Pottery is in Matthew's blood

MATTHEW Wilcock first came into contact with wet clay when he was just 14 weeks old. The son of two pottery teachers, his parents made an imprint of his tiny hand on a teapot, which they still have at home. Pottery, he says, is in his blood. There was always clay around in his parents’ workshop at home and he can’t remember when he made his first piece, “but there are some jugs and cups that have survived from when I was about six,” he says.

Today Matthew is one of the most recognisable potters in the country, having won the title of Top Potter in the final of BBC TV’s Great Pottery Throw Down’ , a series which drew in more than two million viewers per episode.

With his blond dreadlocks and penchant for wearing a three-piece suit under his apron, he’s not everyone’s typical idea of what a potter might look like. And, although he has been credited with helping to introduce the joys of this once thriving British craft to a younger generation through the TV show, he confesses he doesn’t even own a television set because he ‘doesn’t see the point ’ and would much rather read a book in the evening instead.

At 23-years old and the youngest of the ten contestants in the competition, which attracted 2,500 entrants, he’s just starting out in his career having studied BA Hons in Ceramics at the University of Central Lancashire and taken up the post of artist-in-residence at Giggleswick School in North Yorkshire, where he brings the messy and magically transformative world of pottery to life for his students.

“As long as I can remember, I have wanted to work with clay. There’s something so seductive about the material, something that has been a part of history for thousands of years," he says. "I enjoy using all the traditional techniques – terracotta clay, slip decoration, lead glaze and when possible, wood-fired. All of these go back to medieval times, so it’s really important to keep this alive.”

He loves teaching at the boarding school, where he also lives and gets to use the pottery studio in his spare time. “I combine my love of teaching with pottery and won’t ever be changing my career. Being an art teacher, you’re surrounded by lots of creative people doing different things. And it’s great to work with children whose minds are quite open. You get people who aren’t particularly good at painting, but when they have something to manipulate, it brings out a different creativity.”

He teaches until 8.30pm most evenings, then makes his own pots in the workshop until about 11pm, only breaking off to go for an occasional cycle ride. “To escape from ceramics, I cycle. Living in the Dales, I have all these amazing Tour de France standard roads and it would be a real shame not to use them. I try to average 200 miles a week.”

Otherwise, every spare second is spent throwing, turning, trimming and firing in the studio. “I spend about 25 hours a week at the wheel, which isn’t as long as I’d like. It’s a huge thought process, understanding clay and how it works. You have absolute control, you are challenging and forming the material on your own and have complete ownership of the outcome, good or bad. It can be very therapeutic, a great way to relax.”

He doesn’t have any favourite pots. “As a teacher, I am trained not to do that. I am quite boring as I love making functional pots, but it’s good that they are getting used all the time.”

Simple shapes, which are made quickly and for a purpose, inspire him. “There’s something beautiful about being able to see the fingerprints of a craftsman from hundreds of years ago. They tell a story of how fast they were thrown, the strength that went into it, the tools which would have been used and the techniques which remain the same to this day.”

Matthew got lots of positive feedback from his fellow teachers and pupils, who avidly followed the TV show. His friends, too, became hooked. “I don’t think my friends had thought about me being a potter, we just get on with our lives and meet socially," he says.

But, like the rest of the great British public, they were enthralled watching him and his fellow contestants slapping lumps of wet clay on their wheels and, thanks to a mixture of art and science, turning them, with the aid of a few sure pinches and coaxes, into beautiful objects.

From making 20 identical egg cups from a single mound of clay in 20 minutes to creating a sink from scratch with a hole designed to fit a plug, their potters’ skills were put to the test week after week and the sensuality and playfulness of this ancient craft, along with its fascinating technical language and age-old techniques, quickly had viewers up and down the country captivated. The final challenge, also the most complicated and demanding, was to make an original 12-piece tea set, including a teapot with body, spout and lid, out of porcelain, known as the trickiest of all clays to work with.

Matthew, who came top in three of the five previous episodes, says the whole process helped him grow in confidence. “It’s definitely made me feel a better potter and made me try harder. You get to the end of a challenge and think ‘Wow, I just put 20 handles on 20 mugs or ‘Bloody hell, I made a sink’.” Outside the show, he sets his own tasks. “I like to challenge myself making pots on a large scale, or setting a target, maybe making 500 cups in a week," he says.

Matthew, who shows his work through Northern Potters, as well as selling at a local shop in Settle, was praised after the final by GBPT judge Keith Brymer Jones for his design and technical ability, as well as his knowledge of and love for ceramics. “Really and truly, he has got a soul for it, said the veteran ceramicist.

The fact that Brymer Jones was reduced to tears several times during the series at the sight of contestants’ work didn’t surprise Matthew. “It does get quite emotional. I’m sort of the same when I’m firing my big kiln. You’ve got so much work on the line and so much can go wrong, you start to go a little crazy. It’s fantastic he’s so open with that emotion.”

Matthew was thrilled when he went home at half term to find his parents had kept all his medals from his various TV episode wins. “They were all in my old bedroom," he says.

Since the TV show, filmed at Middleport Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent, started in November, the sales of kiln-drying clay have risen 40 per cent and sales of air-drying clay, which doesn’t need a kiln, have gone up by 60 per cent. Evening classes in ceramics too are selling out all over the country.

Made by the same production company behind the Great British Bake Off, the programme’s success took many by surprise. And unlike cakes, which are made to be devoured, the show-stopping results from this particular TV programme will last for centuries.

It is this very permanence that particularly appeals to Matthew, who is now being recognised everywhere he goes. “I was often recognised locally because I have a rather distinctive look," he says. "But when I went to London for the final, it was bizarre to be noticed by people who wouldn't have looked twice before.”

He doesn’t mind. “I am pleased the show has been so popular," he says. "I am extremely passionate about the craft and if my involvement maybe helps open it to a new generation, then I am thoroughly committed.”