Hardwick village in autumn
— — the week the maples turn the river red.
Not only on a wall.
“A small Northeast Kingdom town that used to ship granite and now ships food. The Lamoille River runs through the middle of it, and in the first week of October the sugar maples along Main Street and the riverbank go copper, then crimson. Claire's is still on the corner. High Mowing Seeds is up the hill. The light off the water in the late afternoon is the thing the painters keep coming back for. — from the studio
Hardwick village in autumn, 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.
Hardwick sits in Caledonia County in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, about 25 miles north of Montpelier on the Lamoille River. The town's population is roughly 3,000. From the 1880s through the early twentieth century Hardwick was a granite town, shipping stone from the Woodbury quarries down a short-line railroad to finishing sheds along the river. When the granite industry contracted, Hardwick reinvented itself around food and seed: the Center for an Agricultural Economy, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and Jasper Hill Farm all anchor the area.
Vermont's peak foliage in Caledonia County runs roughly from the last week of September through the second week of October, depending on elevation and the year. Sugar maples drive the colour here: the leaves move from yellow through orange to deep red over about ten days. Hardwick's elevation of around 840 feet and its valley position along the Lamoille mean the river reflects the canopy on both banks. The state foliage tracker maintained by the Vermont Department of Tourism updates weekly through the season.
The Lamoille River rises near Greensboro Pond and runs about 85 miles west to Lake Champlain, dropping past Hardwick, Morrisville, Johnson, and Jeffersonville before it widens at Milton. Hardwick sits near the upper river, where the channel is narrow and the current quick enough to throw light back into the maples that line both banks. The Lamoille Valley Rail Trail follows the old railbed through town and gives walkers a level view of the water in autumn.