A north-east woman has been confirmed as one of the contestants on a popular pottery TV show.
The new series of Channel 4’s The Great Pottery Throw Down is set to begin on Sunday hosted by Siobhan McSweeney.
Experts Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller will be judging the artist’s creations announcing both the star potter and the unlucky participants leaving the show each week.
Aberdeenshire woman Susan MacInnes will be taking on the other contestants with a series of challenges.
The 55-year-old library assistant said that plasticine as a child was her first foray into the craft, before attending an evening class in 2004.
She enjoyed the craft so much she continued learning herself after the classes stopped.
Susan said: “I am constantly amazed at the pottery created by our ancestors and different cultures through the ages. It is incredible the difference pottery has made to human development and the variety of shapes, finishes and uses that people through the ages have made with the same basic ingredients: mud, fire and water.
“I love when something I’ve made resonates with other people, and I make such a range of pieces it is difficult to compare them.
“The Last Drop in the Ocean” is definitely one of my favourites. The teardrop-shaped pot has a variety of sea creatures contained within it and a humpback whale curls around it with the fluke of its tail breaking out of the drop. Everyone who has seen it has been touched by it and its message.
“Hand building is definitely my favourite. Clay is such a versatile medium – the only limit is your imagination. Every day is a school day, there is so much to learn with pottery and I love that I am always trying something new.”
Participants were kept in a bubble to allow them to film for the season, which helped them to get to know each other.
Susan said: “The filming bubble was a liberating experience, being taken completely out of my day-to-day life and just being able to spend all my time thinking about clay or talking about clay with like-minded folk – a total gift.
“It was difficult being away from loved ones while I was in the bubble, but the silver lining was getting to know and bond with the other potters.
“It’s an amazing, intense, surreal experience – and so much fun. If anyone asks me about doing it, I would tell them to go for it.
“I applied never dreaming that I would end up standing behind one of those benches. I feel so lucky to have done this, to have met Keith, Rich and Siobhan, and to have met all the other potters – my new Clay Family!”
In the future, she hopes to get a studio area to herself and spend more time working with clay.
The first episode will air at 7.45pm on Sunday with potters taking on two challenges, creating a cheese set and port chalices.
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