TV programmes showcasing traditional skills and crafts are already enticing us to pick up our rolling pins and needles.

Baking and sewing have become big business largely down to the popular shows, The Great British Bake Off and The Great British Sewing Bee.

Recently the spotlight has been firmly focused on ceramics as viewers of BBC 2's The Great Pottery Throw Down followed the progress of ten home potters from around the country heading to the home of pottery, Stoke-on-Trent, to become top potters.

Contestants include Matthew Wilcock of Giggleswick, who has made it to the show's final on BBC 2 tonight.

For ceramicists around the country, the programme has been helping to raise the profile of a pastime they have been pursuing with a passion for many years.

Emma Inman, marketing and membership co-ordinator at HIVE in Shipley, which has been running a ceramics course for more than 30 years, says: "Pottery has always been popular but with this show it has gone crazy. All our courses are full and we have to put on an extra four courses to cope with the demand."

As well as running the courses, HIVE recently hosted 'Hey Clay.' Run by the Crafts Council as part of the BBC's Get Creative Campaign, the free open day was a celebration of all things clay, allowing visitors to try their hand at techniques such as wedging, coiling, handbuilding and throwing - not literally of course - throwing is working at the potter's wheel.

For David Worsley, attending a pottery course at HIVE led to a career as a professional potter. Through his business, Dove Street Pottery which he set up in the cellar of his Shipley home, David is passing on the pleasure of his wheel-thrown ceramic tableware to customers at high end retailers such as John Lewis.

Another high profile assignment was being commissioned to produce an exclusive range for the Tate Gallery's exhibition shop during their Barbara Hepworth exhibition in the summer.

Although David hadn't previously touched clay he has a creative background having studied fine art and completed an MA in sculpture.

But he recalls his 'lightbulb' moment to pursue pottery came from meeting the crafts people who attended the Saltaire Arts Trail, an event he founded and ran for four years.

David was inspired by making practical things which served an important purpose. "I thought I wanted to make something which had a direct relevance on people's lives. They have a favourite mug or bowl and they use things sitting around a table, it is a very communal thing so I decided to bring utility and beauty together," explains David.

After undertaking a course at HIVE, his partner Claire bought him a potter's wheel. His first large order from a trade show afforded him a kiln and Dove Street Pottery was born.

"It's been an absolutely crazy year but it's absolutely brilliant," says David.

Christine Godfrey took up pottery later in life. The 78-year-old, from Baildon, was in her 50s when she enrolled on a course at Bradford College to learn the technical side of the pastime she initially took up at the former Bingley College with her sister and her friend.

Christine was 53 when she embarked on her BTEC and was nearly 60 when she gained her degree after joining the WEA course at HIVE where she now teaches ceramics.

She said the appeal of pottery was difficult to explain. "I think how people like working with the earth, gardening, it is something like that. It is hands on; it is creative; it is calming and you get absorbed in it.

"I am teaching something that I love and I am so lucky," said the retired telephonist and cook.

Retired primary school teacher, Jane Hurford, was introduced to ceramics when she did her O-level at 15.

She also studied it for her A-level before training as a teacher at Bradford College, but despite working in schools, pottery has always had a presence in her life.

Jane explains as a primary school teacher you teach everything: "But I always made sure they got the chance to get their hands on clay," she recalls.

Her introduction to HIVE, what was then known as the Kirkgate Centre, came many years ago. She was attending a ceramics refresher course after having her family and ended up teaching it after the tutor fell ill.

She returned to primary school teaching in between, but since retiring is now teaching courses at HIVE. "Most people have got a need to create and to make something whether baking or sewing. People need a creative outlet and clay just responds to that. It is one of the most forgiving mediums. If you make a mistake you can correct it, you can re-join it. Things break and you can re-join it.

Jane explains Japanese ceramicists mend their breaks with gold. "And it becomes a feature of it so it becomes a precious break."

"When things go wrong you can make it look like it's a feature of it, make it look as though it was meant to be like that. The other thing is at the end of the day what you make is not always the most important thing. It is what you feel as you make it and the sense of satisfaction and learning and the stress release is just as important as the end piece," says Jane.

As expected, Jane's home, and garden, is a wonderful showcase of her work. Her most recent project was creating three unicorn heads purely for decorative purposes.

"I tend not to make functional ware. I would rather make decorative stuff, ceramic forms is the best way to describe them.

"But the thing I find fascinating about clay is once it is fired it will last forever."

Jane talks about a pot created by an ancient Egyptian and on display at Bagshaw Museum in Batley. "His thumb print is on it. It is a lasting legacy - you have made your mark."