Boy in a China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything

Product Information

Keith Brymer Jones is a master ceramicist and design expert who has over four decades of knowledge and experience under his belt. He is the designer behind his award-winning Keith Brymer Jones Word Range and also works collaboratively with every other brand under the MAKE International umbrella. 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! )

This is one of the biggest complaints we have from customers is that they think the pottery is made in the UK by Keith. This is understandable in some respects having watched him extensively on the Great British Pottery Throwdown hand making many ceramics. Unfortunately, due to the huge popularity of the ranges, they cannot be made by Keith any more. The process of how they are made was explained by him as the following - I discovered The Great Pottery Throwdown on HBO here in the US in January 2022 and binge-watched all five seasons in nothing flat. TGPT was a welcome respite from the seemingly endless procession of depressing news – inflation, Ukraine, mass shootings, Covid, climate change... TGPT was the antidote I needed – a gentle show with gentle people and low stakes (no million-dollar prizes or scheming contestants here). At the helm, some wonderful hosts and judges who encouraged and supported the non-combatants with sensitivity and good humor, and sometimes even tears. That is, judge and master potter Keith Brymer Jones' tears. Keith Brymer Jones is a British potter and ceramic designer, known for his homeware Word Range with retro lettering and punk motifs. In 2015, he debuted as an expert judge alongside Kate Malone on BBC2’s The Great Pottery Throw Down where his readiness to shed tears at the contestants’ work attracted comment. He has continued his role and remained as a judge when the programme transferred to More4 in 2020 and Channel 4 in 2021.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. Keith Brymer Jones is one of the judges on that show. He is himself a world- renowned potter and ceramic designer. His warmth, wit and emotional responses to contestants' efforts really make the Throw Down the great show it is. Ballet dancer. Front man in an almost famous band. Judge on The Great Pottery Throwdown. How did all that happen?

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:During downtime on the pottery throwdown Keith made my hair curl with some of his tales - he's a great raconteur and recounts his story in this book as he does in real life - with joy, charm & mischief.' - Sara Cox to create simple yet stylish products which are pleasing to the eye, practical in the modern home and, above all, make people happy!’ 💕 In 2016 Brymer Jones went to Australia to a ceramics festival called Clay Gulgong. He was to give a presentation there, but felt anxious, sure that he would be “looked down upon by the ceramics artists… I had a big chip on my shoulder about them not accepting me.” Once his presentation was over, two of the world’s leading experts on modern ceramics gave their own lecture. It featured Brymer Jones’s signature Word Range, which they described as “pots that talk”. “I was blown away. Absolutely blown away.” He felt recognised. “Isn’t that what we’re all really looking for, to be able to be seen? It’s a wonderful feeling.”

It was an art school teacher, Mr Mortman, who first introduced him to pottery. One day, Brymer Jones walked into art class and found a ball of terracotta clay was waiting at his desk. “Just looking at this lump of clay washed away all the anxiety I usually felt when I was asked to do anything in class,” he writes in the book. “It felt amazing, like I was holding my own imagination in my hands.” He began sculpting an owl. “My, my, that looks very nice, Keith!”, he recalls Mr Mortman saying: a rare piece of encouragement from a teacher that would stay with him for years. 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.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. Thank you to Keith Brymer Jones, Dan Thompson and Marj Hogarth for the development and curation of the exhibition. 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! Ballet dancer. Front man in an almost famous band. Judge on The Great Pottery Throwdown . How did all that happen?