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? 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 - 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 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;

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.

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. In these younger and more vulnerable years, his father gave him a piece of advice that he has been turning over in his mind ever since. “Make sure you do something you really enjoy, because you will be doing it for 85 per cent of your life.” Brymer Jones’s dad had never enjoyed his own job, and had been frustrated by it for the rest of his career. So after leaving school, Brymer Jones put an ad in the Ceramic Review: “Young, enthusiastic eighteen-year-old seeks apprenticeship in a pottery.” 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 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. I was really excited to see that Brymer Jones wrote a memoir and I was not disappointed. His charm and self deprecating humour really shine through. The passion and knowledge he possesses of the art of pottery, the love of music, the work ethic, the little nuggets of his live, unexpected meetings with people who made great impact on his life, it's all told in a joyful and endearing way.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. 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. 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?

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.”

What collaborations has Keith done?

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? The exhibition coincides with the publication of his autobiography, The Boy In A China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything, hitting shelves Thursday 3 February 2022. Ballet dancer. Front man in an almost famous band. Judge on The Great Pottery Throwdown . How did all that happen?