Wender·Vista
Tacoma
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileUnited States
on Puget Sound, an hour south of Seattle

Tacoma

— — a working harbor with a mountain over its shoulder.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“A working port city on Puget Sound, an hour south of Seattle. On the clear mornings Rainier appears over the bay, close enough that locals stop noticing it, then notice it again. The Museum of Glass sits along the Thea Foss Waterway, the wharves of Old Town still stand, and ships move slowly into Commencement Bay.

from the studio
Tacoma
— bring it home

Tacoma, 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.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

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.

— about Tacoma

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Tacoma sits at the south end of Puget Sound in Washington state, about thirty-three miles south of Seattle and twenty-five north of Olympia. The city wraps around Commencement Bay, the deepwater harbor that has anchored its economy since the Northern Pacific Railway terminated here in 1873. Population is roughly 220,000, the third-largest city in the state. Mount Rainier rises about fifty-five miles to the southeast and dominates the southern skyline on clear days. The Puyallup River drains the mountain through the city's tideflats into the bay.

— informed by Wikipedia, City of Tacoma
— the water

Commencement Bay opens into the larger Puget Sound, a glacially carved inland sea that connects through the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Pacific. The Port of Tacoma is one of the busiest container ports on the West Coast and works alongside the Port of Seattle under the Northwest Seaport Alliance. The Thea Foss Waterway, once a heavy industrial channel, now anchors downtown's museum row and a small marina. The water is cold in every season, the colour somewhere between slate and pine.

— informed by Port of Tacoma
— the visit

The Museum of Glass sits along the Thea Foss Waterway and is connected to downtown by the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, a 500-foot pedestrian span installed in 2002 with three Dale Chihuly installations along its length. Point Defiance Park covers about 760 acres at the city's northern tip and holds old-growth Douglas fir, the zoo and aquarium, and Owen Beach. The Tacoma Dome handles most regional touring concerts. Stadium High School, built in 1906, stands in a stone neighborhood above the bay.

— where
United States · Tacoma, Washington
— position
47.2529° N · 122.4443° W
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
53 km N
Seattle
Pacific Northwest city
85 km SE
Mount Rainier
active stratovolcano
40 km S
Olympia
Washington state capital
15 km W
Gig Harbor
fishing town across the Narrows
N
Tacoma
Seattle
Mount Rainier
Olympia
Gig Harbor
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Tacoma — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Rainier rises about fifty-five miles southeast at 14,411 feet, the most prominent peak in the contiguous United States. Atmospheric conditions and the city's southern exposure make it appear to float directly above Commencement Bay on clear mornings.

The Port of Tacoma sits on Commencement Bay and ranks among the largest container ports on the West Coast. It works with the Port of Seattle under the Northwest Seaport Alliance, formed in 2015 to coordinate marine cargo operations.

The glass artist Dale Chihuly was born in Tacoma in 1941. The Museum of Glass and the adjacent Chihuly Bridge of Glass anchor downtown's museum district and hold a permanent collection of his work.

The current twin suspension bridges carry State Route 16 across the Tacoma Narrows to Gig Harbor. The original 1940 bridge collapsed four months after opening, a foundational case study in aeroelastic flutter.

July through September are the driest months, with long evenings and Rainier reliably out. Winter is mild but heavily overcast. May and October sit between, with frequent clear breaks between Pacific storms.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well for people who lived in the South Sound, worked the port, or grew up under Rainier's shadow. A Small or Medium sits comfortably on a desk or hallway shelf with a handwritten card from the studio.

The piece reads naturally in Pacific Northwest modern, working-coastal, and stone-and-timber interiors. The blue-green palette holds against weathered cedar, brushed steel, and cool greys without competing with the surrounding materials.

Yes. The bay-and-mountain composition fits the current coastal-modern and northwest-modern direction better than literal beach scenes. The Medium reads as art rather than decoration on a console or floating shelf.

A single Large reads cleanly above a standard sofa or six-foot console. For more presence, a 4-tile Mural fills a larger wall, and a 9-tile Mural anchors a great room.

Yes. The Dura Satin or Matte finish is scratch-resistant and made for vertical installation in humid rooms. The Glossy finish is for dry display walls in living rooms and hallways.

A microfibre cloth with plain water. No abrasives, no household cleaners. The colour lives in the ceramic surface, so the piece tolerates regular wiping without fading or scratching over time.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted in the studio's own visual language and produced in-house in Knoxville, Tennessee. There is no licensing and no third-party imagery used.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.