A recent trip to Castelon, Spain was to inspect a small order but important as the first order we have for our new black limestone called Anthracite.

The Atlantic Lavastone continues to gain popularity with its unique aesthetic and incredible technical characteristics.

Alpine White is proving to be popular. This stone has the light grey aesthetic with spidery white veins of varying intensity and some background colour variation too to keep it interesting. Exceptionally hard it can be used in very commercial applications.

This is a very large piece of stone, a 3000 ton slice of Silver Travertine cut and falling from the quarry face. Here is a new offering, a new Silver from a supplier in Tuscany. The images show the incredible images of the quarry where a huge 3000 ton slice is cut and tipped over using air bags that are wedged behind the stone and inflated.

Not long ago I was asked to find a marble I was not familiar with, Arabescato Orobico. It was to be for bar tops and wall cladding in the The Shangri La Hotel located in The Shard. Unlike the material more commonly known as Arabescato (featured in the product section on this site) the Orobico (grey version – there is a Rosso too) is a anthracite/blue silvery grey with some mustard/brown aspects all mixed up with the most incredible movement and markings.

During our trip to the stone Show in Verona this week we popped into the factory charged with cutting our blocks of Atlantic when they arrive from the quarry. The factory we use has the new type of gang saw that uses diamond wires instead of the traditional diamond toothed blades. These gang saws can cut a block of Atlantic in just a few hours instead of the 5-6 days the olds saws could manage.

We have liked and sold the Beaulieu limestone for many years. Light and creamy in colour with occasional fossils and veins; it has that quintessential limestone appearance.

Being a very hard and close grained limestone it is suitable for all internal applications from a bathroom wall to shopping centre floor. Not only do we have the relevant BS EN test data for you, Beaulieu has an incredible project history spanning many years. A great reference can be found in the Pompidou Centre where 4000sqm was installed in the Forum Des Halles in 1972. More recently we supplied Park’ N Shop, Hong Kong and the MOD building here in London.

As well as all this great history, the stone is quarried and cut less than 400 miles away from London, so very environmentally friendly for projects here in the Capital.

This great new finish caught my eye when selecting slabs of Woodgrain Sandstone for a small domestic project in Verona. A series of saw cuts across the face at slightly different widths and depths in the direction of the grain made the sandstone look very much like driftwood. I am trying to get a few samples to our London office in case anyone wants to give it a whirl as a feature wall for example.

We are now promoting Cevenol marble, a beautiful material steeped in history from a very old quarry in France. I will add more information shortly but we have a beaufiful block of 20mm polished slabs available immediately in Verona. I think the colours are fantasic and could work for both contemporary or traditional designs. A mid dark greyish background with lighter grey markings and gold.

I saw these slabs of Titanium Travertine recently on an inspection in Spain. The material originates from Iran I believe and has a lovely combination of rich chocolate and grey hues. I look forward to using it on a project soon. dont think it is cheap though. Nice alternative to Noce.