Desert
— — the hour the saguaros throw their long shadows.
Not only on a wall.
“Arizona holds three deserts at once. The Sonoran across the south, where saguaros stand fifty feet tall and the spring rains pull ocotillo into bloom. The Mojave in the northwest corner, drier and higher. The Chihuahuan reaching in from the east. The light at the late edge of the day is the part everyone remembers. Long shadows, the colour going soft, the heat letting go.
Desert, 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.
Arizona is the only U.S. state where three of the four North American deserts meet. The Sonoran covers roughly the southern third, the Mojave the northwest corner near the Colorado River, and the Chihuahuan reaches into the southeast around the Sky Islands. The Sonoran is the wettest of the four, with two rainy seasons — winter cyclones and the summer monsoon arriving in early July. Elevations range from 70 feet near Yuma to well over 4,000 feet across the high basins. Saguaro cactus grows almost nowhere else.
The desert hour photographers chase is the last forty minutes before sundown, when low sun rakes across the basin and every ridge of a saguaro picks up its own shadow. The Sonoran sky reads pale gold to copper as the heat lifts. Cool air drains down from the Santa Catalinas and Rincons into Tucson's basin within an hour of dark. The sky stays luminous for another twenty minutes after the sun is gone — desert dusk holds longer than coastal dusk because the air is so dry.
Spring is the bloom. Late February through April, depending on winter rain, the Sonoran lights up with Mexican gold poppies, lupine, brittlebush, and the red flames of ocotillo. Saguaros flower at their crowns in May. The summer monsoon — about July 4 through mid-September — brings violent afternoon thunderstorms and the smell of creosote after rain, the desert's signature scent. Fall and winter are mild and clear, with daytime highs in the 60s and 70s across Tucson and Phoenix. July afternoons can pass 110°F.