Sourdust Pottery creates new studio five months after fire

John Scott, who owns Sourdust Pottery in Stocksfield, said he is 'eternally grateful' to those who raised more than £10,000 on a GoFundMe page that helped him rebuild his life and business from ashes after his studio caught fire last November.

READ MORE Fire at pottery business destroys 25 years of materials and equipment for owner

Thankfully no one was hurt, and while the incident happened when John was away at a craft fair, it soon dawned on him that his business would suffer.

Now four months later, John is almost back to normal by hosting his regular raku classes, and night classes as well as building up his work for upcoming fairs which start in June.

"It feels nice to move on,” John said. 

"When the fire happened last year and when I was contacted about it while I was away. I had my head in my hands thinking that I would never recover from the hit and my business would be in trouble.

Before and after fire (Image: David Wood and John Scott)"But as soon as my friend Brian saw what had happened and created the GoFundMe page - the possibility to restart again and almost be back to where I was with a studio almost five months later is amazing.

"I am eternally grateful for everyone’s help and it has allowed me to become myself again and feel more positive as it is a new start.

"Everyone is telling me to paint or put a sticker of a phoenix on the studio, but I'd fear that would remind me of what happened, so I want to move on.

Inside the new pottery studio (Image: NQ)

"However, I have found myself more paranoid and I am constantly making sure something like that will never happen again. I have done this in the design by making sure everything is fireproof, and the studio is metal, not wood.

"There's still a few things left to do with the new studio such as buying tools and many other things, but it feels really nice getting back to how it was before."