Jez Rose says he has never been happier since watching his old business and career disappear
A BBC Breakfast and Saturday Kitchen star who lost his fortune says he has ‘never been happier’ as he launches a new career in pottery. Jez Rose, who started his career on children’s TV, went on to be a regular face on TV shows including The Big Breakfast and James Martin’s Saturday Morning, says almost everything he earned was wiped out.
Jez, who also had his own shows on ITV and BBC One before hosting shows on Discovery and QVC, wrote a best-selling book in 2015, launched a carbon-neutral honey farm and even moved to Delaware in a bid to break into the USA as a global speaker on human behaviour and how to change it.
Jex worked with big-name organisations and travelled to conferences and events around the world to share his views on how to think differently to successfully navigate change. “It’s a huge thing to move to another country,” said Jez. “My attention was focused on getting myself, my dog, and my office relocated, recruiting staff, and then I was always away, staying in hotels for conferences and events. I did very well and it was incredibly lucrative, but I let other people make business decisions for me.”
A huge tax bill had been missed, needing swift payment, then COVID halted public speaking and travel. “Things fell apart and the business I spent 20 years building up was gone within 18 months,” said Jez.
“I don’t blame others. I had taken my eye off the ball and no one cares about your business as much as you do. When I returned to the UK last year, I was 41 and had less than £10,000 to my name. That’s not a small amount of money, and I was grateful for what I had, but losing the business felt a huge setback.”
Jez’s dad paid for Jez and his partner Todd to take a break in a holiday rental in Cornwall, with ‘introduction to pottery’ lessons. “The holiday was in nine weeks time and I couldn’t stop thinking about the pottery,” said Jez.
“It was on my mind so much, I phoned someone who does workshops locally. As soon as I touched the clay, I knew it was for me. I’ve never felt so connected.”
Jez, who now lives in Burley-on-the-Hill in Rutland, has found a satisfaction in life he never before felt. He has used his knowledge from running the honey farm to create ‘Found’, the first certified carbon-neutral ceramics studio, in the village of Bulwick.
With its high-temperature kiln, and paints and glazes that come from mineral quarries, it is a tricky business to make sustainable, but Jez put in hours of research and visited suppliers to ensure he is minimising harm to the environment. He invested in the most energy-efficient kiln he could find and runs it on sustainable energy. A closed-loop water system filters clay sediment from wastewater so it can be reused in the studio.
Jez will launch his first collection of limited edition handmade ceramics later this year at foundceramics.com, and says each piece is ‘intentionally imperfect’, with a nick or tweak added in.
“I follow the principles of Buddhism,” he explained. “Embracing imperfection is central to spiritual practice. It’s the acceptance that nothing in life is perfect.”
