Ceramicists & Glassmakers in Jerusalem
10 stores · curated ORBIS register
Balian Armenian Ceramics of Jerusalem makes hand-painted tiles and tableware on Nablus Road, continuing the Balian family's work at its longstanding pottery site. The studio also undertakes architectural commissions, extending painted ceramics from vessels into larger murals and tiled surfaces. Cadim Ceramic Art Co-op Gallery brings a cooperative model to ceramic retail, with the artists themselves staffing the shop on Yoel Solomon Street.
Balian has painted ceramic tiles in Jerusalem since 1922, when Neshan Balian Sr. and Megerditch Karakashian were brought from Kütahya to restore the tilework on the Dome of the Rock. Marie Balian's pieces have since hung in the Smithsonian and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Nablus Road workshop is now run by her son, Neshan Balian Jr., the family's fourth generation.
A family ceramic studio and showroom making hand-painted tiles, tableware, vessels, murals, and architectural commissions using inherited Jerusalem Armenian techniques. The Balian and Karakashian families established their joint pottery on Nablus Road in 1922; the Balian family continues at the site.
Founded December 1987 as a ceramicists’ cooperative; iTravelJerusalem and Inbal Hotel report 15 artists who staff the shop themselves after Cadim merged with Altogether 8 on Yoel Solomon Street (iTravelJerusalem; Inbal Hotel).
Garo Sandrouni's workshop in Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter produces hand-painted ceramics. Garo and Sonia Sandrouni make pottery and tiles, using painted decoration across both household objects and larger ceramic work. Visiting the workshop puts the finished pieces alongside the practice of making and decorating them.
Self-taught Hagop Antreassian entered the ceramics business in 1980; his workshop-studio across Zion Gate displays hand-painted Armenian pottery and visitors can watch him paint.
The Natsheh family operates two of the three remaining glass factories near Hebron, blowing vessels by techniques traced to Phoenician and Roman-era glassmaking that early-19th-century travelers recorded some 150 local glassworkers practicing. Their cobalt and amber glass, sold through Jerusalem shops and fair-trade networks, is still shaped by mouth over an open flame rather than cast or pressed.
A Karakashian family workshop and shop making hand-painted Armenian pottery, tiles, plates, bowls, and custom ceramic work behind the retail room. The Karakashian family was among the founding families of Jerusalem Armenian ceramics and established this separate Old City workshop in 1964.
Jerusalem Pottery continues the Karakashian family's Armenian ceramic tradition in Jerusalem. Hagop Karakashian's hand-painted work includes tile murals and name plaques alongside plates and other pottery. The family's history also includes the Old City's multilingual street-name tiles, made by the preceding generation.
Sandrouni's studio sits just inside the New Gate, where George and Dorin Sandrouni paint ceramics using the Kütahya-derived technique brought to Jerusalem by the city's founding Armenian tile families. Customers can watch pieces being thrown and painted on-site before buying plates, tiles, and bowls from the adjoining showroom.
Vic Lepejian, with an M.A. in fine arts from Armenia, opened Vic's Armenian Art Studio in 1975 on Armenian Patriarchate Road; son Bedros and Irene Oerdegian work with him.