Suttons Bay Main Street
— a one-street village that opens to the bay at the end.
Not only on a wall.
Suttons Bay Main Street, 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.
“A single main street in the village of Suttons Bay, running a few blocks down to the public dock on the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay. The buildings are brick and clapboard from the late nineteenth century, painted in soft colours, with awnings and flower boxes in summer. A small bookstore, a cidery tasting room, a cheese shop, a hardware store that still sells hardware. The Leelanau Trail comes in from Traverse City and ends at the village. The bay is the colour the bay is. from the studio
The place, in three passes.
Suttons Bay is a village of about 600 year-round residents on the Leelanau Peninsula in northwest Lower Michigan, fifteen miles north of Traverse City on M-22. The village fronts the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay and was founded in 1854 by Harry Sutton as a wood-fuel stop for Great Lakes steamers. Main Street, formally St. Joseph Avenue, runs roughly three blocks of late nineteenth and early twentieth century commercial buildings ending at the village park and public dock. The Leelanau Trail, a paved rail-to-trail route, terminates in the village.
Most visitors arrive on M-22 from Traverse City, which is fifteen miles south, or by bicycle on the seventeen-mile Leelanau Trail from the TART trailhead in Traverse City. Parking on Main Street is metered in summer, with free public lots a block back. The village runs an active small downtown: a year-round bookstore, several wine and cidery tasting rooms tied to the Leelanau Peninsula AVA, the Suttons Bay Cinema, and weekly summer farmers' markets at the village park. The bay supports public swimming, kayak rental, and a marina.
Summer is the high season. Boat traffic on Grand Traverse Bay is heaviest from late June through Labor Day, and the village swells with visitors from Traverse City and the Leelanau wineries. Fall colour on the surrounding ridges peaks in mid-October and draws a second wave for the cidery harvest and the orchard pies at nearby farm stands. Winter is quiet, with several restaurants and the cinema staying open and the bay sometimes freezing along the shoreline. May and September give the village back to its residents and read as the most honest seasons.
