With ceramics, I think there's so much that you can do with it
that it's just really like stuck with me
and something that I feel like I could do forever
Aberdeen’s my home and I've always lived here
I think it's really important that there's artists and people
that are working professionally in art and design and creative practices
in smaller towns and cities, and places across Scotland and the UK
My name’s AJ, I'm a potter and ceramicist
living and working in Aberdeen
My love of clay started when I was at university
I went there to study 3D design
Going into my third year, we did a trip to Denmark
It really sort of made things, made things
real for me because we went there and we met loads of people
that were doing ceramics as a career and it was just really inspiring
and I was like, you know, I could make this work
I started making blobs in Denmark, actually, and it kind of like
encouraged me when I got home to make more things like that
Just over time, they kind of settled and got more consistent,
and then they kind of expanded again out into like mugs and plates
And then I started making dinosaurs and bigger sculptural pieces
And it's just so versatile, I feel like I can do so much with it
A lot of the stuff that I made at university was very serious,
so now I really enjoy just like making it silly and making it fun
I think if it makes me smile then hopefully it'll make someone else smile
and that's why I sort of keep making them
The Throw Down was absolutely brilliant
I think it really forced me out of my comfort zone
It made me less scared to try new things when I got home
It was just one of the best experiences of my life
It's something I'm going to remember for a long time
It was quite nerve wracking at first
I was like, what are people gonna think?
I'm the first non-binary person on the show, I'm the only Scottish person
Am I going to do Aberdeen proud or am I going to disappoint people?
And people were just like 100% so lovely
I would get messages
from non-binary people who were like ‘oh, you've given me more confidence
to be myself and to be open with my family about who I am’ and things like that
And that really made me so happy
Hihihi, that’s so cute
This is my sketchbook from the Throw Down,
which has got all sorts of bits of paper in it because I ran out of room
because I didn't think I'd get that far
and I didn't think I'd need a very big sketchbook
I don't think I would have had half the designs that I got without
Celda helping me
We just- we work so well together and quite a lot of the time,
Celda would sort of like spark an idea like with the Brig o’ Balgownie,
I was really struggling with a monument from Aberdeen that I could make in clay
And the otter, that was Celda’s idea as well
Hello
Hi babe
There you go!
Hello, you okay?
My name is Celda Mae and I'm AJ’s partner
This is Leo, he's our rescue dog
He is one
Oooh the butt scratch Is that nice?
Is that nice?
I was working in our spare room
Yeah, at home, which was a nightmare
So then we moved, I moved all my stuff in here
We met in university, we were in the same class
Yeah, I went to uni thinking I was gonna do a degree in jewelry
and then ended up doing ceramics
And then after I graduated,
I didn't have the room to do my ceramics, so I went back and did my jewelry
And then when I moved in here,
then finally had the room to do both my jewelry and ceramics
Would you like to say, or?
I'm nervous
You’re nervous!
So, me and Celda recently got engaged and Celda proposed to me
I didn’t manage to do it on one knee because a physically wouldn't
have managed to get back up
I turned around and she was sitting there with a ring box
And yeah, I didn't think that they were serious at first
I thought, oh Oh, oh, this is serious
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Hello
You've never seen me use this before, have you?
It's not for eating
Yeah, I really enjoy working at the wheel, it's one of my favourite things
There’s a good boy- don't drink that
Before I did a lot of hand building and sculpting
the wheel was like my main, my main focus
It’s quite meditative
Right, should we head out for a walk with the boy?
Yeah You wanna go to the beach? Come on then!
Thank you, good boy
So we're just down at Aberdeen Beach, just now
And, I mean, we like coming here to have a walk,
and this is Leo's first time at the beach, so we're hoping to be able
to take him down here for walks every now and then
Growing up in Aberdeen was really nice, actually
I think my parents took me and my sister out a lot to see things
There's beaches and parks, and there's the winter gardens
and different coves and bays
And nice people, you know
Growing up queer in Aberdeen, I didn't really know
anything about queerness
Came out as gay when I was about 15 and then didn't
really realise that I was non-binary until I was about 20
I changed my name just before I went down for the Throw Down and it was actually
so nice to go down there and have
so many new people just immediately using my new name
It was really nice, I think I needed that
Yeah, yeah, definitely
I think it's really nice with shows like The Throw Down
that like younger kids can get into crafts like that and sort of
be more aware that there are things like that that they can try
We've had kids giving you pieces of art that they've made, and like post cards, and
I love that something that I’ve done
or made has inspired like a kid to go away and make something of their own
So, tomorrow we're going to my old high school
to teach a blob-making monster workshop
Yeah, I'm very excited
My name's AJ and
I'm a potter in Aberdeen, and we're just going to have some fun
today, basically, and make some blobs, make some monsters
I think in the art world, it's just as important to try things
that you don't like as you do like because then you know kind of what pathways
you want to go down
So yeah, giving them the opportunity to just try
everything when they're younger is just really, really great
I wish I had it more as a kid
How's it going?
Oh, we’ve got some sketches down
I'm going to give you a demo on pinch pots
I'm having fun right now
I haven't really done much pottery before, so this is very new
Very new Trying out new ideas
Yeah, I'm enjoying it, it's quite fun
I’m learning some new skills and that's what I really enjoy about it
A lot of people focus on like, the bigger cities,
so it's nice to have someone from Aberdeen that's getting recognised
for their talent
Aberdeen's a really small place,
so it’s a bit- it's a little bit nice to be recognised
It's been great today, actually
All the kids have drawn like completely different things
and made things that I would have never thought of
Yeah, it's just been such a fun day, I've really enjoyed it
So many people graduate here in ceramics and then are forced to move to somewhere
like to Edinburgh,
or to London, or to Glasgow, so that they can actually continue their practice
because they don't have a spare like two grand in their pocket
to buy a kiln or buy a wheel or do anything with their work
So, me and a few people have formed Aberdeen Ceramics Studio
so that people who are interested in clay and are graduating every year
and then having nowhere to go and nowhere to fire their work,
have somewhere to go and have somewhere to meet like-minded people
In the future, I’d just love to be able to continue what I do
and continue to be able to experiment
You know, not everybody gets to do what they love, but also kind of experiment
and try new things and have people stay interested at the same time
It doesn't feel like a full time job, even though I'm probably working
more hours than I would doing a 9 to 5, it's
much more enjoyable for me and a lifestyle that I really enjoy