Providenciales
— — twelve miles of bone-white sand.
Not only on a wall.
“The largest tourist island of the Turks and Caicos, on the northwest corner of the Caicos Bank. Grace Bay runs the north shore — a single arc of fine carbonate sand against shallow water that holds the same pale turquoise from the beach to the reef. The studio paints the colour the lagoon keeps even on a grey morning.
Providenciales, 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.
Providenciales, known locally as Provo, lies in the northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic. The island covers about 98 square kilometres and holds the territory's main international airport and most of its 47,000 residents. It sits on the Caicos Bank, a shallow carbonate platform that gives the surrounding water its luminous blue. Grand Turk, the territorial capital, lies about 100 kilometres to the southeast. The Bahamian island of Mayaguana is the nearest neighbour to the northwest.
The water reads turquoise because the Caicos Bank is shallow — much of it under five metres — and the seafloor is white aragonite sand from broken coral and shell. Sunlight reflects off the pale bottom and the longer wavelengths scatter through the column, leaving the cool blues to reach the eye. The barrier reef along the north shore protects Grace Bay from heavy surf and supports stands of elkhorn and brain coral inside the Princess Alexandra National Park, which has been protected since 1992.
Most travellers arrive at Providenciales International Airport (PLS), which connects daily to Miami, New York, Charlotte, and Toronto. The island runs on the US dollar and drives on the left. Grace Bay's twelve-mile arc holds most of the resort and villa stock; the quieter Long Bay on the south shore is the kitesurfing centre. The Princess Alexandra National Park covers the reef along the north shore. Atlantic hurricane season runs June through November, with the heaviest risk in September.