Cotswold Pottery has traded from Clapton Row in Bourton-on-the-Water since 1973, when it was set up by John and Jude Jelfs. John studied ceramics at Gloucestershire College of Art in Cheltenham and throws stoneware pots and kitchenware using glazes he mixes himself from woodash, limestone and clays sourced locally; his work has been shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Jude Jelfs hand-builds figurative pieces in earthenware, porcelain and stoneware, some soda-fired, and also casts figurative sculpture in bronze. Everything sold in the showroom is made on the premises using the methods of the old English country potteries; the working studio itself is not open to visitors because of limited space, but the showroom welcomes browsers most days from 10.30am to 5pm. The pottery remains a small, family-run operation more than fifty years after it was founded, with both potters still working from the same site.
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