Leah Leitson

Leah Balsham is primarily known for sculpture and individual container forms. She worked with slabs, and threw earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain on the wheel. Balsham?s firings ranged from low to high fire, ...
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    Leah Balsham is primarily known for sculpture and individual container forms. She worked with slabs, and threw earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain on the wheel. Balsham?s firings ranged from low to high fire, in oxidation and reduction kiln environments. Surface treatment included majolica (a white-based usually with brightly colored, low fire decoration), incised, wax resist, china painted, lusters, and decals. Balsham?s wood fired pots made in Japan had little or no glaze.

    Leah Balsham?s sculpture was influenced by a fascination with Greek myths and vase painting, folk and primitive art, Biblical lore, Japanese prints, Mughal painting (a derivative of Persian miniature painting), patterned surfaces, and water ecology. Some sculptures evoked plant forms while others could be taken apart, giving them an intentional game-like quality.

    Leah Balsham is also known for her print making, her work as an artist for the Federal Art Project (WPA), and as teacher of children at Hull House, a settlement house, in Chicago, Illinois.

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    Apprenticeships & Residencies
    1992

    Residency Banff Center for the Arts, Alberta, Canada

    1992
    -
    1993

    Residency Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana

    Primary Work Experience
    1985

    Studio artist

    2004

    Warren Wilson College, Asheville, North Carolina

    Other

    Public Collections

    Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, Alfred University, Alfred, New York

    Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana

    Louisiana State University School of Art Museum, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

    Richard Belger Collection, Kansas City, Missouri

    rosenfieldcollection.com

    North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina

    Bibliography

    “Birth of A Clay Place.” Ceramics Monthly 45, no. 3 (March, 1997).

    Bloomfield, Linda. Colour in Glazes (New Ceramics). London, England: A & C Black Publishers Ltd., 2011.

    _____________. Advanced Pottery. London, England: Robert Hale, 2011.

    Burkett, Richard. Masters of Porcelain. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2007.

    Ceramics Monthly, March 2003. Vol. 51, p. 24

    Cushing, Val M. and Chris Rich. The Ceramic Design Book: A Gallery of Contemporary Work. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 1998.

    Davis, Don. Wheel Thrown Ceramics. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 1998.

    Galloway, Julia and Ray Hemachandra. 500 Vases: Contemporary Explorations of a Contemporary Form. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2010. 

    Gess, Terry. 500 Pitchers: Contemporary Expressions of a Classic Form. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2006.

    Gustin, Chris and Chris Staley. Best of Pottery 2. Gloucester, MA: Rockport Publishers, 1998.

    Hemachandra, Ray and Daniel Balesco. 500 Judaica: Innovative Contemporary Ritual Art. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2010.

    Lark Books. The Nature of Craft and the Penland Experience: Celebrating 75th Anniversary of Penland School of Crafts. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2004.

    “Pots Presented.” Ceramics Arts and Perception 48 (August 2002).  

    Reason, Emily. Wheel Throwing. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2010.

    “Up Front.” Ceramics Monthly 46, no 7 (September, 1998).  

    “Up Front.” (Feature article). Ceramics Monthly 51 (June-August 2003).  

    CV or Resume

    Website(s)
    Tags (related topics)

    Southern Highland Craft Guild, Archie Bray Foundation

    Swannanoa, North Carolina

    Baton Rouge, Louisiana

    Asheville, North Carolina

    Center for Craft

    Citation: Leah Leitson, "The Marks Project."
    Last modified April 29, 2026. https://www.themarksproject.org/artists/leah-leitson

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