it on.

But they must make sure the glaze is properly wiped off the flanges and

galleries to ensure the thickness of the glaze doesn't alter the fit during firing.

Potters, you've got two minutes left.

Oh, my word!

Cait, you're joking me.

-Is it OK if I...?

-Yeah, do what you've got to do.

Oh, no! Two minutes and I haven't started with my dolls.

Spider, spider, spider, spider.

Potters, you've got 30 seconds now.

OK, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three,

two, one...

Time is up, potters.

Well done. Get your stuff on your ware boards, please,

if it's not already on there.

Do it quickly. And we're going to take all your stuff

down to the kiln, ready for firing.

I forgot the cat.

BLEEP.

I forgot the cat onto the dog, so part of the rhyme is not there.

My first three fish fit quite well.

It's the larger one that sort of lets the piece down a little bit.

I've stacked them into each other,

which is the position that they're going to be in, in the end.

That's just so that they shrink together,

because I fear that I won't be able to

get them back in if I fire them all separately.

Let's hope the bits fit,

because I've just realised I've glazed the insides of

-the

-BLEEP.

They've decorated their Russian dolls,

and they are going for their firing.

Who do you think is really shining this week?

Well, Clover.

At first, she was really struggling with actually making the pieces,

but then it all seemed to come together.

And the scale is beautiful.

I think Ryan's doing pretty well.

It looks like his galleries fit well.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the surface design

over those fish scales.

I'm a little bit worried about Cait.

The theme running through the four dolls is such a lovely one.

She had all the pieces made,

and she's let herself down at the decorating stage.

Nam was getting quite confused.

Some of the sections don't actually fit on top of the other ones.

And I don't think they fit inside each other.

Complete chaos.

Who else could be going?

Well, it's Freya. The design was good,

the idea of this tongue - brilliant.

You know, but I'm just worried

she's just losing it by not planning properly.

She's firing them all together, one inside the other.

I think it's very risky.

As the Russian dolls enter the kiln,

we're heading south for the potters' last chance to impress the judges

with a Spot Test all the way from Italy.

The judges would like you to try your hand at a spot of sgraffito,

which is not, apparently, a fancy, frothy coffee.

It's sort of like graffiti for ceramics, if you will.

Now, lurking underneath your hessian, you will each have an urn.

It's leather hard, it's covered in black slip

and ready for you to sgraffito to your heart's content.

Essentially, you'll be carving through

the black slip to reveal the white clay underneath.

We want to see a well-considered repeat pattern,

covering the entire surface of your urns.

You want to be precise and decisive with your tools.

You've got an hour and a half to sgraffito your urns.

Your time starts now.

I've done a fair bit of sgraffito work,

so what I shall probably do is

get the inspiration from the 17th century

and do a stylised 17th-century flower.

First time sgraffitoing today,

so I'm just sort of actually learning at the same time.

I've planned a floral design.

I'm just sort of adding them in as I go right now.

I've never done sgraffito on pottery before.

They want quite an intricate piece that fits into itself,

and what better shape than a puzzle?

I need to perform better in my spot tests.

It's the week where two people are going,

and you need to impress or you're going home.

So, the word sgraffito essentially means

scratching through from one surface to reveal another.

You're carving, scratching, engraving it, but essentially,

you're peeling away a pattern.

This is my design.

There's going to be some floral things going on.

Triangles, a bit of waves, borders, lots of borders.

I'll add more and more detail as I go.

I've gone for a skyline,

because I thought that would lend itself nicely

to sort of dark, light, silhouettes. I mean, it's going all right so far.

Keep focused.

Because I thought that before, and then it's fallen apart.

Oh...

Gouged in. See, this isn't 100% even, so there's little gouges,

and it just got caught on an uneven...

There we go. So, now, I'm going to have to make a feature out of that.

Work with it, work with it.

It needs to be a repeated pattern,

because otherwise I would have put a dragon around it.

So, I changed my design to peacock feather,

and then it's large and nice but could put a lot of detail in it,

so I'm trying to achieve that.

Hello, Clover. Hello.

-Hello.

-How are you doing?

-Are you all right?

-Yeah, I don't know what graffiti is.

I don't know whether I should carve it, I should not carve...

I've got no idea what the right thing to do is.

You're obviously doing OK.

Watch things like this, though.

-Yeah.

-We don't want to see that. I don't know how you're going to

-repair that but you need to look at it.

-Yeah.

This could be a few of our last ever spot tests today, so...

..I think we're all trying to

impress the judges as much as possible.

-Hi, Ryan.

-Hi, guys.

-How are you getting on?

-I'm all right.

It's such a weird process, but it's really nice, scratching away.

Yeah, it's a lovely feeling.

You don't really get second chances, do you, at all?

-No.

-You have to be really confident with the mark straightaway.

-Yeah.

-You need to really think about the intricacy of this.

-Right.

-You know, you're laying down a big pattern with, like,

a full repeat.

How was your spacing? Let's have a look.

One, two,

three. Yeah.

-Great, Ryan.

-Thank you.

-Thanks a lot.

-Cheers.

Feeling a bit stuck, to be honest. I was so pleased with myself,

and then when I heard them talking to one of the others I was like,

"Oh, I forgot the repeat pattern part! No!"

How do I make this repeat?

Have I seen this pattern before?

-You might have.

-I've seen it a few times before.

-Possibly.

-Is it possibly a 17th-century pattern?

There's every chance.

OK.

-Well, just make sure you execute it really, really well.

-Yeah.

Ooh! I'll put all three of them on top of each other, can't I?

I've basically got three areas on my pot,

so if I redraw all three of them on each of the areas,

I'll have a repeat pattern.

So, I'm going to start to carve off some

and create the negative side of the puzzle,

just to give it more...of a puzzle.

This is amazing. I love this tool.

Gosh!

Potters, you're halfway through your time. 45 minutes to go.

Got plenty of time to refine the...

The forms now.

Has anyone else made a mistake?

Oh, yeah.

-Plenty.

-Yeah.

I forgot the brief.

First mistake.

I feel really stupid.

Because, for the time I've used to fix my dents,

I could have made better use of it.

Do not make the same mistakes as I do, guys.

Rim is fixed.

Do not dent it again, Clover!

Richard, nice flowers.

Thank you very much.

Can't wait till all this is over and me and you can skip hand in hand

gaily through a meadow.

Well, that's a very nice offer,

but I think I might have somebody at home who will have something to say

-about that.

-OK.

So I'm going to have to turn you down.

It was a platonic skip through a meadow!

Well, in that case, I'm all for it.

Ten minutes, guys. Ten minutes left.

Came last on the Throw Down challenges,

so I'm just trying to get

as complicated a pattern as possible.

I think I've done everything I can,

but whether that enough is a different story.

Potters, you've got one minute left.

At the end of this minute, it is tools down.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four,

three, two, one. Tools down, please, potters.

Tools down.

Well done. Lovely Spot Test.

Some gorgeous urns here.

Well done. Right, if you'd like to bring them up

to the front for judging, please.

Bring them on your whirlers.

Oh, a jigsaw puzzle!

Oh! Clever.

Keith and Kate are expecting precise and considered sgraffito work

in a repeating pattern that covers the whole urn.

Cait, it looks a bit simplistic for an hour and a half.

Because you've done that very iconic sort of tower shape,

and then you've managed to repeat that around the pot.

You can have a simple design but we're looking for intricate as well.

-Richard's.

-I'd just like to see something extra,

because I've seen you do this pattern.

Show us what you are good at,

but then show us something more each time if you are going to do that.

-Nam?

-I'm not sure about whether you planned

to have a smaller section carved out here.

You know, we were looking for a repeat that was planned well,

and I'd have loved to have seen that missing jigsaw puzzle

being the same size as the others.

Freya's.

It's a bit of a mess, really, isn't it?

I don't feel that it's got a concise, decided design.

I think it kind of happened.

Ryan's. What I particularly like about this, Ryan,

is that you've used the tool to create depth.

I think it's really bold, really nice use of repeat.

This is Clover's, isn't it?

I did notice that you had a little mark before,

so you've incorporated it.

-Yes.

-And I think you've incorporated it very well.

And it's a lovely repeat.

Yes, you've gone above and beyond the call of duty there, really.

Thank you.

But who's sgraffito has revealed the creativity

and touch of a master potter?

In sixth place is...

..this one. Freya.

Bit of a mess. Some of the tooling marks just weren't defined enough.

Cait is fifth, Richard's the fourth and Nam is third.

In second place is...

..Ryan. Really nice use of the tool.

You've got some depth in there and nice coverage of the pot.

-Really well done.

-And that means that in first place,

for the first time for a Spot Test...

-Finally!

-..is Clover.

-Thank you. Thank you, guys.

-Well done, Clover.

Lovely, bold design.

Like the way from your accident that it came up over onto the top.

It just works beautifully.

Thank you.

Finally won something!

Yay!

First taste of victory.

Nice.

I told you!

Really, really relieved I came second.

I believe I'm still in trouble, even finishing in third.

First would have helped me a bit.

I'm a sgraffito artist.

I'm miffed by that comment, really.

If they want something different, they should say.

Obviously quite disappointed.

I mean, it's a competition and if you come last, you get kicked out.

We're going to go from being six to four.

I'm in danger of being one of them.

At least if I go, I'll have company?

It's Judgment Day.

The potters are about to discover

how the Russian dolls have fared in the final firing.

-ALL:

-Ooooh!

They look fantastic.

They're still warm!

All your bits and pieces are strewn around the base of them.

-Cool.

-God, heavier than they were before.

-Good luck.

Thank you.

For two of these potters,

this is the last time they'll be presenting to the judges.

Ryan, please bring your Russian dolls.

Steady, Ryan!

Very carefully.

Well done. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

It's a nice idea.

The colours are good.

I sort of feel if you'd shaved a few centimetres

off the bottom of each one,

it still would have had the same message

and they would have been a more stable shape.

I'm a bit worried about the stability of that.

I know you lost a few of your fins, but obviously,

if you're stacking things inside each other,

the three inner ones really have to be quite streamlined

and slither like a fish into each other.

Yeah, let's see, Kate.

So again, I think the design could have been so much better executed.

I mean, it kind of wants to but it's not quite there.

I know. It's so close.

Here we go.

Oh! You know, if I owned this,

I'd worry that I'd be knocking off the scales when it was going in.

This one's already been filleted, I think.

The woman who swallowed the horse, the cow that swallowed the goat.

The dog didn't swallow anything.

-Why is the cat missing?

-Time got away from me.

If you're going to think of

a design concept that is as strong as this,

follow it through, eh?

Right, OK, here we go.

No, I won't sing.

I have to say, on a real positive,

the gallery and the flanges worked really, really well.

Don't forget the cat next time.

Poor cat!

I have to say, Clover, it's wonderful.

Small can be beautiful and very, very powerful

and very, very effective.

-Thank you.

-It's great.

-Thank you.

-This is why I'm here is to see something like this

presented to us because I'm...

I don't want to get emotional at all, but really,

there's a beautiful message.

There's a charm, there's a seriousness,

there's a depth and the use of the clay is exquisite.

-Let's have a look, just to see if they together.

-Yeah.

I hope they do! This one.

Yes!

I knew these two was a bit tight.

-Well done, lovey.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-Can I just take it and run now?

You've got this one that stands out

from all the rest which I quite like.

The gallery and flange is kind of non-existent.

I think that's right.

If your lids don't fit properly,

I would have expected to see the

pattern indicating to me exactly where it

was going to fit. Right.

No, that one doesn't... That's not going to fit.

That's not going to fit. OK.

So it's got to go in the big one.

-Does that fit in there?

-No.

No, right, that's completely out.

Obviously wasn't your day or your challenge.

The decoration is quite fine with your hieroglyphics on the front.

The man is rather lovely and funny, the baboon.

-What was this one?

-The hawk.

Doesn't look like a hawk. What's this one?

-This is...

-Kangaroo?

-A jackal.

-It's a jackal.

-If you're going to do a lid, you've got a gallery,

you've got the flange, it's got to fit.

-Yeah.

-It's got to fit.

Was it necessary to glaze that bit?

Well, I wouldn't have glazed it.

-Right.

-I'd have wiped it, but...

You didn't.

Let's see if they fit. This one.

Well, it's all a bit heavy and slippery.

But it does fit, Richard.

Is that stopping that?

It's just a bad fit on the lid.

-It's the lid itself?

-Yeah, because it's glazed on the inside and out.

It's not a brilliant fit, is it?

-No.

-No, no.

Have to do a side walk.

Side walk.

The design does cross all four pieces.

And I have to say, Freya, this is

the best use of the materials I've ever seen you do.

This is fantastic.

It seems to me that the design was great

but it was a missed opportunity

and you could have decorated them so much better

within the time that you were given.

This first fit was nice.

And you know exactly where they've got to go.

That's what's so lovely, is your design carries and instructs you

what to do at each stage.

Really like the design.

Let's have a look at it.

It's absolutely original, it's really, really clever.

It just is missing that last 10% in the decoration.

So, only four of you will be going through to the semifinals and two of

you will be leaving the pottery,

so the judges have got a lot to think about.

The judging went down fairly as I expected.

They tried to see some positives in it,

but I think I know what the judges saw in my work.

Obviously, looking at the criteria,

I think that probably says quite a lot.

We've got four that are complete sets because

you can't see the others and we've got two that aren't.

Just saying!

I know the mistakes I made and the judges picked up on them.

You know, they can see it as well and I can see it, so...

You know, we can only present what we have.

And this will be the last time the six of us will be together,

but we've formed an incredible friendship

and it's a lasting friendship for

the rest of my life.

I will be proud to be with you all.

-ALL:

-Aw!

Rich!

Let's talk about the good stuff first.

Who is in contention for Pot Of The Week?

One of them is Clover.

Now, Keith, were you furious? Because obviously,

you've trademarked the whole crying thing

and then lady here tried to get in on the act.

Why were you so emotional?

It was just to see her struggle and then get on top of it and then do it

and just to see such talent shining

right there in front of us with such a beautiful story.

Freya's design is fabulous.

That mouth and those four lips, perfectly in alignment.

Really great design skill.

Have you found it really difficult deciding who could be going?

There are three people and the first to look at is Ryan.

You know, his lid did not fit.

And all those little appendages just didn't really fit together.

Nam really struggled with the main make.

One of the dolls just didn't fit at all.

They look more like bowls than anything else.

Who else is in danger of not making it through to the semis?

It was Cait and her timekeeping, wasn't it?

My God, she spent ages on the largest doll

and then she rushed the others.

She had the same time as everyone else

and I'm annoyed that she didn't finish it.

Are you ready to go through and tell them your final decision?

I think we're nearly there. Just a bit more discussion.

OK. I'll get the kettle on, then.

Potters, the judges have made their decisions.

We're going to start with the happy bit first.

-Pot Of The Week.

-And it is happy.

I'm really happy to say today that the Pot Of The Week,

with greater narrative skill, with a very,

very strong message and sheer charm

is Clover's.

-Hey, well done.

-Thank you, Clover.

And now onto the less happy part.

The first person leaving the pottery is...

..Nam.

Sorry to see you go, Nam.

The second person

leaving the pottery is...

..Cait.

Two such lovely people.

-Yes.

-We're going to really miss you.

I hope to see you again, you know, all of you.

I feel I went because my design didn't work.

They weren't actually Russian dolls.

The judges were right.

There's going to be a big gap in that studio.

You know.

Isn't there, really?

-You know...

-It's tough, it's tough.

I'm going to... I'm going to miss it all.

I'm going to... I'm going to miss all the people, the setting.

Yeah, I mean, the whole experience, it's been amazing.

Now, lad, the reason why you're still in is because you did so well

in the Spot Test and the Throw Down.

-OK?

-Right.

All right? So we need to see more from you.

I feel pretty sad, to be honest.

You know, we're losing two amazing members of the team.

This is the semifinal. I should be up and down going,

"Yes, I'm in the semifinal," sort of thing,

but... You know, it's that tinge of sadness that, you know,

people are having to go home.

Hey, missus, well done!

-Thank you.

-Congratulations.

'Luckily, some magic happened.'

I've managed to find my inner peace and carry on, and towards the second

half of the week has been quite successful.

Clover's Russian dolls are the sixth stunning exhibit

in our Pot Of The Week gallery.

I feel quite scared at being in the semifinal with Freya,

Ryan and Richard.

They are just so talented and great potters and just a bit scary.

And that stress plays on your mind and makes you do crazy things.

If we make a mistake, we're gone.

Next time...

The semifinalists face a huge main make...

-It's massive!

-..for the smallest room.

Good U-bend, Ryan.

Thanks.

Never thought this would be happening, did you?

A Spot Test that could go anywhere.

Silly idea.

And a Throw Down set by a comedy legend.

Hiya!