Northern Ireland woman crowned champion of hit Channel 4 show The Great Pottery Throw Down

Fans of the hit Channel 4 show The Great Pottery Throw Down were delighted last night as a Bangor mum-of-three was crowned Best Home Potter.

Over the past 10 weeks Northern Ireland viewers have enjoyed a familiar accent after the new series hit the small screen on January 7 as 12 amateur ceramicists compete in the battle of the clay.

Over her time in the studio, Donna has made everything from a roast dinner set to a toilet, and has been Potter of the Week for a record five times.

In the final against Dan and Dave, Donna was the favourite achieving the ‘GOAT’ title (Greatest of All Time), with fellow Northern Ireland host Siobhán McSweeney introducing her as ‘a meticulous planner’.

She continued: “From day one Donna’s exquisite hand building and decoration has wowed the judges.”

And after the three tough challenges Donna managed to wowed the judges, Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller, again with her personal chandelier depicting aspects of her life and included the Giant’s Causeway and the famous Harland and Wolf cranes.

This is the second time the iconic cranes of Belfast’s shipyard Samson and Goliath has featured in Donna’s show-stopping work after she brought Keith to tears with her Staffordshire flatback in week three.

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Donna had to keep the fact that she was competing on the show a secret, from members of her children and family, so it came as a great surprise when they tuned in to the first episode and even witnessed her being crowned the winner.

Donna said: “I just can’t believe that I have got it. It feels really amazing….Honestly I think for the first time I am absolutely speechless. I think it’s going to take a bit of a time to take it in. It feels very overwhelming, and I just can’t take it in at the moment.”

And then added: “My kids are going to see me coming home with the trophy, this is for you guys and I love yous very much.”

Praising Donna, Keith explained: ‘Donna you are a living testament to picking up where you left off. Follow your passion and follow your dreams - Donna you are wonderful well done!

“Her attention to detail and the discipline and her decoration has just been sublime throughout the whole process. She never held back and always pushed herself but in that final she gave us what she knows she is good at and boy did she give it to us.”

Fellow judge Rich added: “Donna my goodness from that roast dinner set in week 1 through to the end she has challenged herself and it has paid off. She has refound her passion for clay , I just hope that her winning the GPTD is the boost that she needs to re invigorate her life with clay.”

Talking about winning the title and the experience of being on the show, Donna, added: “I said on the show that it hadn’t sunk in yet and it really hasn’t, I think because I had to keep it a secret for so long, it seems strange now that it is all out in the open and I can talk about it.

“One of the best moments for me at the final was seeing my husband’s reaction and my families faces when it was announced I was the winner. I could see how proud they were, and I felt a real sense of personal achievement. My family are so important to me, I don’t know if I can put into words how I feel about them. I know I have struck gold with my family and they mean the world to me.

“I didn’t tell my children that I had won so they only saw that when it was on the television in the final episode. They were shocked and totally delighted, it made their night. We all watched it together, my whole family were there, and it was incredibly special because it was on Mother’s Day.

“Without sounding cheesy, I just want to go through life being kind, and looking out for others. You don’t have to dull other people’s brightness to make yourself shine. My mum always used to say there is room for everybody to achieve. For my family to see me win meant so much more to me than actually winning!

“Bangor is home for me and has been for 11 years, I am originally from Belfast. Since the series has been airing I have got recognised in the street a lot and people come up to talk to me and it’s always about pottery and the show. I was the only potter on this series to come from Northern Ireland and I hope that they will be proud of the way that I came through. What I love most about Northern Ireland are the people, that’s so important to me.

“I didn’t think at the very beginning about winning I just wanted to get through to the next episode. It was only towards the end that I thought I might have a chance of getting the trophy.

“It has been hidden in a box in my attic for a long time, and it now has pride of place in our family living area.

“When we got the brief for the Final initially I thought oh my goodness! I felt pretty anxious when I saw it, as I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it and all of the many things that could go wrong. I was really happy with my finished chandelier, it told my story starting out as me as a kid playing with clay, then meeting my husband at university, getting married and having children, returning home to Northern Ireland and finally my return to clay at Gladstone. It was quite emotional when I finished it, I am even getting emotional now thinking about it!

“My favourite moments of downtime in between filming were when we were at dinner at the hotel or lunchtimes, as we were building friendships. I spent a lot of time dancing in the Green Room with the potters, we had great craic!

“Walking in with my fellow finalists Dan and Dave was a special moment for me. It felt quite surreal and they were both utter gents and such good fun. I felt that I was in such good company and they are both exceptional potters and so skilled. They gave me such lovely comments after I had won.

“And I will stay in touch with all the Potters [Andrew, Edward, Shani, Daniel, Princess, Cadi, Sophie, Jan and Steven]. We are all on a What’s App group and we are constantly chatting. We are all meeting up at the end of March for a get together so we are all looking forward to that. We have bonded over this shared experience – no-one else can possibly understand how crazy, stressful, fun, exciting, joyous this journey has been and so we will always have that to bond us.

“The response from the public and social media has been so positive and so incredibly kind, about my work and my character. For all of us Potters I think our biggest fear was how we were going to come across on television, so it was a huge relief to get such lovely comments.

“I would absolutely say to any budding potters out there to apply for the next series - go for it without a doubt. After getting married and having my children, this is the biggest experience I have ever had. Everybody and the crew made it so much fun.

“2023 has been an amazing year and for me in 2024 to see me winning the trophy on TV has given me the confidence back again to experiment more with clay and to pursue my passion, probably more than I have ever done before.”

Filming the series at Gladstone, Donna added: “Rich and Keith are very experienced and their feedback was of equal importance to me. Art and craft is so subjective and so sometimes they saw different things that they liked in my work. They were both incredibly kind and I wanted to impress them both. Siobhán was great to be around. She was just the comic relief that I needed when I was getting a bit in my own head. Not only was she hilarious but she was also very kind off screen.

"Being in Gladstone Pottery Museum was such a pleasure and a privilege. My favourite area by far was the little alley just between the colour room and the bottle kiln - it was like taking a step back in time to the Victorian era. The sunrise and sunsets over the bottle kilns were spectacular and I don’t think I would ever tire of watching them. It was a really special place and I don’t think I would have enjoyed the experience as much if we had been in a modern studio. Being at Gladstone gave the whole experience a sense of occasion. I really, really loved it there.

“My best moment by far was winning! That felt really incredible, but getting the first potter of the week was also a highlight for me. The Roast Dinner set was made with my late Granny Fisher in mind so it felt really special to receive that accolade for it. My worst overall moment was when we made the water filters and everyone else had major cracks. I felt so disappointed for everyone and realised that everything can go wrong in an instant. That week felt particularly tough.

“Siobhán was so kind and generous especially when we did the abstract light shades - I trusted her and felt that she was looking out for all of us potters that particular week. She was very witty and I loved her little side eye and pursed lip that usually meant she was about to get up to mischief. I always felt that she was about ten steps ahead of us and you just never knew what she was going to come out with next. She was brilliant craic.

“My favourite challenge of the whole series was the gluggle jugs in week 2. I absolutely loved hand building them and was really happy with how mine turned out. It just felt like everything had gone well that week. I had settled into being in front of a camera, I was hand building so felt much more confident and I loved how the colours of my glazed fish turned out. My least favourite challenge was probably the flatbacks. I convinced myself that mine had probably cracked in the kiln as I found the clay quite tough to work with. I think we all totally stressed ourseIves out needlessly about that challenge. I was delighted when they both came out in one piece.

“After being around the visiting professional potters I think I would like to work with Ashraf Hanna’s clay and try to create more unusual shaped, hand built vases like Jackie’s. I am definitely going to build time into my practice to develop more interesting slab built vessels. I also really want to focus on my decoration - I am trying to develop a way to print my images from screens on to Japanese sumi paper and then on to clay using slips.

“I would do it all again in a heartbeat! It was the most exhilarating, uplifting and challenging experience of my life and I loved each and every minute of it. I am absolutely gutted that it is over. I loved being in Gladstone with the other potters but I also loved spending time with, and getting to know the crew. They are a really amazing group of people working on Throw Down and I don’t think it would have been as much fun as it was, nor would I have felt as comfortable as I did had it not been for the crew.

“You don’t make a programme that is so well received by the public without having the crew and production team who make it work. I found it difficult after I left to seeing them so much in so many weeks, to not seeing them – I actually missed them quite a lot.

“I also learned that I have more resilience than I give myself credit for and that I am still as determined as I was as a twenty something year old girl. I hope that I was able to show people that you do not have to be mean to or step on other people in order to be successful - you can be successful and still be kind to others as you move towards your goals. I hope that my children learn from my experience that yes, it is hard to put yourself into uncomfortable situations but that sometimes, when we do step out of our comfort zone that’s when the really great stuff happens.

“I have come away from this experience having had so many laughs, having gained a group of amazing potter friends, having really reignited my passion for clay but most of all having regained a confidence in myself that I had lost somewhere throughout motherhood.

“I have plans to keep on potting in my little shed, working on my throwing technique and on developing my own body of work. I really enjoy taking part in local makers markets but I have real aspirations to develop my painting on clay and to have a piece of work exhibited locally. That would be the dream. I am so happy to have won - my new goal is to exhibit a piece of work that really gets people talking.”