Crete
— — where the European world first remembered itself.
Not only on a wall.
“Crete runs 260 kilometres east to west, the largest of the Greek islands and the southernmost edge of Europe. The Minoan palace at Knossos lies just outside Heraklion; the Samaria Gorge cuts the White Mountains in the west. The coast turns pale stone in the morning and goes copper at sundown. The interior keeps its own dialect and its own slow time. — from the studio
Crete, 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.
Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth-largest in the Mediterranean, running about 260 kilometres east to west and 12 to 60 kilometres north to south, with a total area of 8,336 square kilometres. The population is roughly 640,000. Heraklion is the capital and largest city; Chania, Rethymno and Agios Nikolaos are the other major centres. The island's spine is mountainous, with three principal ranges — the White Mountains (Lefká Óri), Mount Ida and the Dikti — rising above 2,000 metres. It sits 160 kilometres south of the Greek mainland.
The Minoan palace at Knossos, partially reconstructed by Sir Arthur Evans between 1900 and 1931, stands five kilometres south of Heraklion. The site was occupied from around 7000 BC; the palace itself was built around 1900 BC and reached its peak before the volcanic catastrophe of Thera around 1600 BC. The Minoans are the earliest documented urban civilisation in Europe. Phaistos, the second great Minoan palace, sits on the southern plain near the Libyan Sea. Both sites' carved limestone, fresco fragments and storage pithoi remain in place under the open sky.
The Samaria Gorge, 16 kilometres through the White Mountains, opens from early May to mid-October and is walked downhill from Omalos at 1,250 metres to Agia Roumeli on the south coast. The Knossos site is open daily, busiest between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Chania's Venetian harbour, with its 16th-century lighthouse, anchors the old city in the west. Elafonissi beach, pink sand on the southwestern corner, lies about 90 minutes by road from Chania.