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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About
- Biography
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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.
" - Apprenticeships & Residencies
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1992
Residency Banff Center for the Arts, Alberta, Canada
1992-1993Residency Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana
- Primary Work Experience
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1985
Studio artist
2004Warren Wilson College, Asheville, North Carolina
Other
- Public Collections
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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
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
- Bibliography
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“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)
Citation: Leah Leitson, "The Marks Project."
Last modified April 29, 2026. https://www.themarksproject.org/artists/leah-leitson
Objects
Collections
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas
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rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas -
rosenfieldcollection.com
Dallas, Texas

