Guadalcanal
— — a green island the war never quite left.
Not only on a wall.
“The largest island in the Solomons, in the southwestern Pacific east of Papua New Guinea. A volcanic spine runs the length of the island, with Mount Popomanaseu rising to about 2,335 metres. Honiara, the national capital, sits on the north coast above the strip of water sailors named Iron Bottom Sound for the warships that sank there between August 1942 and February 1943. Behind the town the rainforest climbs fast, and the rivers come down clear and cold off the ridge.
Guadalcanal, 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.
Guadalcanal is the largest island in the Solomon Islands, in the southwestern Pacific about 1,800 kilometres northeast of Cairns. The island is roughly 150 kilometres long and 50 kilometres wide, with a mountainous volcanic interior; Mount Popomanaseu, the highest point, rises to about 2,335 metres. Honiara, on the north coast, has been the capital of the Solomon Islands since 1952 and holds a population of roughly 85,000. The island gives its name to Guadalcanal Province, one of the nine provinces of the country, and is part of the Melanesian cultural region.
The Guadalcanal Campaign of August 1942 to February 1943 was the first sustained Allied land offensive of the Pacific War. Marines landed at Red Beach on 7 August 1942 and took the Japanese airstrip that became Henderson Field. The naval battles in the channel north of the island sank so many warships, American and Japanese, that sailors began calling the water Iron Bottom Sound. The American Memorial on Skyline Ridge above Honiara, dedicated in 1992, marks the campaign. The island still receives veterans, families, and dive crews each year.
The interior of Guadalcanal is a wet tropical rainforest, with rainfall averaging more than three metres a year on the windward slopes. The ridge that runs the length of the island catches the southeast trades and pulls the cloud down most afternoons. Mataniko Falls, a short drive south of Honiara, runs out of a limestone cave the river has cut through the ridge. Cloud forest covers the upper slopes of Popomanaseu. Honiara's coastal strip is dry by comparison, and the contrast over a few kilometres of road is part of how the island reads.