Waimanu Aerial Big Island Ceramic Art Tile
— a green amphitheater open to the sea.
Not only on a wall.
“A nine-mile walk in. The Muliwai Trail drops off the Waipiʻo lookout, crosses the stream, climbs the Z-switchbacks, traces the ridge across thirteen gulches, then falls back down to a black sand beach where Waimanu Stream meets the ocean. The walls rise two thousand feet on three sides. Nobody has lived here since the 1946 tsunami took the village. From above, the shape resolves into a green amphitheater closing around the quiet it kept, framed by water on the only open side.
Waimanu Aerial Big Island Ceramic Art Tile, 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.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Waimanu Valley sits on the windward Hāmākua Coast of Hawaiʻi Island, in Hawaiʻi County. Cliffs of roughly 2,000 feet hem the valley on three sides; the fourth opens to the Pacific. The valley floor runs about a mile wide at the beach and reaches roughly two miles inland to Waiʻilikahi Falls, which drops some 300 feet down the back wall to a pool. Access is on foot only. The Muliwai Trail covers nine miles from the Waipiʻo Valley lookout, drops 1,200 feet to cross Waipiʻo Stream, climbs the Z-switchbacks, then traces the ridge across thirteen gulches before descending into Waimanu. The land is administered by the Hawaiʻi Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
The valley has been uninhabited since the April 1, 1946 Aleutian tsunami swept the Hāmākua coast and destroyed the small Hawaiian village on the Waimanu beach. Before that, kalo (taro) was farmed on the valley floor for generations, and loʻi terraces are still readable in the undergrowth. Today the only overnight presence is the small number of campers holding a permit from the Hawaiʻi Division of Forestry and Wildlife. There is no road into the valley, no cell signal, no resident population. By day, the sounds are the surf at the beach, the wind moving over the cliffs, and Waimanu Stream finding its way to the sea.
Camping permits for Waimanu are issued by the Hawaiʻi Division of Forestry and Wildlife and are free. Day-hiking is allowed without a permit, but the round trip from the Waipiʻo lookout is eighteen miles, with two long descents and two long climbs along the Muliwai Trail. The Waipiʻo Valley access road, which begins the route, has been closed to non-resident vehicles since February 2022; the descent now starts at the lookout above. Drinking water is filtered or treated from Waiʻilikahi Stream, and pit toilets are at the designated campsites. The drier window runs roughly June through September. The rest of the year, the gulches along the ridge run high and the trail closes without notice.