Elsa Ardern (1918-2006) was a New Zealander who came to Melbourne in 1942 to earn money for the remainder of a trip 'home' to the UK. Instead she married and settled at Warrandyte. In 1954, with her two children now at school, she began studying pottery under John Bernard Knight at the Melbourne Technical College. In 1961 she joined the Potters' Cottage at Warrandyte with friends Sylvia Halpern and Kate Janeba. She worked from a studio under the family home, exhibiting at the cottage and also through the Victorian Ceramic Group when it was set up in 1969.

In 1980 she established a workshop at Tathra on the far south coast of NSW, sharing her time between Tathra and Warrandyte for the next 25 years. Amongst the work made at Tathra were some very large pieces which she fired in the Stafford Brothers' wood-fired brick-kiln at Kalaru. Part of the clay for these came from the Staffords' clay-pits.

Her pots are represented in several major public collections. A growing number of private collectors also value the strong form of her pots, enhanced by her characteristically subtle wood-ash glazes. With Sylvia Halpern and Gus McLaren she celebrated her long association with the Potters' Cottage by exhibiting in its 45th anniversary exhibition in 2003. The newly-built Manningham Art Gallery at Manningham City Square will feature works by the Potters' Cottage group at its opening exhibition in August 2012.

Her works are signed with an incised 'Elsa Ardern' or 'EA'.

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