Chesapeake
— — a city wide enough to hold a swamp, a river, and a working canal.
Not only on a wall.
“Chesapeake is a quiet kind of big. The city covers more than 350 square miles, second-largest in Virginia by area, and inside its lines are the Great Dismal Swamp, the Northwest River, miles of the Intracoastal Waterway, and the working locks at Great Bridge. South Norfolk and the old Norfolk County merged in 1963 to make it. The land lies low and the water moves slowly through tea-coloured cypress shade. Egrets work the shallows at first light. Sailboats waiting their turn at the lock idle just upstream. The bridges raise and settle on schedule. — from the studio
Chesapeake, 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.
Chesapeake is an independent city in the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia. It was formed on January 1, 1963 by the merger of the city of South Norfolk and the surrounding Norfolk County. With a land area of roughly 340 square miles, it is the second-largest city in Virginia by area, after Suffolk, and the third-most populous, with over 250,000 residents recorded in the 2020 census. The city borders Norfolk and Virginia Beach to the north and the state of North Carolina to the south. Much of its southern half lies within the Great Dismal Swamp.
Water defines Chesapeake. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway enters the city at Great Bridge, where a 1932 lock raises and lowers boats between the Elizabeth River and the Albemarle Sound system. The Dismal Swamp Canal, dug between 1793 and 1805 and the oldest continuously operating artificial waterway in the United States, runs along the western edge of the swamp. The Northwest River, the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth, and a network of tidal creeks together drain the city. Cypress and tupelo line the slow channels; the tannins from their roots stain the water tea-brown.
The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge covers more than 112,000 acres across the southern part of Chesapeake and into North Carolina. The main entrance is at the Washington Ditch off White Marsh Road, where a level boardwalk and a 4.5-mile trail lead to Lake Drummond at the centre of the swamp. The refuge is open year round, daylight hours only; bears, bobcats, and more than 200 bird species are recorded here. The Great Bridge Lock Park, on the canal, is reached from Battlefield Boulevard near the Civil War battlefield site.