Silestone adds life

on Tuesday, 18 May 2010. Posted in Design Blog

I was at my favorite counter top fabricator yesterday. Finding an interesting stone to use in a bath project I have cooking. I found the stone I was after, and then went into my rep Kelly's office to review some of the other projects I have in the works right now. While I was in there, I came across some Silestone samples in colors I'd never seen before. At some point over the summer, Silestone introduced a six-color palette they're calling Life. I was really taken aback by them.

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Caesarstone has a new direction in Motivo

on Saturday, 27 March 2010. Posted in Design Blog

Caesarstone is my favorite quartz composite, bar none. They have the most interesting palette and the most adventurous selection of surface finishes. Unlike the rest of the quartz composite brands out there, Caesarstone speaks the language of design and architecture. They practically challenge us to find unique uses for their surfaces and their website and product galleries are a great source of inspiration. Caesarstone practically begs to be turned into furniture or wall sheathing or shower stalls or even floors. It's amazingly useful and versatile stuff.

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A microscopic look at some counter materials

on Saturday, 27 February 2010. Posted in Design Blog

Another great contact I've made through Twitter in the last few months is the Aspex Corporation in Pittsburgh, PA. Aspex has been in business since the early '90s and they have embraced social media with a savvy and confidence that makes them stand out. The Aspex Corporation makes Scanning Electron Microscopes among other things and that a company in a very technical field and a kitchen designer could strike up a casual acquaintance is a great example of the expansion and simultaneous contraction of the world made possible by social media. A scanning electron microscope (or SEM) is an instrument for visualizing the surfaces of objects and materials not possible through ordinary optical microscopes.

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A final exoneration of granite, finally.

on Monday, 21 September 2009. Posted in Design Blog

Toward the end of July 2008, The New York Times ran an article in its Home and Garden section about the supposed dangers posed by radioactive granite counters. Their piece was prompted by a concerted effort by an industry group that represents solid surface fabricators to prop up their dying product category by any means they could. So they took a bunch of information about normal, background radiation; dropped all context and pretense of real science, and embarked on campaign of fear-mongering and misinformation. Their efforts found fertile soil at the Home and Garden desk at The Times and so a public health threat was born. Never mind that wasn't a threat to begin with.

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Sometimes, "granite" isn't granite at all

on Friday, 31 July 2009. Posted in Design Blog

This is Absolute Black. It is always labeled and sold as granite but it isn't granite. It's a mineral called gabbro. When magma gets trapped in a single layer underneath the earth's crust, it will gradually cool and form gabbro. Now if the same material were to be pushed up from below under great pressure, it would form granite. But then again, if that magma were to come in contact with water it would turn instantly into basalt. Are you still following me here?

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Please pass the soapstone

on Monday, 27 July 2009. Posted in Design Blog

Another metamorphic rock that makes its way into homes is steatite, commonly called soapstone. It's composed primarily of the mineral talc with a healthy does of magnesium for good measure. The magnesium is where it gets its grey color. Soapstone formation occurs in regions of tectonic subduction and in the presence of water. Let me whip out my rock phase illustration again.

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Onyx is not what you think

on Monday, 20 July 2009. Posted in Design Blog

The polished rock pictured above is true onyx. Onyx is a form of quartz called chalcedony (what a great word) that's usually associated with volcanic activity. As a form of quartz, chalcedony is composed of silica. It's formed when water dissolves silica to the point of saturation. What precipitates out of the saturated solution is chalcedony. Chalcedony, or true onyx, is a semi-precious stone that's used primarily to make jewelry.

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Marble and the metamorphics

on Friday, 17 July 2009. Posted in Design Blog

That sounds like the name of a Do-Wop band. So since I touched on igneous rocks in general and granite in particular yesterday, today I want to talk about the metamorphics. The blue section in this diagram shows how metamorphic rocks end up back on the surface of the earth after their time spent below ground. That blue section is how we get three common metamorphic rocks used in homes: marble, quartzite, soapstone and a fourth, mysterious stone called serpentinite.

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A working definition of granite

on Tuesday, 14 July 2009. Posted in Design Blog

The term granite, as it's used commercially, is a bit of a generic term. Now I'm not a geologist but I do have an understanding of the fundamental geology that goes into the dimensional stone that ends up in peoples' homes. Granite's generally accepted to be an igneous rock composed primarily of silica that's formed in the mantle of the earth as magma gets squeezed between cracks in the earth's crust. As a liquid at that point, the magma tries to rise to the surface. It cools very slowly and under very high pressure then forms what are called batholiths --essentially huge domes that lie below the surface of the earth.

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The rocks in my head, an introduction

on Monday, 13 July 2009. Posted in Design Blog

Rocks are divided into three categories: sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous. A lot of times these three classes are referred to as phases because each class can morph into each of the other classes over long periods of time. But that's can morph, it isn't automatic.

In English, those three classes can be pretty broadly defined like this: sedimentary rocks are formed by compacted sediment, metamorphic rocks are rocks that are transformed by heat and pressure after they're already formed and igneous rocks are formed by cooling magma. Some examples of sedimentary rocks are limestone and travertine. Some metamorphic rocks are marble, quartzite, soapstone and slate. Finally an igneous rock that's in a lot of peoples' homes is granite.

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