Saltspring Island
— — the morning the ferry wake settles back to glass.
Not only on a wall.
“The largest of British Columbia's Southern Gulf Islands, reached by ferry from Swartz Bay, Tsawwassen, or Crofton. Sheep on the hillsides, a Saturday market in Ganges that has run since 1972, a long quiet road up Mount Maxwell where the arbutus trees lean over the cliff. The Salish Sea on three sides, calm in the lee, choppy where the channels narrow. Artists have lived here a long time. The light off the water in late afternoon is the colour you remember when you think of the Pacific Northwest. — from the studio
Saltspring 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.
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.
The place, in three passes.
Salt Spring Island sits in the Salish Sea, the largest of the Southern Gulf Islands at roughly 180 square kilometres, with a year-round population near 11,000. It is part of the Capital Regional District of British Columbia and is reached only by BC Ferries or float plane, with the three terminals at Fulford Harbour, Long Harbour, and Vesuvius Bay. The main village of Ganges holds the wharf, the bookstore, and the Saturday market. Mount Maxwell rises to 595 metres on the west side, with a forest road to a viewpoint that looks across Sansum Narrows to Vancouver Island.
The Salish Sea wraps the island on every side, sheltered by Vancouver Island to the west and the mainland to the east. Sansum Narrows, the channel between Salt Spring and Vancouver Island, runs deep and cold, with tidal currents that local fishermen read by eye. Orca pods of the Southern Resident community pass through these waters in summer, feeding on Chinook salmon returning to the Fraser River. The protected coves on the east side, Long Harbour and Ganges Harbour, hold sailboats year round and stay glassy on mornings when the outer channels are already running with wind.
The Saturday market in Centennial Park, Ganges runs April through October and has operated since 1972 under a strict make-it, bake-it, grow-it rule. The mid-island Saturday in Ruckle Provincial Park gives a working sheep farm, oceanfront campsites, and 15 kilometres of shoreline trail. Hikers climb Mount Maxwell either from the gravel road or by trail from Burgoyne Bay. BC Ferries runs Fulford Harbour to Swartz Bay near Victoria in about 35 minutes, and Long Harbour to Tsawwassen in about three hours, including a stop at Mayne Island.