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One of the questions we often get asked in the industry is where does stone “come” from? We sat down with Nicholas from Stone Wiz to discover the secrets hidden in the names of some of your favourite natural stones.

Quarrying vs processing

Although there are quarries scattered all across the globe, not every country has access to the right machinery to process the raw blocks. This means that only a handful of nations, such as Italy, Spain, India, Brazil, and China, are equipped to manufacture stone and export it all over the world.

This often leads to the misunderstanding that the stone “comes” from, for example Italy, when it might in reality be quarried somewhere else.

The clue is in the name

Sometimes the origin of the stone can be part of the name given to that stone. To name a few, Verde Alpi is quarried in the Italian Alps, Nero Marquina originates near the town of Markina-Xemein in Spain, and Lilac Milas in the homonymous Turkish city. In each of these cases, the name of the stone also reveals a clue about the stone colour too. One natural stone that is also quarried in Italy is one of the most sought-after marbles: Calacatta Oro.

In this case, the term Calacatta refers not to the geography of the stone but is a generic term given to a stone with a milky white background. However there are multiple variations of this, depending on the geology of the quarry. This will also vary through time as more blocks are extracted from it.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

The “Oro” type of Calacatta is characterised by what in stone terms is referred to as gold veining., This elegant taupe-coloured streak is often accompanied by pyrite crystals which you might know better as “fool’s gold”, due to the resemblance with the precious mineral.

Regardless of its origin, natural stone is a product of nature, and its beauty resides in the very fact that it is not perfect. Just like humans, it will have stretch marks, blemishes, and imperfections. And that is exactly the point, with natural stone you are not choosing perfection, you are choosing to invest in a piece of art that bears its own history!

To learn more about different stone types from around the world visit Nicholas’s website

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