Jude Jelfs

Jude Jelfs is a British ceramic artist whose practice combines pottery, painting, and sculpture. She studied Fine Art before becoming a potter, and over the years has developed a distinctive approach that merges traditional techniques with contemporary forms. Her work ranges from earthenware and porcelain to three-dimensional stoneware, and she currently focuses on slab-built vessels that are cut, curved, and assembled in a manner reminiscent of dress-making.

Jelfs decorates her pieces with layers of vitreous slips, often burnished and incised with sgraffito, producing surfaces that reveal depth and texture. Each piece typically begins with life-drawing and develops into a unique, expressive form. Works are biscuit-fired one or more times and usually glazed internally.

Her ceramics are exhibited across the UK, including in her studio at the Cotswold Pottery, and she is a professional member of the Craft Potters’ Association (CPA). As she has said of her inspiration: “Many things spark it off. The thought that everyone you see walking down the street is naked under their clothes… never fails to make me smile.”