If I am honest, I was not awfully keen on any of the sinks with pedestal made by our semi final contestants. Probably the most successful was Peter's: it met the brief, was well made and it was innovative. I wouldn't give it house room but then I am a bit of a boring old traditionalist in sanitary ware, it's plain white porcelain all the way for me.
With Adam's piece I liked the pedestal, and I liked the basin but the two did not seem to marry at all. The pedestal was soft shimmery colours, and yes quite mermaid like, but the basin was more like something from the rain forest with twisted vines and deep green rivulets. Both were good but the difference between them meant that for me they did not form a cohesive whole.
Jodie's piece I really didn't like at all. I felt it was clunky and somewhat lacking in imagination. A dragonfly is a very delicate thing, but not when it is 3/4 of an inch thick and painted turquoise all over. Perhaps the need to make something that held together and functioned was such a concern that it ultimately suppressed Jodie's creativity, or perhaps it just looked great in the sketchbook but didn't scale up well. I can't help but wonder if having got rid of Sal they couldn't quite bring themselves to pull the same stunt twice and get rid of the better of the two makers . . . who knows.
Sad to have lost Hannah, but the poor technical performance made it pretty much inevitable. The stresses on very large slabs are huge, and large pieces in general present problems with shrinkage, the possibility of uneven drying, both of which can lead to cracking - as demonstrated. The base of her pedestal could have been interesting and beautiful but again that solid blue basin was pretty grim and didn't marry well with the base.
It is easy to sit on the sidelines and metaphorically throw mud (how apt). One of the problems for Throw Down contestants is that whenever you decorate something in a particular way for the first time, there is a large amount of luck as to whether it comes out looking good or not. I myself am constantly experimenting and still find that sometimes the beautiful thing I see in my mind's eye differs quite a lot from the plain/uninspiring/downright ugly thing I lift from the kiln after glaze firing.
I dread to think how my sink and pedestal would look and no way I am going to make one and waste a barrel load of clay. So I take my hat of to these four intrepid souls, and my heart goes out to them this week and to all who have put themselves on the line every week that has gone before. They are doing their best and no-one can do more than that.
