It’s been three years since AJ Simpson became a household name and put Aberdeen on the map after their triumph on The Great Pottery Throwdown in 2022.
Life has changed dramatically for ceramicist AJ after their television success.
With an established pottery studio in Aberdeen and big ambitions for 2025, the future for AJ – and Aberdeen’s art scene – is looking bright.
Features writer Kirstie caught up with AJ at Deemouth Artist Studios and got stuck into a pottery lesson and a chat with AJ to find out how life has been since their TV success…
Cosy ceramics studio is crammed with colourful creations – and a cute canine
Before I can even introduce myself, Leo leaps into my arms.
Leo is AJ and partner Celda Mae’s larger-than-life — and very loveable — rescue Staffy dog.
“I hope you don’t mind dogs!”, AJ quips as they usher me in and pop on the kettle, “when we got Leo he was so poorly, he was so skinny”.
AJ and Celda have a joint studio; one side is calm, kitsch and cosy – this is where Celda crafts delicate jewellery.
The other side is crammed with colourful clay monsters, scribbled ideas and AJ’s prize-winning pieces from Throwdown.
Cup of tea in hand, chatting with AJ is like sitting down with an old friend.
Then AJ passes me a lump of clay and says we’ll hand-build some pinch pots.
Although I studied at Gray’s School of Art, I hadn’t touched clay since second-year art class with Mrs Rossvoll at Inverurie Academy.
I remember it well.
We all crowded around Mrs Rossvoll’s desk as she showed us how to coil clay to make three-dimensional self portraits. A taxidermy pheasant was perched above.
Clay wasn’t AJ’s first calling at Gray’s School of Art
Similarly, AJ’s love of art burgeoned at Hazlehead Academy, they explain: “Throughout school, I had a little sketchbook in my pocket. If I got bored, I’d start drawing stuff.
“I had a really good run of art teachers, not just the one, but a few.
“That spurred me on to keep doing art through high school and into university.”
Creativity has been a theme since childhood, “my mum was really good at providing me and my sister with craft things”, they add.
“We were always painting, drawing, playing Play-Doh.”
AJ shows me how to manipulate clay using my thumb in the middle and pinching with my fingers.
It’s fair to say AJ is pretty famous in the pottery world now, but they didn’t set out to do ceramics.
“I wanted to be a prop designer, I loved making costumes, and I applied to do 3D Design at Gray’s”, they explained.
‘It was just me, my desk, a kiln and a big bag of clay’
But AJ didn’t just fall in love with clay at Gray’s, it’s also where they met partner Celda.
AJ and Celda were on the same course and are creative partners as well as life partners.
However, ceramics didn’t come naturally to AJ.
“I was so bad. I maybe got one pot off the wheel my first week, I hated it”, they said.
Like many people in 2020, AJ and Celda’s time at university was curtailed by Covid.
AJ said: “We were home for the last year and a bit because lockdown was halfway through third year.
“We didn’t have access to any facilities, which was rubbish because the facilities at Gray’s are fantastic.
“Being stuck at home meant investing in your own tools and equipment.
“I used my student loan to buy my first kiln, and when I graduated it meant I had something to fire my work in.
“When I moved here to Deemouth, it was just me, my desk, a kiln and a big bag of clay.”
Lockdown was formative time for AJ both personally and professionally
AJ started making the trademark ‘blobs’ in lockdown when they had no choice but to do hand-building.
They said: “You think of pottery and you think of throwing, it’s fast-paced and fun, but I really came to appreciate hand-building because I didn’t have access to a wheel.
“I thought ‘I have clay and I have a desk’, that’s how the blobs came about.
“They started off really small, like 50p-sized, because I only had one bag of clay.”
I ask AJ if they would be where they are today if Covid hadn’t happened.
“Lockdown was a really formative time for me, I was coming to the end of uni, the end of my teens, and I was starting to transition as well.
“I came out of lockdown a totally different person.”
After graduating, and with gentle encouragement from lecturer Matt Wilcock (who won series one of The Great Pottery Throwdown), AJ applied to the show.
‘I didn’t want to be the token non-binary person on Throwdown’
If the potters ever make it look easy on TV, it isn’t. By now I’ve managed to make two pinch pots which AJ shows me how to attach together.
I have to ask – is the Throwdown as hectic it looks?
“Yes, it seems quite calm at the beginning, but by about halfway through it’s a panic”, AJ explains.
But it wasn’t just AJ’s fun creations, like the incredible otter lamp, that garnered public support.
“When the show first came out I didn’t want to be the token non-binary trans person”, they said.
“I was still in my new pronouns and had just changed my name when we started filming the show.
“I was just myself, and that helped people talk to their parents about themselves.
“A parent whose kid was transitioning said me being on the show helped them talk to their child about it.”
To this day, AJ still receives positive messages from around the world about their time on TV.
AJ still receives positives messages from supporters around the world
Celda chimes in: “AJ is a lot more open because, touch wood, there hasn’t been a single horrible comment about being trans or non-binary.”
With this in mind, it was still a huge leap of faith for AJ to launch a crowdfunder and raffle bespoke ‘blamps’ (blob lamps) to pay for top surgery.
Top surgery is performed on the chest during gender reassignment to create a more masculine appearance.
The fundraisers also contributed to a new wheelchair for Celda, who has mobility issues after suffering acute disseminated encephalomyelitis – a severe attack on the brain and spinal cord.
AJ said: “I’d been thinking about it for about a year; I hate asking people for money, it was really quite scary.
“When people donated, all the comments were so lovely and from such a variety of backgrounds.
“I got really nice messages and even a letter from someone, pouring their heart out, it was so nice. I sat at home crying reading it.
“It’s unexpected, you never know if anyone is going to respond to that sort of thing.”
Last summer, AJ travelled to Edinburgh for the surgery with Celda, Leo, AJ’s parents and sister.
The recovery time for this type of surgery is at least four weeks, and means no driving or lifting – and for AJ meant no pottery.
“My family are really supportive and they really looked after me,” AJ adds.
‘I finally felt like me after surgery’
For AJ, the surgery and hormone therapy has been transformational – physically and mentally.
“I finally felt like me. It felt like I wasn’t trying to hide anything, which was really nice,” they said.
“It’s made such a huge difference and I’m so grateful people were willing and able to donate. I’m just so happy, I’m so comfortable.
“I don’t want to annoy people by saying thanks all the time but I don’t feel I can say thanks enough, it’s changed my life.”
AJ has also been able to enjoy swimming for the first time since childhood.
They said: “When I first went for a swim it had been 10 years, and I’m really enjoying it, I go with my dad and the Baltic Boys swimming group.
“We go to Aberdeen Beach into the sea, it’s very cold!”
What’s the professional verdict on Kirstie’s clay efforts?
Personally and professionally, the stars are aligning for AJ, who hopes to take on an apprentice.
Having attended a large-scale throwing course at Whichford Pottery – “it was like a pottery wonderland” – AJ has designs on bigger, sculptural work. Perhaps even blob sinks.
But launching a business wasn’t easy, AJ adds: “It was scary, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make my rent some months.
“Sometimes it’s still like that, but not as often.
“I’m doing what I love every day, I’m my own boss, I’m teaching and I feel like I’m making a difference.”
AJ’s face lights up: “Clay can bring people out of their shell, it’s really rewarding doing classes with younger folk.”
And what did AJ think of my efforts? By now my pot has a neck and could pass as a rudimentary vase.
If I was on Throwdown, would Keith Brymer-Jones weep? Probably not for the right reasons.
But AJ is very complimentary: “It’s great, it’s really organic, that’s what I love about hand-building.”
AJ on Aberdeen’s thriving art scene
Teaching and access to art is integral to AJ’s classes at Deemouth Studios.
AJ explains: “Art is so undervalued, people are like ‘it’s so important, but we’re going to cut funding anyway’.
“It’s one of the reasons we set up Aberdeen Ceramics Studio, it’s six of us – four of us are Gray’s graduates and the other two are lecturers.”
Here they teach people who perhaps never got the chance to try ceramics growing up, but whose curiosity has been piqued by shows like Throwdown.
AJ is keen to challenge the perception that to be a successful artist you can’t stay in Aberdeen because there’s nothing here.
They add: “There is, it’s just not shouted about enough. Even here at Deemouth there’s about 40 artists.
“I did a uni placement up in Caithness, it was fantastic, but once I got back to Aberdeen I was like ‘ah, this feels like home, I want to be here for a while’.”
To find out more about AJ’s work and classes, visit: ajsimpsonceramics.com
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