Shenandoah Valley
— — the long fold of pasture under the ridge.
Not only on a wall.
“The long valley west of the Blue Ridge. Cattle and orchards, limestone karst country, the Shenandoah River winding north toward Harpers Ferry. From the ridge above, the pasture lays down in folds. In late October the maples turn first, then the oaks, and the whole basin lights up for about ten days. The mist comes off the river at first light and lifts before the school buses run. — from the studio
Shenandoah Valley, 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.
The Shenandoah Valley runs about 200 miles along the western flank of Virginia, held between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Allegheny range to the west. The Shenandoah River drains it northward, joining the Potomac at Harpers Ferry. The valley floor is karst limestone country with caves at Luray and Endless, and rolling pasture that supports cattle, apple orchards, and small grain. The Great Wagon Road brought the first European settlers down it in the eighteenth century; Interstate 81 follows roughly the same line today.
The valley has four full seasons, but October is the one people drive up for. Sugar maples and red oaks along the Blue Ridge ignite for a window of about ten days, usually between the second and third week of the month, and Skyline Drive becomes the most-photographed road in the state. Spring brings apple blossom through the orchards around Winchester, the country's largest apple-growing region east of the Mississippi. Winter snow holds along the ridge crests well after it has cleared the valley floor.
The valley carries a heavy Civil War year. Stonewall Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign ran through it; Sheridan's 1864 burning ran the other way. Battlefields at New Market, Cedar Creek, and Cross Keys are preserved along Route 11 and at scattered sites along Route 340. The Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton works the longer story of who farmed the valley before and after, with reconstructed farmsteads from Ireland, Germany, England, and West Africa. Local Mennonite and Brethren communities still keep working farms across Rockingham and Augusta counties.