Mecca
— — the city that turns the world toward it.
Not only on a wall.
“The holiest city in Islam. The Masjid al-Haram holds the Kaaba at its center, and during Hajj the crowd circles it counterclockwise in white. Non-Muslims do not enter the sacred precinct; the artwork is one way to hold the place from outside the boundary. The studio renders the lit galleries the way photographs from the pilgrimage carry them home.
Mecca, 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.
Mecca sits in the Sirat Mountains of western Saudi Arabia, about 70 kilometres inland from the Red Sea port of Jeddah, in a narrow valley at roughly 277 metres elevation. It is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the holiest city in Islam. The Masjid al-Haram, the Sacred Mosque, surrounds the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure Muslims face during the five daily prayers. The city receives several million pilgrims each year for Hajj and millions more for Umrah outside the Hajj season.
Entry to the sacred precinct is restricted to Muslims; checkpoints along the highways from Jeddah and Taif enforce the boundary, marked since the early Islamic period. Hajj, the major pilgrimage, takes place over five days in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah and is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, required once in a lifetime for those able. Umrah, the lesser pilgrimage, can be performed in any month. The Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah issues pilgrim visas through approved agencies.
The Islamic lunar calendar moves Hajj about eleven days earlier each Gregorian year, so the pilgrimage cycles through every season over a 33-year span. The climax falls on the Day of Arafat, the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, when pilgrims gather on the plain east of the city. The Kaaba's black covering, the Kiswah, is replaced once a year on that day, woven in a dedicated factory in Mecca from about 670 kilograms of silk and gold and silver thread.