Independence Valley big sky
— more sky than country, most of the year.
Not only on a wall.
Independence Valley big sky, 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 long basin between the Independence Mountains and the Bull Run range, drained slowly by the Owyhee headwaters and crossed by a handful of ranch roads. The valley floor is sage and bunchgrass; the sky is most of what you see. In late afternoon the cloud shadows move across the flats faster than any vehicle, and the line where light leaves the ground is what holds the eye. — from the studio
The place, in three passes.
Independence Valley lies in Elko County, northeastern Nevada, between the Independence Mountains to the west and the Bull Run range to the east. The valley floor sits in the Great Basin, on the northern edge of the basin and range province, where the Owyhee River drainage begins its slow run north toward the Snake. Land use is largely ranching and Bureau of Land Management range, with the small community of Mountain City the nearest named settlement on State Route 225 north of Elko.
At basin-floor elevations around 5,500 to 6,000 feet, the air is dry and clean enough that distant ranges read with hard edges. Summer afternoons build small cumulus over the Independence peaks, which then drift east across the valley with sharp ground shadows. Winters are cold and largely snow-free on the flats, though the surrounding ranges hold snow into May. The wind that crosses the valley most evenings is the texture that defines the place.
There are no towns of more than a few hundred people within an hour's drive, and traffic on State Route 225 is sparse outside of ranch and hunting seasons. The ambient sound is wind, the occasional raven, and far-off cattle. Light pollution is minimal; the Milky Way is plainly visible from the valley floor on any clear summer night. The nearest meaningful town is Elko, 70 miles south, where Nevada Highway 225 meets Interstate 80.
