Chappaquiddick Island
— — the long sandbar that drifts a little every winter.
Not only on a wall.
“An island off the eastern end of Martha's Vineyard, separated from Edgartown by a narrow channel that the On Time ferry crosses in about ninety seconds. Two cars at a time, no schedule, runs when it runs. Most of the island is conservation land: Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge, Wasque Reservation, Mytoi, the small Japanese garden tucked into a pine wood. A barrier beach runs north along the Atlantic side, breached and re-knitted by storms over the decades. Quiet roads, scrub oak, the smell of salt on the wind off Nantucket Sound. — from the studio
Chappaquiddick Island, 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.
Chappaquiddick is a small island of roughly 14 square kilometres on the eastern side of Martha's Vineyard, separated from Edgartown harbour by a channel about 160 metres wide. Administratively it is part of the town of Edgartown in Dukes County, Massachusetts. The year-round population sits near 200, with a seasonal multiple of that. The island is reached by the Chappy Ferry, a small chain-driven ferry that carries two or three cars at a time across the channel in about 90 seconds. Much of the island belongs to the Trustees of Reservations and the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, both holding it as conservation land.
The east shore of the island gives onto the Atlantic, with Wasque Point at the southeast corner producing a strong tidal rip where Nantucket Sound and the open ocean meet. Cape Poge Bay forms a large sheltered estuary on the northeast, edged by a barrier beach that shifts every storm season. Norton Point Beach to the south reopens and closes its breach to Katama Bay on a roughly decadal cycle. The waters around the island hold striped bass, bluefish, and bonito through the summer, and the surfcasting at Wasque is among the most respected on the East Coast.
Mytoi, a 14-acre Japanese-influenced garden of pine, azalea, dwarf maple, and a small koi pond on a wooden bridge, is held by the Trustees of Reservations and open dawn to dusk. The 1893 Cape Poge Lighthouse on the northeast tip can be reached on a guided over-sand vehicle tour. Wasque Reservation at the southern end offers walking trails through scrub oak and beach plum to a long unbroken stretch of sand. The Chappy Ferry runs continuously from about 6:45 a.m. to midnight in summer, with reduced hours in winter; cash, card, and Vineyard residents' accounts all accepted.