They obviously couldn’t do it in words, I say. “No! Of course not! They still call me a c*** now!” he tells me. 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?

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. 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! 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. His ability to empathise with the other potters is striking. Perhaps this is because his route into pottery has been unconventional too. “I’ve never had a formal training, as such,” he tells me. When he was first announced as a judge on the show, a lot of people (shall we call them ceramicists?) were nonplussed, he explains. “Who the bloody hell is Keith Brymer Jones? Never heard of him. Oh, he must be one of those business types.” He spent most of his career making commercial pots out of limelight. Now he’s written an autobiography in the hope that he will demonstrate that there are other paths into creative careers that don’t involve art school.

Who is Keith Brymer Jones’s wife?

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. 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 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. 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? 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.

Keith was born in London in 1965. His interest in pottery started at a young age but it wasn’t until his starting an apprenticeship, at Harefield pottery in London, that he considered that it could be a worthwhile career. Who is Keith Brymer Jones’s wife?

What collaborations has Keith done?

Ballet dancer. Front man in an almost famous band. Judge on The Great Pottery Throwdown . How did all that happen? 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.” 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. 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?