Wender·Vista
Bell Island
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileCanada
in Conception Bay, off the Avalon coast of Newfoundland

Bell Island

— the red the cliffs keep, after the iron is gone.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“A small island in Conception Bay, twenty minutes by ferry from Portugal Cove. Iron came out of these cliffs for seventy years and stained them rust-red against the cold North Atlantic. The mines closed in 1966. The cliffs stayed. The ferry still runs, and the wind off the water still carries something of the ore.

from the studio
Bell Island
— bring it home

Bell Island, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Bell Island

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Bell Island sits in Conception Bay, off the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland, reached by a twenty-minute ferry from Portugal Cove-St. Philip's. Roughly nine kilometres long with a population near two thousand, it rises in iron-rich sea cliffs above the cold North Atlantic. The Wabana mines, operated by the Dominion Iron and Steel Company from 1895 until 1966, ran submarine tunnels several kilometres out beneath the floor of the bay, making them among the longest undersea workings in the world.

— the stone

The cliffs are a thick bed of Ordovician hematite, deposited around 470 million years ago when this part of Newfoundland was shallow tropical sea. The ore reads as a deep oxidised red where the Atlantic strips the lichen back. The Number 2 Mine, now run as the Bell Island Community Museum, takes visitors down a slope into a single restored tunnel where the hematite still glints in the rock face and the walls hold the cold of the bay above.

— the water

In 1942, German U-boats reached this corner of the Atlantic. On 5 September U-513 sank the ore carriers Saganaga and Lord Strathcona at anchor off the loading pier; on 2 November U-518 sank the Rose Castle and the PLM 27 and put a torpedo into the pier itself. Sixty-nine merchant sailors died. It remains the only direct enemy attack on a North American land target in the Second World War, marked today by a small memorial above the wharf.

— where
Canada · Conception Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador
— position
47.6300° N · 52.9500° W
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
5 km E
Portugal Cove-St. Philip's
ferry village
18 km SE
St. John's
capital city
12 km S
Conception Bay South
town
N
Bell Island
Portugal Cove-St. Philip's
St. John's
Conception Bay South
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Bell Island — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

The cliffs are a hematite-rich iron ore bed laid down in shallow Ordovician seas about 470 million years ago. Oxidation of the iron gives the rock its rust-red colour where the Atlantic exposes a fresh face.

A passenger and vehicle ferry runs from Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, about thirty kilometres west of St. John's. The crossing takes around twenty minutes and operates year-round, weather and ice permitting.

Yes. The Number 2 Mine has been restored as the Bell Island Community Museum, with guided tours that walk a sloped tunnel a short distance under the bay floor, past the original hematite face.

The Dominion Iron and Steel Company's Wabana operation worked the seam from 1895 until 30 June 1966, when the last shift came up and the underground workings were flooded.

Two U-boat patrols in 1942 sank four iron ore carriers at the Bell Island anchorage and put a torpedo into the loading pier. Sixty-nine merchant sailors were lost in the attacks.

The island holds a permanent population of around two thousand, down from a peak above twelve thousand during the mining years. The town of Wabana governs the whole island.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well for Newfoundlanders, especially anyone with mining family on the Avalon. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio reads as a piece of the home coast, not a souvenir.

The deep iron-reds and Atlantic greys hold up in coastal-modern rooms, mountain-modern cabins, and rooms built around warm wood and cast iron. The piece anchors rather than decorates.

Yes. Heritage-coastal rooms have moved toward darker, working-harbour palettes — slate, oxblood, salt-greys. A Bell Island piece reads in that vocabulary without leaning nautical-cliché.

Above a standard sofa, a single Large reads strongest; above a long console, a four-tile Mural. For a stair landing or full feature wall, the nine-tile Mural.

Yes, in the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both are scratch-resistant and built for vertical installations behind a sink, a stove, or a shower bench.

A microfibre cloth and warm water. No abrasives or solvents. The colour lives in the ceramic surface, so it does not lift or fade with normal cleaning.

Yes. Every WenderVista tile is original to our studio in Knoxville, Tennessee, drawn from Reid Wender's curated atlas. There is no third-party licensing and no other source for the image.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.