Tucked behind a blue gate on Nablus Road, just a short walk from Jerusalem’s Old City walls, the Balian pottery studio has long been part of the street itself. Its windows, filled with hand-painted ceramics, catch the attention of passersby before they even step inside. Beyond them, the rhythm is slow and deliberate, brush to tile, color to surface, heat to kiln. This is where the story of the Balian family continues, not as something preserved in a museum, but as a craft still lived in the same courtyard since 1922.1
A Family Rooted in the City
In Jerusalem, Armenian ceramics have become part of the city’s visual identity. The blue-and-white tiles, floral patterns, birds, cypress trees, and glazed pottery seen across homes, churches, cafés, and street signs are tied closely to the work of Jerusalem’s Armenian ceramic families2—especially the Balians and the Karakashians—whose workshops helped shape what is now universally recognized as a distinctly Jerusalem style.3 Although often linked only to the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, the history of Armenian ceramics in Jerusalem begins earlier, within the long-standing Armenian ceramic traditions of Kütahya in Ottoman Anatolia (see The Origins of an Iconic Jerusalem Art Form: Armenian Ceramics). In 1919, under the British administration, master ceramicist David Ohannessian was commissioned to help restore the deteriorating tiles of the Dome of the Rock. David arrived from Kütahya and brought with him master potter Neshan Balian Sr. and master painter Megerditch Karakashian, both highly skilled artisans in their own right.4 While the restoration project was never completed as originally planned, it became the foundation for a new ceramic tradition in Jerusalem (see Four Generations and 100 Years of Ceramic Artistry: The Balian Design Studio).
By 1922, the Balian and Karakashian families had established their own workshop on Nablus Road under the name “Palestine Pottery.” From there, Armenian ceramics moved beyond restoration work and into the everyday fabric of the city.5 The Karakashians later became especially known for producing many of Jerusalem’s iconic ceramic street signs,6 while the Balians developed large-scale artistic tile panels and pottery that blended Ottoman techniques with local influences and motifs drawn from the landscapes and ancient mosaics of Palestine. A central figure in the evolution of the Balian studio was Marie Balian, whose work transformed the artistic language of Jerusalem ceramics from the 1950s onward.7 Known for her detailed hand-painted murals and flowing compositions, she introduced a more personal and expressive style while remaining rooted in the family’s ceramic tradition. Her influence shaped generations of artists that trained at the workshop and helped elevate Armenian ceramics in Jerusalem from craft into internationally recognized art.
Today, what is often casually called “Jerusalem ceramics” carries a much deeper history—one shaped by Armenian artisanship, migration, continuity, and generations of family workshops rooted in the city. The Balian family remains one of the strongest continuations of that legacy; while its main studio remains in Jerusalem, newer branches are extending to Amman, Jordan.8 The family plans to soon return to their homeland of Armenia to open a shop in Ashtarak, northwest of Yerevan.9
For the Balian family, ceramic-making was never simply a profession; it was part of everyday life.
This artistic environment shaped the next generations of the family, including siblings Kegham, Setrag, and Nanor Balian, children of ceramicist Neshan Balian and his talented wife Siba and descendants of the original Balian ceramic lineage established in Jerusalem in the early 20th century.10 Raised within Jerusalem’s neighborhoods and within the rhythms of the family workshop, they all became part of continuing and sustaining the tradition in their own ways.
For the Balians, the work is collective as much as it is personal. The family workshop operates not only as a studio, but as a space where memory, technique, and daily life continue to intersect across generations. Carrying the Balian name comes with both recognition and responsibility: the responsibility of preserving a craft deeply tied to Jerusalem’s cultural identity while allowing it to evolve with each generation that inherits it.
This Photo Album follows the story of the Balian family across generations in Jerusalem, through both family photographs and the ceramic works that became part of the city’s visual identity. From early workshop images and portraits of the family in the 1930s and 1940s to photographs of generations at work, the images trace a craft passed down through daily practice and shared space. Alongside them are examples of the family’s hand-painted murals, pottery, tiles, and ceramic panels—peacocks, trees of life, floral compositions, mosaics, and intricate blue-and-white designs, many that have become closely associated with Jerusalem itself. Together, the photographs document more than artistic production alone; they capture a family workshop that continues to function as a space of memory, labor, and continuity within the city. Most of all, they reflect what a lineage of hard work, inherited artisanship, and passion can produce: generations of deeply human and enduring artistic and charming creation that made its distinct mark on and contributions to the city.