Tahiti
— — the green the trade wind carries.
Not only on a wall.
“Tahiti is the largest island of French Polynesia, halfway between California and Australia. Volcanic and twin-peaked, it carries Mount Orohena at 2,241 metres above a coast of black-sand bays. Papeete, on the northwest shore, holds the market that opens before dawn. East of town, the road to Teahupo'o passes through the dense green of the Papeno'o Valley.
Tahiti, 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.
Tahiti is the largest island of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the south Pacific. The island is shaped like a figure-eight: Tahiti Nui in the northwest and Tahiti Iti in the southeast, joined by the Isthmus of Taravao. Mount Orohena rises to 2,241 metres above sea level, the highest point in French Polynesia. The capital Papeete, on the northwest coast, anchors a population of about 280,000 across the island. Magellan reached the wider archipelago in 1521; Captain Cook charted Tahiti itself in 1769.
The reef break at Teahupo'o, on Tahiti Iti's southwest shore, ranks among the heaviest waves in surfing. It hosted the 2024 Paris Olympic surfing event and breaks in less than two metres of water over sharp coral. North of Papeete, the lagoon held inside the barrier reef stays warm through every month, with surface temperatures near 27 Celsius. East of town, the Fautaua waterfall drops about 135 metres into the upper valley above the city.
Tahiti's southern-hemisphere position holds the sun within twenty degrees of overhead through most of the calendar, and the easterly trade winds keep most mornings clear. Sunset over Mo'orea, fifteen kilometres west across the channel, lights the volcanic ridgeline through a band of low cloud. The wet season runs November through April, with short afternoon storms; the dry season holds the long evenings between May and October. Black-sand beaches on the east coast read warmer in late light than the lagoon shore on the west.