Janet Leach

Janet Darnell’s childhood in Texas during the Roaring Twenties and the Depression imbued her with resilience and practical skills, largely acquired on her grandparents’ farm. Aged 19 she took a bus to New York City where she found work as a sculptor’s assistant. During the Second World War she worked on Staten Island welding the hulls and bows of ten US Navy destroyers. After discovering pottery she met Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada at a Black Mountain College seminar where her love of pottery