Original subtitles

[lively Latin music playing]

Ah, hello.

This week, we are being bold, bright,

colourful and downright fruity,

as our last remaining ten potters are working

in full Technicolor glory.

Ladies and gentlemen, let the show begin.

Welcome to The Great Pottery Throw Down.

My hat.

-[Siobhán McSweeney] Last week... -Oh.

...it was all about bricks and buildings.

[Jodie] These are all my little tiles.

Jodie's lighthouse earned her

-Potter of the Week. -Absolutely brilliant.

-But despite Alon having structural problems... -[bleep]

...it was Irina that failed building regulations...

It's just a shame those windows were a little bit big.

...and was sent home.

-This week... -Whoo!

...a fruity challenge...

My actual plums will be slightly larger.

...to create a bowl full of lifelike ceramic fruits.

It's a nice pear, innit, eh? Ha!

...and a Throw Down classic...

-Bye, everybody. -...with a twist.

[laughs evilly]

Come on, Susan.

I'm scared of the dark.

But who will be top banana...

I really like it. It's fantastic.

...and who will be shown the door?

Whoo!

-Henry! -[snickers]

Sorry.

[McSweeney] It's sculpture week in the pottery,

as our ten remaining potters are back

armed with bowls of fruit inspiration

and ready to face one of the trickiest and brightest challenges

of the series so far: fruit sculpture.

[Lee] I'm making bananas today.

I've handled a few bananas in my time. [laughs]

Last week was very close. I'm lucky to be here.

I'm excited because it's hand-building

and getting all the detail in and making it as realistic as possible.

I should be able to make more fruit than I need

and then cherry-pick the best ones.

"Cherry-pick." Do you see what I did there?

Good morning, potters.

For your main make this week, a fruity challenge.

Keith and Rich would like you to make a beautiful fruit bowl

filled with five individual lifelike fruits.

We want you to bring the traditional fruit bowl really up to date.

We want you to bring something fresh and unique to the judging table.

So we want your fruit sculptures to be

the same size and shape as your chosen fruit.

Okay, potters, you have three hours

to fashion your fruit and bowl.

And your time starts now.

This week, I'm just going to work as fast as I can.

That's gonna be my time-management strategy.

[Jodie] To be honest, this is just gonna be a case of

crack on and get some tidy, lifelike-looking fruit.

The grapes are really gonna be tricky in terms of time.

[Adam] Got my plums!

My actual plums will be slightly larger.

So, Rich, we've asked them to make fruit. We've never done that before.

I can't believe all of the fruit here is actually ceramic.

I mean, that apple is just incredible.

This is it. The potters have to select

how they're gonna build the fruit firstly.

Are they gonna make pinch pots? Are they gonna slab them?

And then they have to think about how

they're gonna put in that sort of texture

that will take the glaze and make it feel like

We know fruit isn't always perfect.

I mean, take this pear. It looks so lifelike.

They've managed to get the little imperfections there, the little knots in the wood.

It's incredible. And this is what we really, really wanna see.

And then once they've done the fruit, they go into a bowl.

I'd like to see the potters really think about that bowl form

and move it away from the convention.

Think about how that colour on that bowl

is gonna really set off the fruit.

The bowl is definitely subjective

and open to interpretation of their design

or what their story is behind it.

The fruit has to look like fruit.

Otherwise they've missed the brief.

I wouldn't know that that wasn't a real apple.

No, no. Well, take a bite.

-[laughs] -I think I'll pass.

[Jodie] It's an observational task now.

Use your skills, look at those little details, and try your best, innit?

[McSweeney] The judges have asked for five fruits,

including three different varieties,

and Suz has her fruity plan all mapped out.

Three raspberries, half an hour.

Three strawberries, half an hour.

Fingers crossed, if I make a couple of extra

just in case there's some really not good ones,

some rotten fruit that needs throwing out. [laughs]

[McSweeney] Also on Suz's to-do list

are wild cherries, blackberries and an apple,

which she will present in a foraging bowl textured to look like wood.

I want the fruit to look as realistic as possible. That's what I'm aiming for.

And, uh, I want to feel that I've completed it

and done it justice.

My fruits are very specific to what I grow in the garden.

I grow plums, blackberries and pears.

[McSweeney] Adam's fruit bowl will be spilling over with 23 individual fruits,

including blackberries, pears, tangerines and lemons,

all inspired by the cocktails his partner, Daniel, makes

So we're, like, the perfect team.

He'll make the cocktails and sit down in the sun,

and I'll putter away, either doing pottery

or pottering in the garden, growing things.

-Morning, judges. -[Jones] Morning, Peter.

-How are you? -Excellent.

-Would you like to look at my designs? -We'd love to.

-Okay. -Ah!

When I was younger, my father worked in the space industry,

-and he used to drag us-- -What, what, what?

My dad was an engineer. We followed him around

-Australia, New Zealand... -You travelled.

...India and Sri Lanka and everywhere.

And, of course, as children, my mother would go off

to the local supermarket and bring back the fruit.

So our fruit bowl was a bag of fruit.

I'm thinking, "Oh, this beautiful fruit bowl is gonna be a paper bag."

[McSweeney] Peter's paper-bag fruit bowl will be filled

with oranges, pears, nectarines, lemons and apples.

Seems to be a bit of a spring in your step this morning.

-I woke up this morning and thought, "Bring it on." -Excellent.

I've got something in me.

-[Jones] Course you have. -[McSweeney] Absolutely.

-[Jones] That's why you're here. -That's true.

[McSweeney] You deserve to be here.

I think you all should start believing that.

Well, you do, don't you? You think, "Hmm, really?"

Yeah, really, Peter. Really. Yeah.

-You're getting me going already. -[Peter] No, don't.

-You know, it's only the morning. -[laughs]

[McSweeney] The potters must build all their fruits hollow.

Otherwise they won't dry and could explode in the kiln.

Most of them are using the pinch pot technique.

Draw the clay up, 'cause I want it to be lemon-shaped.

Pinch and turn, pinch and turn, pinch and turn all the way.

You make two half cups. It's essential that you score it well.

Um, put a really good, strong key in it.

[McSweeney] If the joins aren't slipped and scored properly,

their fruits could crack apart during firing.

And just very, very carefully,

um, sealing along the joint, just pushing the clay together.

But not everyone is feeling the pinch.

[Hannah] This is my guava. I'm making them, chopping them in half

and scooping out the insides and sticking them back together.

But what I've just realised is I probably should note where I cut them in half

'cause now I can't remember where to stick it back together.

If she manages to assemble her fruits correctly,

Hannah will display them in a hand-built bowl

decorated with tropical leaf imprints

which will then complement her exotic medley

of guavas, pomegranates, a papaya and a couple of kumquats.

They're just fruits of my childhood.

I grew up in Nepal and Kathmandu,

and they're fruits you get all the time.

Hannah's not the only one

travelling far afield to realise her vision.

Last week, Jodie sought inspiration from Morocco.

-Morning, Jodie. -Morning.

But this time, she's heading even further.

When you said fruit bowl, um, instantly I thought of

the Polynesian culture with their big, carved wooden bowls.

[laughing]

And have you been to Polynesia?

-No. -[Jones] Oh, right, yeah.

The way your mind goes, of course,

when you say "fruit bowl",

-you naturally go to Polynesia. -Of course you do.

To display in her Polynesian-style bowl,

Jodie is making her staple five a day:

an apple, an orange and a pear and some blackberries.

It's a mini extruder.

It's just so my berries are the same shape.

So I cut them at the same length,

and then all my little berries are the same size, hopefully.

Producing fruit in all its natural glory

will require working with the greatest attention to detail.

[Jodie] They said they want fruit that looks good enough to eat.

As the four potters attempting

this hedgerow favourite are finding out.

Each little ball gets slipped and scored

onto the inside of the blackberry.

Just going over everything really slowly, making sure

[Adam] They're not the perfect ones that you get from the supermarket.

I'm trying to make them so that all the balls are different sizes.

[McSweeney] But as the pottery starts to come alive

with a medley of fruity shapes...

It's a nice pear, innit, eh? Ha!

...Henry has yet to make a start on his fruits

and is instead concentrating on his bowl.

I wanted to give myself enough time to make spares

because I'm doing a lot of carving and stuff later,

so the chances for things to go wrong is quite high.

I'm definitely not putting off the hand-building, definitely not.

As if I would do a thing like that. That's ridiculous.

[McSweeney] Lee, meanwhile, is hand-building

a whole bunch of grapes one at a time.

The grapes are hollow. I'm just rubbing my spoon up them

to give them, um, the hollow interior.

But sometimes you're too vigorous, you go through the top of 'em.

[McSweeney] Lee's bowl is inspired

by his favourite red wine, Merlot.

His bananas, pear and lime will nestle on a rustic Merlot leaf

alongside his bountiful bunch of 25 individual grapes.

Oh, God. Wish I hadn't chosen grapes.

-Wow, what's that? -A dragon fruit.

-Wow. -So this fruit bowl that you're making,

is there any kind of design inspiration behind it?

It's a song, "I Can Sing a Rainbow".

-Do you remember it? -Yes, yes.

And I did a red and a yellow and a pink and a green,

and as soon as that got in my head,

then you've got a violet and an orange and a blue.

And it's the song. So this is a rainbow.

[McSweeney] As well as her dragon fruit,

Sal's rainbow fruit includes lemons, apples, pears

and an unusual tigger melon.

Her bowl is an homage to her sister.

[Sal] When we used to go shopping, my sister and I,

if we saw something we didn't recognise, we'd buy one just to try it.

Oh, the dragon fruit, uh-uh. I don't like the way they taste. [chuckles]

They taste like dirty dishwater.

But they look fabulous, don't they?

[McSweeney] To pull off a minimum

of five different types of realistic fruits...

Putting a bum in my pear. [laughs]

...the potters must work meticulously.

I'm gonna put each individual seed

hopefully inside the strawberry,

which is gonna be a lot of work.

It is quite a nice exercise, actually, using the eye,

just really observing, um,

the shapes and the curvature of the fruit.

It's a bit phallic, isn't it? [chuckles]

[McSweeney] Shenyue is taking a maverick approach

based on her new green-fingered hobby.

This year, because we've had lockdown,

-I decided to start doing some gardening. -Oh, right.

So I've decided to do all green fruits

that you'd normally think are vegetables,

-but they're technically fruits. -Right.

So I'm doing, um, peas, I'm doing a spaghetti squash,

some green tomatoes and some small, um, green courgettes.

[McSweeney] Shenyue's green fruits will sit in a thrown bowl

featuring a sgraffito design of the ripening sun.

She'll glaze it bright orange to help her verdant fruit

stand out in her centrepiece bowl.

I was even thinking of putting a little bit, like,

a tinge of copper carbonate as the accent

-just to give it a slight sheen. -Okay.

What do you think?

-Is it okay? -We couldn't possibly say.

We'd like to look into that bowl

-and think we're actually gonna pick it up and eat it. -Oh, right.

Well, you wouldn't pick up a squash and eat it anyway, so...

-[laughter] -[Jones] Yes.

Potters, you have one hour to go.

And I now declare the drying room open.

-[pops] -[screams]

[McSweeney] To complete the challenge successfully,

the potters must juggle making their fruit and their bowls,

which they had a choice to either throw or hand-build.

[Jodie] Feels good to get on the wheel, to be honest.

This is just what I'm used to.

-I'm stressed. -Ah. [laughs]

-I'm stressed. I've messed up three bowls. -[Jones] Okay.

And so that's put me really far behind, so I'm a little bit--

Doesn't look messed up. Looks marvellous.

[Henry] That one's not too bad.

What fruit are you making?

So I'm making bananas, oranges and peaches.

And is there an idea behind why you're doing that?

It's so that I can arrange them in a very specific manner.

I think the banana I'd put possibly, like, here.

-I don't get it. What's it meant to be? -[Jones laughs]

A man with a long nose.

It's, uh, based on me and my brother, 'cause we--

-Is it? -[laughing]

[Jones] Wow.

[McSweeney] Henry's cheeky choice of fruit

will sit upon a yin-and-yang design bowl

which he will throw and carve into the shape of him and his brother

as a mischievous reminder of their time playing with fruit.

Whenever Mum used to go shopping, she'd bring it all home,

and then we'd arrange it in really silly ways to really annoy her.

And we'd do it every single time.

Even to this day, I still do it.

I can't help myself. It's too funny.

I love that you're now immortalising it in ceramic.

Yeah, exactly. I want it to last forever.

So it can never go away.

[Alon] Doing something very modern, very different.

The idea is to make these strips and fire them separately

and then having a small little bowl in the centre.

A few berries inside.

The lines will sort of draw your eye

to the centre of the bowl and really focus--

like, shine all the focus onto the fruit.

[McSweeney] Alon is hoping his modernist interpretation

will be the striking centrepiece the judges are after.

He's making a tiny fruit bowl filled with tiny detailed fruits

which will balance on top of a fan

of interlocking ceramic strips.

[Miller] You're gonna be very reliant on it

retaining its shape to sort of slot together.

-Um, not-- -Are you, or is it sort of...

-Just to sort of understand-- -[Alon] Yeah.

The only thing that needs to match together would be

a bump in the centre of each and the divot on the bottom.

-So they'll literally sit one on top of the other. -Right.

-And be able to maybe even twist. -[Miller] Okay.

-If it twists, that'd be pretty cool. -[Jones] Okay, yeah.

I was just struggling to understand

the engineering behind how all these pieces

-would come together post-firing. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because I spent a long time messing up bowls on the wheel,

that has put me behind quite a bit, unfortunately.

-Duh. -[Henry] Worried about the time now.

-Taking ages to finish these. -[Lee] Time is never a friend

in a challenge like this, is it?

Half an hour to go, potters. That's half an hour to go.

-[groans] -[chuckles]

[Lee] So much to do.

Everything, uh, going well? We're on track?

I am. I'm on track.

-Well, don't stop working. So proud of you. -Thank you.

[McSweeney] The potters must focus on finishing their bowls

if they are to bring their creative inspirations to life.

[Peter] It wants to look like a paper bag.

[Shenyue] So I split the rim, and then,

as the wheel's rotating, I just push them together.

[Peter] On some paper bags, they have a perforated strip

where they tear the individual bags.

It'd be nice if they see things they don't expect

and go, "Look what he's done there."

-[Alon] That's my bowl. -No way. You rebel.

I've got my fruit made or roughed out,

and I'm gonna panic-throw a last bowl

because I'm not 100% happy with the one that I had.

Last five minutes, people. Last five minutes.

Remember, everything has to be put into the drying room.

The last couple of weeks, I haven't managed to finish off what I wanted to do.

So this is a really fine feeling,

uh, being at this stage and knowing that I'm there.

[Henry] Stay calm. Everything's gonna be okay.

[McSweeney] One minute, potters.

Ooh.

Alon's on his way with his propeller wings.

Be more like Alon.

[screams] Suz is ready!

Suz is ready! Yay!

Ah!

[McSweeney] Last ten seconds. Ten...

I can't run. Me strawberries'll fall off.

[McSweeney] Nine.

Sweet jeez.

-Okay. He dropped his pear. -I made spares.

I have it, I have it, I have it.

-[Adam] I think it's dead. -[McSweeney] Three, two, one.

Congratulations.

Well done, well done.

[McSweeney] Okay, potters, time to take a break

while your pieces will be in the drying room to dry.

And we will see you later on for the second challenge. Potters dismissed.

[Henry] I had a really bad throw day, and that put me behind a bit,

but I got all of the pieces I needed made, so I've got something.

[Lee] I am so over fruit.

In general, fruit's all right, isn't it,

but on this scale,

I think anyone would've had enough by now.

[McSweeney] For the second challenge of fruit week,

the judges have pulled out a returning favourite.

But as always, for this next task,

the potters have been left in the dark.

Potters, I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty excited about this one.

Your second challenge this week

is a throw down using one of these.

[gasping, laughing]

Okay, Keith, would you like to take to the wheel as I shall blindfold you?

-[laughing] Oh. -Oh, no.

What I want you to do is make a wine carafe.

Now, before you start, really plan out where your tools are,

because when this goes down, that's it.

Your hands are your eyes.

It is amazing, when you put the blindfold on,

how much more sensitive your fingers and your hands become.

It's not so much a technical challenge.

It's more of a sensual challenge.

And you're just pushing out that base

and then collaring in that neck.

Gonna find my wooden tool.

[scraping]

Just taking that excess clay off the bottom.

Wire it through, and then create that lip.

Again, you're just feeling with the thumb and your forefinger.

Gently turn it over.

Now, when you've done this part,

-lift up-- Ooh! -[laughter]

Lift up the pot and take it off the wheel.

But that's not the end of the challenge.

[Lee] Oh, no.

What we're now going to ask you to do is make

four identical beakers to go with it.

[laughter]

Again, on with the mask.

Nice and controlled, and this is where

your knowledge of pressure and touch and feel really comes to the fore,

because, you know, they're quite small.

And it's not so much throwing.

It's just a matter of squeezing the clay in the right place.

[McSweeney] And do they have to be a certain shape?

[Jones] You want a nice taper on it if you can.

Just try and take that water out.

That's completely off-centre,

but, you know, it's all about feeling when that clay is centred.

Look at the concentration on your faces.

And there you go.

-This one's a bit pants. -[gasping]

But these are all consistent,

and that's what I'm really looking for in those beakers.

Okay, potters. Take yourself and your fingertips

back to your benches, please.

Remove the hessian and put on your blindfolds, please.

Bye, everybody.

We have very generously given you 30 minutes

to make your carafe and four beakers.

And your time starts now.

What a lovely sound it is, just that slap onto the wheel.

[groans]

Just get used to the sensation.

Oh, hopefully I can just get this, get it up.

[Jones] Just really try and visualise that shape in your head.

I'm scared of the dark, so this is great.

[Jones] Just think of that shape.

That nice, bulbous shape going into a slightly thinner neck.

Oh... [bleep]

Peter's got some good height.

Oh, come on, Susan.

Ah, this is so freaking tricky.

Alon's going up.

Just had to push all the clay together again

to try-- to try again.

[Peter] I've done the carafe.

-Peter's really gone for it, hasn't he? -[Jones] He has.

Little bit concerned that I've rushed it a little bit.

I've never made a wine carafe before,

let alone blindfolded.

I don't really know what I'm doing, to be honest.

I'm gonna go two hands. I'm gonna go rogue.

There you go.

Ooh. That didn't feel good.

Oh! That's not bad.

Oh, no, I've dropped my wire. Do I have to get that myself?

I'm afraid so.

There we go.

-Okay. Now I've gotta get back to my stool. -Uh-huh.

Please tell me that's centre. Nope.

Am I the right way round?

-You're... -[both laugh]

I mean, you're at the wrong desk, but, you know...

Okay. We're halfway through.

Fifteen minutes left.

No pressure, but Peter is on his last beaker.

Well done, Peter.

Alon, you have a carafe

and one beaker nearly made.

-Keep focused. -Oh.

Come on, Suz, get that carafe off. Well done, well

[McSweeney] My word! So Peter has finished.

-[Jones] Wow. -Well done, Peter.

-[Miller] Whoo! -[Jones] Well done.

Yeah, keep the blindfold on, though.

[laughter]

I thought so, yeah.

Last ten minutes, people.

-[Jones] Come on, then. Hurry up. -Ah.

[McSweeney] That's three left, Suz. Come on.

[Jones] Focus, kids, focus.

How you doing, Henry?

Uh, I don't know.

-I have no idea. -[laughing]

-I'm done. -[McSweeney] So Sally has just finished.

-Well done, Sal. -Whoo!

Well done, Adam.

-[Miller] Don't fiddle. -Uh-oh.

I need to do two more cups. Ooh!

I'm losing so much clay by my centring.

-[McSweeney] Jodie. -Last one.

Where's that sponge?

-[McSweeney] Alon. -One more cup left.

-[McSweeney] Last two minutes. -Oh, my rim.

[McSweeney] Tell me some good news, Suz.

One to go.

[McSweeney] Shenyue's last one.

Come on. Excellent. Well done.

[gasps]

Come on!

[laughing]

[Miller] Come on, Suz.

[Jones] Come on, Henry.

I've lost my wedge.

Ten seconds, Suz.

-[exhales] -Nine.

-[humming] -Eight.

Hannah's done. Well done, Hannah.

-Five. Four. -Oh... [bleep]

[all] Three, two, one!

[McSweeney] Please take off your blindfolds.

Oh, it's so bright.

[laughing]

[sighs]

Oh, blimey. Not so good.

-Oh! -That was horrendous.

Mine are full of water. [laughs]

[McSweeney] Ten carafes and 40 beakers,

all thrown blindfolded.

But whose carafe will be top of the pots?

[Jones] Your carafe here is quite tall.

The lip could've been a bit more generous.

-It could've been a bit wider. -For sure.

As a set of beakers, they're not bad, are they?

Good, consistent form, reasonably straight-sided.

[Jones] It's a pretty good set.

-[Miller] Yeah, really great. -Thanks very much.

You could've had a bit more of a fluent, bulbous sort of shape to the carafe,

and you could've made it slightly higher.

I would say these two are a pretty good match.

That's got the same form but a slightly thinner rim. That's the odd one out.

[Jones] Yeah. Probably could've spent a bit more time

-over what you were doing. -Yeah. Yeah.

The carafe looks really sturdy, doesn't it?

-It's quite stable. -[Miller] And it's quite a fluid shape.

[Jones] It would've been nice to see a thinner neck.

It's not ideal to have water left in the bottoms of your pots,

because as they dry, it's likely that the base would crack.

[Jones] You've got that difference

between the belly of it and then the neck.

That's quite nice. You could've brought this out a bit more.

And I really like that upright form.

I think it's really lovely. It shows an element of control.

You've got great height, so you've really made the most out of that ball of clay.

Perhaps the beakers are a little bit big for the size of the carafe.

Seems bigger in the dark, right?

-Ah, yes. -[laughs]

-That's what I tell everyone, anyway. -[laughter]

-[Miller] So, the carafe. -It's fairly big, isn't it?

-There's a lot of volume. -Then we've got the beakers.

We can see that one's distorted as you took it off the wheel.

-There you go. That's all right now. -Yeah.

So let's look at the carafe. Okay, it's a bit on the thick side.

There's not too much shape to it,

and the height could've been slightly bigger as well.

And the beakers. We've got four different sizes.

It's blindingly obvious that I rely on my sight.

I can see what you've done there as well.

-Oh, I didn't realise I did that. -[laughter]

You've left a lot of clay on the side of the walls there.

The beakers, you can see they're slightly different shapes and sizes,

but the form is reasonably consistent across the four beakers.

We've got four different forms with the beakers

and perhaps slightly different wall thicknesses and different rim

[Jones] You do have a little hole in this one.

That's your one, Siobhán.

[laughing]

A nice height on the carafe.

On the beakers, the rim size is the same

and the wall thickness is the same. They're the same height.

Shenyue, you've thrown a really great set of beakers and a lovely carafe.

-Well done. -Aw, thank you.

[McSweeney] The judges must now rank the carafes and beakers

from worst to best.

So, in tenth place,

could've seen a little bit more consistency,

although you really, really did try hard on this challenge, is Suz.

Well done, Suz.

In ninth place, bit of a small set, Jodie.

In eighth place, could've seen a little bit more use of time,

-is Peter. -[snickers]

I wonder why.

[McSweeney] In seventh place is Lee. Hannah is sixth,

Adam fifth, Alon fourth,

and in third place, Sal.

So, in second place,

a really lovely, shapely carafe, is...

Henry.

Well done, Henry.

Well done, Shenyue. Your very first win.

[all cheering]

I'm really proud. Didn't think I was going to win.

Um, so I'm really chuffed.

Second is good for me. I'm happy with that, really happy with that.

I didn't want to come last, but I am last, and justifiably.

Decoration next, so I'll have to pull

another rabbit out of the hat with that, so fingers crossed.

[McSweeney] The potters' sculptured fruits and bowls

have been drying for a few hours

to make the clay leather-hard and ready to refine.

[Jodie] Please be dry, but not too dry. Just the perfect amount of dry.

In this challenge, their pieces haven't been fired

prior to the decoration stage.

Instead, the potters will have to apply

their glazes straight onto the clay--

a tricky process called raw glaze.

So, potters, your fruits are now ready to refine and to add colour.

Now, this is the thing: raw glaze.

I think it sounds painful. Rich, what does it actually mean?

You're decorating directly on to leather-hard clay.

That means you've got to be additionally cautious,

'cause with raw glazing, there's really no second chances.

Once that glaze is on, you can't wipe it off.

Okay, potters, you have three hours,

and your time starts now.

-Aha, the fruits! -[McSweeney laughs]

-Look at 'em all go. -[Miller] Straight in.

I'm so disappointed. I was like, "Oh, that's not mine."

-Yes, it is. Rubbish. -[both laugh]

I've got a plan which involves

a whole lot of getting my wriggle on.

I've never, ever done raw glazing before.

It's a new experience.

You know, they're wet.

And we've got to apply a colour.

Loads to do,

not least of which is all these tiny little holes.

I don't even know if my decoration plan for these kumquats is gonna work.

[McSweeney] Before the potters start to raw glaze and add colour,

they must first give their fruits realistic texture...

[Jodie] I taped together the end of paintbrushes,

so hopefully we can get as lifelike as we possibly can.

...using anything and everything to make authentic markings.

-Suz, I love you. -Love you too.

She gave me a little twig.

And it has saved my texturing life.

-[whirring] -[McSweeney] What's going on here, Adam?

[Adam] So couscous and quinoa--

-Is it popping or just coming off? -Yeah, it is.

Well, it's expanding, so it's coming out of the holes.

-Sorry, are you all right? -Do we need goggles?

[laughing] I think we probably do.

But look at the effect it's added to it.

[Peter] It smells lovely, doesn't it? They smell like popcorn.

-A little midday snack. -It does smell like pop--

Burnt popcorn, with a touch of something else.

Burnt spaghetti.

-Burnt spaghetti. Mmm. -Yeah. Mmm.

[McSweeney] In a bid to impress the judges,

Suz is not only adding texture and realism to her foraged fruit,

she's doing the same to her rustic bowl.

[Suz] So I want it to look almost like it's a piece of found wood,

and it's been loved and cared for.

And it's split, and there's a cord through one bit

where it's been pulled tight.

Wanting to get on as quickly as I can with this

and make sure I get everything finished

in time for the judges at the end.

[McSweeney] As Suz tackles her to-do list,

Jodie is starting to add the detail

to her Polynesian kava bowl.

I'll put a nice oxide on here to try and get, um, the texture coming through.

Too much colour, and it'll detract from the colour of the fruit.

And yeah, I just wanna show off the texture.

[McSweeney] As Jodie carves into her bowl,

Henry is cutting his bowl

into silhouettes of him and his brother.

[Henry] Quite like how it looks.

You've got us shouldered up, which is quite nice.

And then this sort of funny one of us.

He's getting me in a headlock, and he's giving me a noogie.

[McSweeney] Potters,

it's going "berry" well.

-[laughs] -You are halfway--

Oh, good Lord. Have you been there the whole time? Halfway through.

[exclaims]

[McSweeney] With their pieces refined,

it's time to start decorating and bringing their fruits to life.

Oh, I need a big load of yellow.

Raw clay absorbs liquid, so predicting what colour

the glazes will turn out once fired

is a bit of a guessing game.

If that clay is too wet now when I apply those colours,

they're gonna go wishy-washy, and I want detail to come out.

I've never done this before. We have no idea what it's gonna come out like.

[Sal] Looks like a mad lipstick pink, but, uh,

yeah, I'm hoping it'll look really dark when it's been glazed.

[Alon] I wanna really dark sort of almost blackish cherry.

[McSweeney] So what colour does that go?

Um... [sputters]

-Who knows? -Who knows?

It'll be a surprise.

[McSweeney] And to add further complication,

real fruits are rarely one true colour.

The pear that you'd think is green

is actually mostly this sort of mottled kind of brown colour.

I don't want it to look the same all over, basically,

so if I sponge a bit off in some places,

then it'll just vary the colours.

Is there any green left after Shenyue doing her "fruit"?

[laughs] Oh, I don't know.

[Shenyue] Because they're all green, it's gonna be quite challenging

to make them not look boring.

Potters, you have one hour left.

One hour left. How are you doing?

Yeah, I have glaze on every object now.

Now I'm starting to decorate this bowl.

I do have quite a plethora of things on my list

in the last hour-- oh!-- to do.

[McSweeney] Having spent most of the stage on her bowl,

Suz has still a lot of work to do on her fruit.

So I'm aiming for three layers of underglaze on the fruit.

Some of them have only had one.

I think I've got enough time if I push myself a bit.

Striking the right balance between time spent on their fruit and bowl

is essential to pulling off a stunning centrepiece.

Ooh!

Ooh, I like that.

[Sal] I'll put some purple spots on in a minute,

-and then we're good to go. -Nice.

So the bubbles are gonna be

climbing up the outside of the bowl,

and they're gonna symbolise the bubbles inside a cocktail.

[Shenyue] I'm carving lots of suns,

and that will symbolise the sun ripening the fruits.

[Hannah] I really like doing different kinds of printing

and using other things to make surface design on ceramic,

so I thought it was a good chance to use this paper method.

I think everybody else thinks I'm bonkers. [laughs] "You're doing what?"

I say, "Doing a paper bag."

I'm worried about them 'cause they're sort of

bowing this way.

-Oh, okay. -And I don't know why.

Think they'll stack up together nicely if it works.

Good, good.

Fingers crossed.

I'm really happy with how that bowl has come out.

The only thing is it's a bit small,

and I can't fit all of my fruit on it.

-[exclaims] -[thud]

-Henry! -[snickers]

Sorry.

Five minutes left.

You've got five minutes left

to have everything into the drying room.

[panicked gasps]

[Adam] Make sure they've all got decent holes in.

[McSweeney] If the potters don't add a hole

to each and every piece,

allowing the air to escape during firing,

they risk a fruity explosion.

[Jodie] Big holes in all your fruit.

[Hannah] Uh, I just need to check

that I don't think I have one in this papaya.

-Has anyone got their pin tool? -Final ten seconds.

-[Alon] If you need help, let me know. -[Henry] Jam holes in stuff.

-Any one? -Yeah.

[McSweeney] Ten, nine-- Oh, Polynesia's gone in.

[Miller] Henry, come on.

[McSweeney] Six. Mind your bananas.

Five, four,

three, two, one.

Well done.

-Oh, my days. That was intense. -[applause]

[McSweeney] Well done!

[Shenyue] You know, in the previous week,

I think my main issue has been my decoration,

but I managed to pull that off, so, yeah, I'm really happy.

I put my holes in my fruit, so I know that they're not gonna explode.

Did I? Yeah, I did. Did I? I did.

Oh, no. I don't know if I did.

Maybe my plums don't have holes in.

[McSweeney] The potters are back and are about to find out

if their pieces of fruit and bowls have survived the firing.

I have no clue what's in that kiln.

Could be fragments of strawberry on everyone's pieces.

-Oh, my God! -[gasps]

-Ooh! -Oh, yes!

-Yeah, nothing exploded. -[Suz] Amazing.

[Rose] Is that all gonna fit in there?

-Uh... -You're popping 'em in your pockets.

It's like you're stealing fruit from a fruit stall.

[Sal] Ooh, ooh, ooh.

That moment when you see your fruit and the bowl,

if it's all as you expect it to be, it's such a sense of relief.

I mean, utter, absolute, pure joy.

[McSweeney] Ten bowls

and 87 pieces of fruit all ready for judging.

[Jones] I absolutely love it. I think it's fantastic.

[Miller] Yeah. I mean, it feels like a real centrepiece,

and the colour just sets the fruit off beautifully.

[Jones] This is absolutely brilliant. It looks so organic.

I'm gonna have a look at the pomegranate.

I think what it has got

is a lovely subtlety to the surface.

-[Jones] Yeah. -[Miller] The way you've applied the glazes,

it's created a really beautiful texture.

[Jones] And then the bowl. The way that you've applied that design

is honestly-- it's wonderful. I mean...

-Shall I take it-- -It's a good weight.

-It's a really good weight. It's really, really good. -Wow. Yeah.

-You should be proud of yourself for that. -Thank you.

[Miller] As a centrepiece, I think your design is really successful.

You really get that sense of this sort of bag

that's just spilling out with this bounty of fruit.

-I take it this is an apple? -[Peter] That's an apple, yeah.

There's quite a lot of brush marks on there that you can see.

The bag itself, I love the perforated edges that you get

when you get one of those paper bags from the greengrocer.

Absolutely brilliant. Why did you glaze it?

A bag is usually matte, isn't it?

It is, and I thought, "Shall or shan't I?"

-Right. -And then I panicked and I glazed it.

-Okay. Okay. -And now I'm wishing I hadn't glazed it.

[Jones] There's quite a lot of fruit here.

[Jones] Twenty-three bits of fruit.

Wow, Adam! That's brilliant!

[Jones] What you've done with this lemon, the surface of it...

[Miller] It feels like a lemon straight off the tree.

And the colour's great. It's not too glossy.

-[Jones] The smallest of your fruit. The blackberries. -Yeah.

I just love that blushing of red

because you often get that when you take it off the bush.

And it's that level of detail that we were really looking for.

-[Jones] So, the bowl. -[chuckles] Yeah.

You tried to do that bubble effect, didn't you?

-Yes. -[all chuckle]

Your bowl is slightly overshadowed

by the beauty of your fruit.

Oh, thanks.

[Miller] The colour of the bowl acts as a perfect backdrop for the fruit.

And look at this dragon fruit. In terms of the glaze application,

it feels a bit flat.

It doesn't have that kind of organic feel

-that a piece of fruit would have. -[Sal] No.

[Jones] But that bowl and that design that you've done for it

really, really works.

Thank you.

[Miller] That colour, the contrast between the green and the orange

just works incredibly well.

Courgettes. That stalk is beautifully sculpted.

-[Jones] Well observed. -[Miller] Yeah, it just really feels like

that's just been snipped off

and it's ready to go in the cooking pot.

[Jones] I'm loving these. I think this is really, really good.

Those peas in that pod there. The fact that the end is slightly distorted--

Because that's how they do grow. And then we've got the bowl.

I love what you've done to the rim there.

And the decoration that you've chosen, that sgraffito

if you'd actually made a mistake with this,

it would've ruined the whole effect.

[Miller] It's got so many techniques in one piece.

-Really fantastic. -Thank you.

[Jones] My initial reaction: As an overall concept,

it works really, really well.

The grapes-- the proportions are fantastic.

It would be too easy for it to feel like a really static bunch,

but actually it feels like it's hanging properly, like a bunch,

-and you could just pluck one off and eat it. -Absolutely.

And then we come to the fruit bowl itself.

I love this idea. It's a shame that this happened here.

It's that thing of realising that clay's constantly moving until you fire it.

As an overall look, the fruit bowl is brilliant.

To do that kind of geometric pattern is really, really hard to do

because you have to get the spacing right.

Cor, that's a big orange. But the texture is great.

Some of the apple is a bit on the old shiny side.

It's almost like an apple that Snow White would pick up in the Enchanted Forest.

It's just a bit too stylised.

Alon, would you like to bring your fruit and bowl up?

Do you need help bringing it up?

Um, I think... maybe. [chuckles]

-[McSweeney] Yeah? -We'll do it in pieces, sections.

Oh. Please be careful.

[chuckles] A bowl in pieces.

-[Jones] Let's just look at the fruit first, shall we? -[Miller] Yeah.

[Jones] That is sublime. The finish is that...

-Shiny, black. -...rich, dark sort of finish

that you get with a really nice, ripe, juicy blackberry.

It's so well observed. It looks like a blackberry.

[Jones] The attention to detail is amazing. It's really, really nice.

So, the bowl.

For me, it doesn't really work as a bowl.

I mean, the construction...

[chuckles] ...is rather unsafe.

What we asked of you is that the bowl be in proportion to the fruit,

and I quite like the fact that you've kind of flipped that on its

But there comes a point where you have to make sure that the construction is sound.

-[Jones] So your cherries... -[Suz] Oh, they were a disaster.

-Well, I'm glad you said it and not me. -[laughs]

Yeah, I don't think I'd be eating one of these cherries.

[laughing]

-[Jones] Yeah, it's unfortunate, that. -[Miller] So, the apple.

I mean, there are a few issues with the colour.

You can kind of see a lot of the brush marks,

so the application of the glaze hasn't worked.

I just wanted to get the fruit off, because the bowl

is absolutely beautiful.

I mean, the texture that you've put in there is just fantastic.

[Jones] It does look like a piece of wood.

If your fruit had looked like your bowl...

-[laughs] -...you'd be on a winner there.

-This is it, definitely. -There you go.

I love the fact that you've brought something personal

-[laughs] -[chuckles] Maybe a bit too personal.

Nicely constructed. It's a good size.

You know, exactly what a banana would look like.

It's perhaps a little shiny. Maybe the transparent glaze,

you got a bit too much on there.

[Jones] The bowl. You know what?

[chuckles]

[voice breaking] I really like this bowl. [laughs] I really

It's fantastic. It says everything about you and your brother.

The noogie on the head there, and, you know,

you're both arm-in-arm here.

It's absolutely wonderful.

I, uh, got a couple of tears out of Keith, which was a massive compliment.

And it almost set me off. I could feel it coming.

But it didn't tip me over the edge. Not this time.

[Peter] I took a risk and clear-glazed the bag, which I shouldn't have done.

But I did do it. So, you know,

I've gotta sort of suck it up and get over it,

and hopefully I'm still here tomorrow. [laughs]

I would probably put myself quite low in the rankings,

so whether I've done enough at the end of the day

to merit staying or not, we'll have to wait and see.

So, in fruit terms, here is the sweet news.

The Potter of the Week this week is...

Shenyue.

[laughing, applauding]

[McSweeney] Congratulations, Shenyue.

And now for the bitter news.

The potter leaving us this week is...

Suz.

-I'm so sorry, Suz. -No, it's all right.

[Sal] Come on, give us a hug.

Sad to be going. Sad to be leaving all the other potters,

'cause we've really bonded as a group, and they're such a great bunch.

-You're now my clay family, whether you like it or not. -[laughter]

We're so sad to lose Suz this week.

Her bowl was exquisite,

but it just felt like the fruit was so left behind.

It just really wasn't up to scratch.

Having to stretch myself to do these challenges,

you know, I've realised that I can-- I can do more than I thought I could.

[McSweeney] As Suz leaves the pottery,

Shenyue's winning fruit centrepiece

takes its place in our Throw Down gallery.

I just got Potter of the Week, which is really cool.

I did put in quite a bit of work this week,

and there was no time for faffing about,

so I think that has paid off a little bit, yeah.

So I am surprised, but really happy.

-[McSweeney] Next time... -Good luck, little dude.

-...the heat intensifies... -Sounds like a jet engine.

...as the potters tackle naked raku.

-Do you think they'll survive this? -I blinking hope so.

-[McSweeney] Okay, be careful, please. -[all exclaim]

And there is a twist to the elimination.

-[Henry] Just snip it all off. -Oh, my God.

[exclaims, laughs]