Boy in a China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything

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I love watching The Great Pottery Throw Down. It might be a competition but it's so much more than that. It's about a group of like-minded people who like creating and are just enjoying being in the pottery and turning a lump of clay into something beautiful. Thank you to Keith Brymer Jones, Dan Thompson and Marj Hogarth for the development and curation of the exhibition. The Great Pottery Throwdown’s Keith Brymer Jones has been leading a ceramic revolution since 2015. As a judge on wildly popular series he has introduced a whole new generation of people to the wonders of pottery and design. Keith’s Make International Brand including his ‘Word’ range of mugs, has proved to one of our most sort after products over the past few years, up to the point we can barely keep up with the demand! We have put together a profile on him for some of the most searched Keith Brymer Jones questions:

Keith has been seen to cry a lot on the show and the great viewing public of the Great British {Pottery Showdown has often wonder why. Keith has said the following on the subject “I find the simpler the design, the more impact it has. There’s quite often times when I’ve looked at a certain shape, and it will move me to tears.” Looks like as the series goes on we might be seeing a lot of the famous Keith Brymer Jones crying shots. Why are Keith Brymer Jones Mugs so popular? When I completed the final Season 5 I felt a void. I raced to my smartphone and searched for Season 6, and indeed another season seems to be in the works. I also discovered that Keith wrote his autobiography. I just finished the Kindle version and it more than filled my post-TGPT void. Keith has featured as a judge on The Great Pottery Throw Down since the show first started in 2015, and series 5 is airing on Channel 4 now. Since training at Harefield Pottery, Keith has created ceramics for huge brands such as Laura Ashley, Habitat and Monsoon. He is also Head of Design for MAKE International. Find out more about his work here.

Update 11/02/2022 - Keith Brymer Jones's book launch

Keith has stated before what he loves about his ranges of mugs, cups, plates and bowls, especially in his now famous ‘Word’ range is the simplicity of the design, and the slightly retro feel about them. This has been coupled with some more, shall we say risqué, modern phrases some of which we won’t repeat here although you can find it here on this link😉 Designs range from the simple Happymug, to the wildly popular Daddy and Mummy ones. The whole range of the mugs can be found on this link What collaborations has Keith done? You can also try your hand at making your own clay flowers with Rita Floyd, our latest Newcastle Common artist-in-residence specially selected by Keith Brymer Jones to be in residence during the exhibition and to create a response to his work. Find out more about Rita here. We are excited to welcome potter, Channel 4’s The Great Pottery Throwdown Judge and Boy in a China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything author Keith Brymer-Jones to Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft! In addition to the Word Range, Keith has finally introduced his Studio Range in Summer 2023. A gorgeous range of stoneware products which has a more organic aesthetic compared to his Word Range. He follows up with “As I walked through the factories I was highly aware of this connection between crafts and the process of production within a factory setting. It firmed up my belief that it was the material itself, the clay what it’s undoubtedly at the core of anyone who was involved in making ceramic pots and here I was, in China, experiencing first hand the enormous experience of the staff in producing it. I’m ok with China producing china (the clue is in the name! )

If I was producing clothing or cuddly toys, or for that matter mobile phones, would I feel differently? Who knows? But to produce ceramic from its very birthplace, it was a no brainer” Is Keith Brymer Jones Welsh?Every chapter of my book is based around an object (usually a pot) that's been significant in my life. It's just a trigger to let me go off in a lot of different directions and tell a few stories. A lot of stories. Dyslexia. The art teacher who changed my life. My Mother. My Father. A life-changing job interview with a man who lay under his car throughout. That video. Keith will be releasing his autobiography "Boy in a China Shop" on the 3rd February 2022. In his book Keith will be covering his life from early childhood, his early years, meeting his wife Marj, through to finding fame with his pottery. Here is the official blurb on the book; They obviously couldn’t do it in words, I say. “No! Of course not! They still call me a c*** now!” he tells me. Every chapter of my book is based around an object (usually a pot) that's been significant in my life. It's just at trigger to let me go off in a lot of different directions and tell a few stories. A lot of stories. Dyslexia. The art teacher who changed my life. My Mother. My Father. A life-changing job interview with a man who lay under his car throughout. That video. to create simple yet stylish products which are pleasing to the eye, practical in the modern home and, above all, make people happy!’ 💕

It’s an attitude that baffles Brymer Jones. “I don’t get it. You’ll give yourself cancer — sit on it, and it’ll fester. No, let it all out.” After his apprenticeship, Brymer Jones started out hand-making ceramics for retailers including Conran Group, Habitat, Barneys New York, Monsoon, Laura Ashley and Heal’s. He began to develop the Word Range for the first time; he was originally attracted to words because of their shapes, as he is dyslexic. Brymer Jones describes working with clay, shape and form as a natural affinity, as a result of his condition. Ballet dancer. Front man in an almost famous band. Judge on The Great Pottery Throwdown. How did all that happen? Perhaps that’s why the Throw Down gets emotional. “Just thinking about it now, maybe that’s what it is with their work. They bring this work to me, and it’s so wonderful. It’s like, ‘Oh, I see you now, I get it. Look, you can do this.’ ” He pauses. “It’s a brilliant, brilliant feeling.” Keith designs every single item on his potter’s wheel before he takes the prototypes to China to work with his colleagues at the factories. Keith’s Word Range has produced over 500 products and it is sold in over forty countries with a large and loyal following. To this day, the Word Range follows Keith’s design philosophy: ‘to create simple yet stylish products which are pleasing to the eye, practical in the modern home and, above all, make people happy!’His ability to empathise with the other potters is striking. Perhaps this is because his route into pottery has been unconventional too. “I’ve never had a formal training, as such,” he tells me. When he was first announced as a judge on the show, a lot of people (shall we call them ceramicists?) were nonplussed, he explains. “Who the bloody hell is Keith Brymer Jones? Never heard of him. Oh, he must be one of those business types.” He spent most of his career making commercial pots out of limelight. Now he’s written an autobiography in the hope that he will demonstrate that there are other paths into creative careers that don’t involve art school.