Tortola
— — a green ridge above a blue that won't sit still.
Not only on a wall.
“Tortola is the largest of the British Virgin Islands, a long volcanic ridge rising out of the eastern Caribbean. Road Town, the capital, sits in a sheltered harbour on the south coast. The north shore strings together small white-sand bays: Cane Garden, Smuggler's Cove, Apple Bay. Sage Mountain, the high point at 523 metres, holds a small rainforest reserve. The trade winds blow most afternoons, and the boats out at Soper's Hole lean east on their moorings. from the studio
Tortola, 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.
Tortola is the largest island in the British Virgin Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the Leeward Islands of the eastern Caribbean. It covers about 55 square kilometres and runs roughly nineteen kilometres east to west along a steep volcanic spine. Road Town, the capital of the BVI, lies on the south coast around a deep natural harbour. The island sits roughly 95 kilometres east of Puerto Rico and a short ferry ride from St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Sage Mountain, at 523 metres, is the highest point in the entire territory.
The Sir Francis Drake Channel runs along Tortola's south shore, a sheltered stretch of water that is one of the most popular cruising grounds in the world. The north coast faces open Atlantic swell and holds the sandier beaches: Cane Garden Bay, Smuggler's Cove, Long Bay, Apple Bay. Reefs lie close in along both shores, and the water reads turquoise over sand and a deeper sapphire over grass and rock. Charter boats stage out of Road Harbour and Soper's Hole at the West End for the short crossing to Norman, Peter, and Virgin Gorda.
The northeast trade winds blow across Tortola most of the year, steady at around fifteen to twenty knots in the winter cruising season and lighter in late summer. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June through November, and the island was hit directly by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. Recovery has reshaped much of the built coastline. Sage Mountain National Park, established in 1964 as the territory's first protected area, preserves a pocket of moist forest at the summit with mahogany, elephant ear, and West Indian locust under a near-constant breeze.