Kelso Pottery has operated from The Knowes in Kelso since 1970, run throughout by Ian and Elizabeth Hird, who trained together at Edinburgh College of Art. For over fifty years the pottery produced stoneware fired at 1300 degrees: Ian's domestic range of mugs, jugs, bowls, and baking dishes decorated with impressions drawn from the Borders landscape, and Elizabeth's hand-built and thrown animal and bird figures. In 1988 Ian built an outdoor pit kiln for a lower-temperature range called Time Tablets, pressed with oats, barley, reeds, or bracken in patterns spanning prehistoric to present-day designs. The stoneware kiln reached the end of its working life in February 2024 after 54 years, and the pottery now works from the pit kiln while Ian has returned to tapestry weaving, a second subject from his art college training. The workshop and shop open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.
Surveyed