DRESSED TO KILN!
Multi-tasking model in bid to win TV pottery contest
MOST days she can be found up to her arms in clay, creating vases, bowls and mugs on her potter’s wheel for her budding business.
On other occasions Shenyue Ding, a contestant on the new series of The Great Pottery Throw Down, slips into designer clothes for her very different work as a model.
And Miss Ding’s talents don’t end there. She has a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge and used to work as a consultant in biotechnology before she gave it all up to pursue her new-found hobby.
The multi-talented Miss Ding, 28, founded Supper Ceramics in 2019, creating pieces for the dinner table in a studio in east London, where she lives with her partner Alex.
Her wares include unique pots, centrepieces and dinner platters painted with slip, a liquid clay, before being glazed and fired.
On her website she writes: ‘Most of my pieces are thrown on the wheel ... I am strangely attracted to the slow, multi-step process of making pots, which, depending on a number of mysterious factors (like the weather, the kiln gods etc), means that it takes 4-6 weeks for each piece from start to finish.
‘In a world full of mass-produced Ikea uniformity, my main goal is to create unique items that will be treasured in your home.’
Miss Ding has 14 ,000 followers on TikTok, where she shares video demonstrations filmed at her potter’s wheel.
Her 6,000 Instagram followers, meanwhile, can see her modelling for labels such as Armani, Vivienne Westwood, Jaeger, Cos, Whistles and the lingerie brands Coco de Mer London and Zimmerli.
She used to work as a strategy consultant in the field of biotechnology, but quit after discovering pottery 18 months ago.
Miss Ding, who was born in China and brought up in Manchester, is among 12 contestants on the fourth series of the Channel 4 show, which started last night.
Actress Siobhan McSweeney is the new host, with judges Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller returning.