Kat Coleman, owner and principal of Long Beach, California-based Topkat Design Group, had a client who loved Carrara marble and wanted her entire bathroom to feature natural stone: main bathroom floor, shower floors, and walls with a decorative feature wall behind a claw-foot tub. “We are talking Ritz-Carlton style,” Coleman says.

Carrara marble. Photo courtesy of Kat Coleman, Topkat Design Group.

Coleman’s client was concerned the natural stone would be too high maintenance and possibly cost prohibitive. To try to meet her client’s aesthetic, Coleman searched for alternatives, but they were unsatisfied since those options just didn’t look or feel like the real thing.

The reality is genuine natural stone, like Carrara marble, cannot be mimicked. Coleman knew it was her job to educate her client and remind her that marble has been used for centuries. Many commercial settings use marble throughout high-traffic areas and hotel bathrooms successfully, and the sealers on the market have improved substantially over the last decade. She convinced her client that Carrara marble was the best choice for her bathroom.

“This was close to 10 years ago and her bathroom still looks like new,” Coleman adds.

Sealers and Grout for Natural Stone

Whether going for a polished, honed, or leathered finish, choosing the proper sealer and maintaining the sealing process is probably the most important thing clients need to consider when using natural stone in their spaces, according to Coleman.

“Some softer stones such as marble are more prone to possibly show wear over time, although I have a few past clients who have all-Carrara marble bathrooms that still look pristine after many years,” she says.

One trend she’s noticing is that clients seem to want as thin a grout line as possible. Selecting a stone with a straight edge versus a slight bevel is best to achieve this. She reminds clients that stone is a natural material so there needs be some tolerance. What some clients may view as imperfections in natural stone, Coleman calls “character.” “Nature is perfectly imperfect,” she reminds clients.

Fresh and New Natural Stone Finish Trends

Coleman finds that most clients still think a polished finish is their only option. It’s often their designers, who are well-versed in what’s happening in their industry and what’s available, who turn them on to other options or educate them on what they may actually be looking at when they present inspirational images.

Premium Absolute Black granite with natural finish. Photo courtesy of Kat Coleman, Topkat Design Group.

She admits polished countertops are the norm in the United States, but matte-type surfaces seem to be having a moment in the natural stone space right now. “I have the occasional client mention a desire for a honed (or leathered/suede) countertop but usually it’s me, as the designer, making the recommendation in the design,” she says.

Manufacturers are constantly creating new options in finishes, which is exciting for Coleman and her clients. She’s recently learned of a brushed countertop surface finish. “This surface has a matte look with a brushed texture,” she explains. While she’s not yet had the chance to install this finish in one of her projects, she admits she’s intrigued and looking forward to doing more research to learn the pros and cons of using it in one of her designs.

A finish she does love to use for kitchen countertops is honed. Honed is the original matte-type surface. In bathrooms, she enjoys mixing honed and polished stone. For example, she’s combined honed floors and niches in a shower with polished stone walls.

Leathered finish on stone has been around for some time and Coleman says it has a sexy but classic look and feel that men seem to like.

Updating Natural Stone Countertops

For those who want to refresh or update spaces like a kitchen and keep their existing cabinetry, one option is having them restored to a different finish. “A perfect example would be if you had the popular polished black granite countertops that were all the rage around the early 2000s,” says Coleman. “You can have a fabricator put a honed finish on these, replace the backsplash, and you would have a completely different and more current look!”

Choosing Natural Stone for Its Beauty, Strength, and Longevity

There are many reasons why clients choose natural stone for their projects and there is something to be said about the beauty of the real material versus something that looks like stone. Coleman knew her client from 10 years ago wanted marble and while she could have settled for a non-marble look-alike, the reality is she wouldn’t have been happy. Instead, advising her client on how to care for her marble means her client was able to include the stone she wanted in her bathroom and is still happy a decade later. Nothing beats the real thing.

Polished White Macaubus quartzite. Photo courtesy of Kat Coleman, Topkat Design Group.

While marble remains a favorite among her clients, Coleman has been installing more quartzite lately. She appreciates that quartzite is harder than granite and can sometimes even be non-porous, although she highly recommends testing the porosity level if that feature is important to a client. White quartzites have the look of marble with the durability of granite, she says, which makes them attractive to clients.

SIMILAR ARTICLES:

Note: This article is part of a series about American quarries. If you work for a quarry that’s a member of the Natural Stone Institute and you’d like your quarry to be featured here, contact Karin Kirk. Thank you!

Jake Barkley appears to be perched on the edge of his seat. In a Zoom conversation with Barkley and his colleagues at Kasota Stone, the vibe is one of casual intensity and sharp focus. Much of the stone industry rests on centuries-old quarries with a multi-generational history of operations, but Kasota Stone emerged only seven years ago. “We’re kind of breaking in on the scene,” says Barkley, the principal founder of the company.

Barkley and his team bring forth an unusual business model, a collaboration with the State of Minnesota, and a clearly-articulated determination to grow and thrive.

“How do we scale up and grow this business at a rapid rate to be able to compete at a national and international level?” asks Barkley, reflecting on the question that’s driven him for the past seven years. “That kind of stuff just doesn’t happen by accident.”

Core values

Kasota Stone adopted an approach called Entrepreneurial Operating System, which is a framework to help companies understand their goals so they can stay focused on their main purpose. Business decisions are centered around a set of core values, which Barkley recites: “Commitment to excellence, tenacity to deliver, empowered optimism, problem solver, and family.” He adds, “It kind of sounds squishy, but for us, it’s real.”

The best place to see the values in motion is to look at the people at the company. “One of our strengths is our people,” says Barkley. “In the quarry business, there is nothing easy that happens here,” he says, acknowledging that it’s one of the toughest jobs he’s ever had. “Some of these folks just work their tails off and tenacity to deliver is first and foremost one of our best core values,” he says. “We’re super proud of that.”

Keeping company culture vibrant during COVID

During the pandemic, “big get-togethers just haven’t happened” says Barkley, “which is like the antithesis of building your culture.” Undeterred, the management team has been facilitating mobile, outdoor lunch gatherings for each department. “Colin makes a mean lunch that nobody can resist,” Barkley says with a grin, referring to Colin Kimball, the company ‘integrator,’ who oversees the various departments throughout the company.

Kimball sets the stage: “Bring a big grill, cook a bunch of burgers, cook a bunch of brats, laugh a little bit, poke fun at each other, blow a little bit of wind in everybody’s sail and then get back to work,” he says. “It’s all about engaging with people at a real human level.”

Brandon Archer, Director of Sales and Marketing, jumps in with a recent anecdote: “We did one in January and it had to be 15 degrees outside and Colin and I were cooking burgers. It was fun. When you bring some dedication and actually go out to deliver ­– people appreciate that.”

Perhaps a healthy appetite is an unspoken addition to Kasota’s core values. “We’ve got a bunch of big, strong eaters on our team,” Kimball mused.

“The find of a lifetime”

Kasota’s initial foray into natural stone production was a limestone quarry at the company’s headquarters in Mankato, MN. In the last few years, they’ve opened to two new granite quarries in northern Minnesota ­–Superior Northern granite near Ely, and a green granite quarry near Isabella. Barkley describes the company’s Superior Northern granite as “a deposit of rare quality.”

The discovery was no accident. Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources is charged with finding and managing mineral resources in the state. A state geologist identified the sparkling black granite as one with market potential, and Kasota leased the land from the state and began quarrying in 2015.

The stone has few joints or fractures, and can be extracted in large, flawless blocks. Barkley describes quarry faces over 100 feet long and 40 feet tall with no irregularities or cracks. “The color is consistent the whole way,” he adds.

If you want to please your geology friends, Superior Northern is called anorthosite. The term ‘black granite’ is a geologic oxymoron, because granites are light colored by definition. Superior Northern is made almost entirely of dark grey feldspar. Feldspar crystals have flat surfaces that reflect light, and the larger the crystals, the bigger the wow-factor. Depending on the surface finish, Superior Northern can have a subtle glint, a hologram-like twinkle, or a brilliant gleaming sparkle.

Barkley recalls that the geologist who found the deposit “went bonkers for it because he knew what we had in there,” he says. “It was the find of a lifetime.”

Duluth Complex

Around 1.1 billion years ago, the North American continent literally began to tear itself in half. Driven by a plume of heat rising through Earth’s mantle, the landscape that straddles today’s Minnesota-Wisconsin state line cracked open, with Minnesota heading northwestward, and Wisconsin pulling away to the south. This feature is called the Midcontinent Rift, and it was potentially the birth of a new ocean.

As the tectonic plate started to rupture into two pieces, basaltic lava oozed up and filled in the cracks. The plate stretched further apart, more lava seeped in, and the sequence repeated. The stretched and broken crust created a low area in the landscape; a basin, if you will. This process went on for millions of years, and the basin widened and eventually filled with water. The Atlantic Ocean was formed the same way, and is still continuing to widen today, pulling Europe and North America ever farther apart by about an inch each year.

But the Midcontinent Rift stopped rifting, and geologists still aren’t exactly sure why. After around 20 million years the action stopped. An ocean wasn’t destined to separate Wisconsin and Minnesota after all, and North America remained united as a single continent. Geologists call this a ‘failed rift,’ which seems a bit judgmental.

The Midcontinent Rift left behind a layer 10 miles thick of various igneous and volcanic rocks. Today, old lava flows form beautiful cliffs along the north shore of Lake Superior. An expanse of dark colored, dense igneous rock now sits north of Lake Superior, called the Duluth Complex. Most of the rocks in the Duluth Complex didn’t erupt like lava. They were formed in vast, underground pools of magma that cooled slowly over millennia. As the magma cooled, the semi-molten rock separated out into layers of different chemistries and densities. Pockets of metallic elements settled to the bottom of the magma chamber. Today, ores of nickel, copper, and platinum are found in the Duluth Complex, setting the stage for mining.

Amid mining controversy, quarry is “a win”

Public opinion in the rural Ely area is sharply divided over prospects for a new copper mine. Mining for metallic ores has a tragic legacy of land and water that remains contaminated for generations to come, forcing residents to choose between economic gain and environmental loss. That dilemma is thankfully moot when it comes to a granite quarry—natural stone is inert and nonpolluting.

“We can do what we do without releasing any sulfur and without discharging water that has contaminants in it,” says Barkley. Quarrying stone “is something you can do here that benefits economics and the community and the state, but we’re not doing all these harmful things along the way.”

Barkley says that people in the region are “hypersensitive to heavy metal mining,” and the topic is fraught with conflict. Amidst that controversy, the quarry offers a more agreeable option.

“We’re viewed as kind of a big win for this type of work in this industry,” he says.

From stones to school funding

Mining royalties are an important economic contribution to the state of Minnesota. Companies that extract minerals and rock from publicly owned land pay a royalty to the public coffers. The Superior Northern quarry sits on School Trust land, which means that the royalties help fund the state’s school system. In 2020, Minnesota’s School Trust lands generated $28 million in royalties for public education.

“It’s a pretty good deal,” says Barkley.

The active quarry occupies 36 acres within a leased property of 120 acres. “It is just beautiful,” says Barkley. He describes the site as a “drive-in quarry” because the deposit juts upward from ground level, with almost no topsoil above the rock. “The glaciers wiped it clean,” says Barkley.

“Just drive up and there’s the face—unreal,” says Barkley, panning his hands across an unseen slab of rock. “Like I said, it is rare.”

Uses of Superior Northern

The current emphasis for their black granite is landscape architecture, according to Archer. “We are having a lot of success with granite pavers right now,” he says. “Landscape is a big part of our business, but we do a lot of cut-to-size architectural stone as well,” says Archer.

Superior Northern is suited for walls, sculptures, and monuments, and the lack of fracturing in the stone makes it adaptable to many uses. The granite is fabricated in their Mankato factory, or sold as raw blocks and slabs.

Superior Northern granite’s ability to produce big blocks make it particularly useful for large-format retaining walls, where the primary competitor is cast concrete, “which is a huge, huge market,” says Barkley.

Concrete has a cheaper upfront price, but Barkley explains, “a lot of those materials were having issues after ten or fifteen years, from road salt and other things.” Over the long haul, granite outlasts concrete several times over, says Barkley. “So we’re finding a good niche—using stone in those instances where it can stand up to the elements.”

Archer fills in more details, “I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from architects that they absolutely love natural stone,” but the higher price can be a drawback. “We’re always having to coach and really help them to look beyond the initial upfront costs and consider the lifetime costs and benefits.”

“We’re more sustainable than the concrete,” adds Barkley. Concrete production releases CO2 from crushing limestone and uses substantial amounts of energy to manufacture. Concrete accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions. For natural stone, the only emissions come from cutting, finishing, and transporting it. The material itself needs no energy inputs.

Green spaces ease COVID stress

As 2021 reaches its midpoint, many of us are still wondering what the evolving pandemic has in store for our lives. Barkley reflects on implications for their company as we shift from staying home to branching out again. “I feel like part of the society change in the last year might be people wanting to engage with the outdoors and a simpler life.”

These changes have a direct connection to their business focus, as Kimball explains, “Every commercial project I have seen lately has an acute focus on how to get a great green space.”

Green spaces can be part of a park, waterfront, restaurant, or business plaza. Stone elements within a green space can include pavers, benches, outcroppings, and retaining walls. Using natural stone emphasizes a connection with the natural landscape, and “it’s really clear that people have a heightened level of comfort outside,” says Kimball.

Archer emphasizes that the large blocks of Superior Northern are well-suited for “seat blocks,” and Kimball noted that schools are interested in outdoor benches, “They’re getting ready for next year already, where they want to have 4th grade reading time outside.”

Barkley chimes in, “You know, we talk a lot about how the world has changed in the last year and a half, well, people have changed too. A lot of people are exhausted right now and they are realizing that there’s more to life.”

Barkley takes the conversation full circle by linking back to the company’s vision. “Our purpose is to enrich lives and enhance communities. We want to bring people together in these greenspaces. If we can be a part of that, we want to be.”

An outdoor gathering place for family, friends, and impromptu socializing amongst natural elements may be just the tonic for a weary society.

Barkley adds, “It is my belief that this trend is going to outlive the virus.”

More from the American Stones Series

Photos provided by Jan Neiges CMBKD; Photographed by: Virtuance.

Jan Neiges is a certified master kitchen and bath designer with the National Kitchen & Bath Association and principal of Colorado-based Jan Neiges CKD LLC. She has been helping her clients define and realize their visions for beautiful and functional high-use living spaces for over two decades. Neiges sees natural stone as a go-to material because “every piece is unique, especially if one selects the stones that have more colors, movements, and patterns.”

A client recently asked for a white-on-white-on-white kitchen but knew they needed some color in the space. Neiges encouraged her client to explore different natural stone showrooms to see if something might appeal to her and she fell in love with a white quartzite with gold veining for the island countertop.

“The island countertop is the pièce de résistance,” Neiges says. “It’s such a large island and because everything was somewhat sterile and flat in shape, except for the island which is curved, I suggested that we go with something very fluid for the light fixtures hanging over the island.”

Neiges suggested a gold-tone faucet for the island to help accentuate the gold in the quartzite.  The result is a stunning white kitchen where the natural stone plays a starring role.

For Neiges, the act of discovery and finding out what is drawing the client to a particular piece of natural stone is part of the fun when working on a kitchen with a client.

Choosing Natural Stone for a Kitchen

Neiges often recommends clients visit showrooms with their designers because “there’s more to it than just pointing your finger and saying, ‘I like that’ when it comes to natural stone.”

Showrooms allow clients to see what’s available and possible. In the Denver area, Neiges recommends her clients visit one of the three major showrooms and prepares them in advance by telling them it’s like walking into Tiffany’s. It’s an exciting part of the process and one that opens up the possibilities of finding natural stone they might not have considered or seen before in other places or in magazine spreads.

Most natural stone showrooms have a template available to show the depth of a countertop dimension. “It could be five or six feet long and 26 inches wide and it could be made out of some kind of plastic or metal,” Neiges explains.

They then take the template and walk around with it, placing it in front of natural stone slab options so clients can see patterns, movement and how it might look next to other design elements they’ve selected such as the finish of a cabinet or paint color.

She’ll ask them questions to find out what they are seeing and what is standing out for them. Once they’ve found the stone they love, they’ll discuss any questions they might have about caring for the stone.

When someone wants natural stone, Neiges says, they’re usually looking for stone to be that “wow element” in their space. She tries to find the right natural stone based on how the family or homeowner will use it. “If this [stone] is really something that turns you on, and you really want to see it a lot, let’s find a vertical application for it,” suggests Neiges. Since vertical elements are the first things we see when we walk into a space, why not use natural stone there?

One homeowner wanted something spectacular for the wall behind their cooktop. They decided to make that area the focal point of the space—“Grand Central Station” of the kitchen. As a result, they were intentional with the rest of the kitchen design, choosing more subdued elements until they found the piece they were looking for.

The homeowner fell in love with Tempest Blue granite with a leathered finish from The Stone Collection, an “amazing granite with wild colors,” according to Neiges. They decided to use the stone both in the space above the cooktop and for the countertop itself. The busiest section of the slab was chosen for the area behind the cooktop because it would allow for easy cleanup (no grout) and would be fascinating to look at while they are cooking. They can now see and enjoy the beauty of the natural stone as soon as they walk into their kitchen.

When to Remodel vs. When to Refresh a Kitchen

Neiges works with many clients who are remodeling their entire kitchen. Her recommendation on whether to remodel or refresh a space by making minor changes differ based on a client’s short and long-term plans.

“If they’re going to live in their house for some time and they can’t stand their countertops and want to replace them with a natural stone and they know they’re likely going to remodel their kitchen at some point, I encourage them to wait to replace the countertop because it’s like putting lipstick on a pig,” she advises.

Part of the reason, she says, is because the stone will look gorgeous but the rest of the kitchen will look dated and when they go back to remodel the kitchen a few years later and the countertop may not fit the new cabinetry, the client will be upset because they’ll need to figure a work around and it won’t look the same.

“My attitude is to do your project from A to Z, don’t piecemeal it,” she recommends.

The only time she recommends replacing just the countertop or other minor spaces like a backsplash area is if the homeowner plans to sell within a year. Otherwise, “just save your money and wait,” she advises, and enjoy the process of finding things that will make your kitchen functional, enjoyable, and fun.

TAGS: trends design megy karydes inspire

SIMILAR ARTICLES

Note: This article is part of a series about American quarries. If you work for a quarry that’s a member of the Natural Stone Institute and you’d like your quarry to be featured here, contact Karin Kirk. Thank you!

Jeff Krukowski and Joanie Krukowski-Whitt grew up on a small dairy farm, owned and operated by their parents. As the farm developed new pastures, one thing stubbornly stood in the way: rocks.

“Everywhere in the fields, there were boulders,” recalls Joanie. “In order to expand the farm and get the land ready, there were all these stones.”

With the pragmatism that’s become famous in the Midwest, the family began to view the field stones as an asset rather than an obstacle.

“Our parents hand-chiseled stones for local masons” says Joanie, and in 1978 her brother Jeff “took it upon himself to get a truck and to start picking those boulders.” He found customers in Chicago, and Joanie offers fond memories of the early days. “When I was a little kid, I’d ride with him into Chicago, I thought it was the neatest thing crossing that state line,” she muses. “We’re in a rural area, so getting out of state was a big deal.”

“Jeff is my older brother…” she explains.

“Wiser, also!” Jeff adds, as they both laugh.

“And I’m very impressed with what he’s done,” Joanie says.

From hand-gathered stone to nationwide sales

Krukowski Stone Company has grown mightily since the days of a single delivery truck, but it remains a family-centered business. In all, six family members work in the company: Jeff works alongside his wife Joyce and their two sons, Brad and Chris, and sister, Joanie Whitt, and brother-in-law Ted Kijak.

Jeff Krukowski with his two sons, Brad and Chris.

Beyond the family members, the company employs an additional 25 people, and works in six quarries spanning over 1,000 acres. The company built a state-of-the-art fabrication shop and a separate splitting facility – totaling over 50,000 square feet of production space.

Jeff’s sons oversee much of the fabrication; Chris runs the saw shop and polishing department, while Brad manages the splitting shop, shipping department, and retail sales. Together they do wintertime trade shows, “which are nonexistent right now,” adds Joanie.

Stretching far beyond its humble roots of gathering field stone, the Krukowski Stone Company now ships products throughout the U.S., Canada, and beyond.

“We’ve even shipped stone to Dubai,” says Jeff. “And Hawaii,” Brad adds.

“Oh yeah, Hawaii. Yeah, all over!” replies Jeff enthusiastically. “There’s only about two states out of the 50 that we haven’t shipped to,” he adds.

Joanie credits the family’s ingenuity and persistence for their success. “If there was something that could be done with this stone, Jeff tried it,” she says. “Back 25 years ago, he went to Europe, because they’ve been doing stone forever; he found great equipment and great companies to work with. Now we have the best equipment in the industry,” she says proudly.

Aqua Grantique

Krukowski Stone Company quarries two distinctly different stone types, but the quarries are only a mile apart.

Aqua Grantique is their best seller; it’s a dark grey metamorphic rock, infused with a greenish blue color and ribbons of white. “That blue color, nobody else seems to have it,” says Brad. “To me it’s really unique. When we do trade shows, it’s the first thing people look at.”

When polished, Aqua Grantique is nearly black, which sets off the lighter colored veins and lively movement. But in its unpolished state, the stone reads as soft greenish grey with a subtle sparkle – an entirely different character than the high-contrast patterns in the polished stone. It’s dense and durable, allowing it to withstand freeze-thaw cycles, saltwater, and other forms of abuse.

Thanks to the hard work of recent glaciers, boulders of Aqua Grantique dot the property. These are popular to use as landscaping elements, especially Asian-themed gardens. The unusual blue-green color lends itself to water themes, “We do lots of ponds,” says Jeff. The stone has been used in public gardens, commercial installations, and high-end private projects.

Quartz sandstone

The company’s quartz-rich sandstone comes out of the quarry as either slabs or blocks. Sandstone blocks can be used in the naturally layered shapes that come out of the quarry or can be split or sawn into various products. “We grade it in the quarry for potential use: flagstones, random dry wall, veneer stone, or stair treads,” says Joanie.

The quartz sandstone is an overall cream color, with darker shades of chocolate brown, orange, and tan on the weathered faces. The natural colors are sorted into different blends, to create either uniform coloration or mixtures of different hues, depending on the aesthetic style of the project.

Krukowski’s manufacturing facility sits in between the quarries, putting everything in close proximity. “Logistically it’s a great thing,” says Joanie.

Northern Wisconsin’s old rocks

Although the quarries are only a mile apart, they’re separated by more than 1 billion years of geologic time. Aqua Grantique is one of Earth’s truly ancient stones – around 1.8 billion years old. The quartz sandstone is a relative newcomer a mere half billion years old. How did such different stones end up right next to each other?

Northern Wisconsin is largely made up of rocks that are more than one billion years old, dating back to the Precambrian Era. These rocks contain geologic signatures of the comings and goings of mountain ranges, continents rifting apart, new landmasses adding on, and periodic volcanic eruptions. A lot can happen in a billion years, as it turns out.

Aqua Grantique is what geologists call a meta-volcanic rock. It once was molten magma that cooled and solidified into a dark-colored lava rock like basalt or gabbro. Later, the rock got buried, compressed, and heated, becoming a metamorphic rock through these processes. The high pressures of the subterranean environment created the stone’s wavy texture and chemical reactions gave rise to new minerals and colors.

By the end of Precambrian time, around 500,000 years ago, the tectonic action that created Wisconsin’s diverse collection of rocks had calmed down, and the landscape of Wisconsin had been eroded down to a fairly flat plain. During the Cambrian period, sea level began to rise and waves lapped onto the landscape, creating a beach. The geologic signature of encroaching seas is the same, no matter when and where it occurs: a layer of sandstone. Thus, a layer of fresh sandstone was laid down on top of the old, contorted metamorphic rocks.

This Cambrian sandstone layer is one of the most common and prominent rock types in southern Wisconsin, but in the northern part of the state, it was wiped away by erosion, once again exposing the ancient metamorphic rocks. But a few protected locations were overlooked by the erosive forces of water and glacial ice, and isolated pockets of sandstone were left behind. The Krukowski quarry is one such place.

The quarry has gained celebrity status amongst geologists, as it’s home to an extremely rare stash of jellyfish fossils. As you can imagine, a jellyfish is not an easy thing to fossilize, since it doesn’t have teeth, bones, or any durable body parts. But sure enough, certain sandstone layers in the quarry are dotted with round imprints of jellyfish that got stranded on the beach as the tide went out. The discovery made the cover of Geology, a high-profile scientific journal, and helped scientists learn more about the fauna of Cambrian seas.

It also made the quarry famous. “We get bombarded with phone calls,” says Joanie. “People are always asking, ‘Can we come see your fossils?’” Due to ongoing quarrying activity, fossil-hunting is not permitted.

American stewardship

In an era when so many products are made overseas, the Krukowski family prides itself on its local roots. “We are one of the few companies in the U.S. that make countertop slabs,” says Joanie. Jeff adds, “But it costs ten times as much to produce in America as it does in Brazil, or India, or China.”

The upside of American production is that the higher labor costs translate to good local jobs, and the shorter shipping distance helps offset the higher price of production compared to an imported stone. “It’s more cost effective, freight-wise,” says Joanie.

Local architects appreciate that Krukowski stone earns LEED credit for locally-sourced materials, and customers are drawn to the stone because it’s American-made. “We should all try to sell ‘Made in the USA,’” Joanie says.

The family has adopted numerous sustainability measures, not to bolster a green image for their brand, but simply out of a longstanding tradition of not being wasteful.

“We use everything, from end-to-end, once we quarry it,” says Brad. Smaller rock fragments are crushed into landscaping chips or a DOT-approved road base.

Cardboard gets reused as corner protectors for shipping stone, and shredded office paper is mixed with molding plaster to secure blocks during the sawing process. Broken pallets are repaired, and new LED lights illuminate the manufacturing and office spaces. Saws are used during off-peak hours whenever possible.

Joanie summarizes their outlook: “We were green before green was a term. We’ve always done everything we could to be very responsible with the environment.”

‘Can-do, will-do’

One thing that’s abundantly clear when talking to the Krukowski family is their ability to work hard. Even while running their stone business, they still tend the family farm. “Jeff grows corn and soybeans and raises beef cattle,” says Joanie. Undaunted by Wisconsin’s bitter climate, they quarry right through the winter, “as long as it’s above 10 degrees,” says Brad. The team appears easygoing and collaborative, though allegiance to the Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears causes an occasional intra-family dustup.

Joanie reflects on the arc of her career as a woman in the stone industry. “They look to the man to answer the question,” she says, recalling instances where her expertise was overlooked. “It’s been a big struggle at times, but it’s getting better.” She credits programs like Women in Stone to help encourage a more diverse workforce in the industry. “Plus I’m older and more confident now,” she says.

“We have a can-do, will-do attitude,” says Joanie, but the sentiment is already completely evident.

Brad and Chris both became first-time fathers in September, a happy development for everyone. “And as soon as those kids can walk I’m going to teach both of them how to do book-keeping,” Joanie laughs, “and answer the phone!”

The pandemic has driven a major upswing in sales, so it looks like the Krukowski family won’t get to rest on their laurels anytime soon. “Our retail sales went up 200% last year,” says Brad. By late January, they had already received enough orders to carry them through the end of 2021. “We just got a 15,000 square foot job ten minutes ago,” says Brad.

Joanie chimes in, “Yeah, you never know what that next call is gonna be.”

More from the American Stones Series

An earlier version of this article appeared in the Fall 2020 edition of Building Stone Magazine.

The palatial estate of Eric Boch Jr. has been over a decade in the making. Boch’s home in Norwood, MA exudes elegance and refinement. The property’s most recent addition is an elaborate but tasteful natural stone chapel and mausoleum designed by Eric Inman Daum, AIA.

Forming the structure of the memorial pavilion are walls of ashlar Charcoal Black granite that was quarried by Coldspring in St. Cloud, MN. 9,600 square feet was supplied. The thickness of the granite veneer for the exterior walls ranges from 6 to 8 inches, while the interior wall veneer is 6 inches thick.

“Our first impulse was to use Quincy granite, but it is no longer available,” explained Daum. “We wanted to make an association to that.” The architect explained that Quincy granite was a common building material in 19th century New England, which leant a somber air to its buildings. Charcoal Black was recommended by Kenneth Castellucci & Associates, Inc, the stone installer for the project, because it possesses similar characteristics. “It was a universal decision across the board,” said Daum. “I’ve worked with them before and was delighted to again.”

Daum collaborated closely on the project with landscape architect Brian Frazier of Brian Frazier Design. The landscape design plays an essential role in bringing attention to the mausoleum and features architectural elements, including garden piers and walkways, as well as the paving on the porch, cut from Charcoal Black granite. “We wanted to draw people through and around the grounds,” explained Frazier. “There are two main axis—one from the main gate and the second from a farther corner near the pool. The original estate had a sunken lawn, which was removed at some point during the 70s or 80s when the property was subdivided and they built homes. I wanted to bring that element back. Placing it on the site in the mausoleum space made the most sense. There is a large curved granite seat wall. It sits in the middle of the space and has a vantage point of the entire site. It’s a quiet spot to sit and reflect.”

The Design

The Boch chapel and mausoleum is influenced by the Neoclassical movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The pavilion combines Greek and Roman motifs in the austere Neoclassical style of the Greek Revival period.

The primary space of the pavilion is a cube, surmounted by a hemispherical dome. Four wings project from the four faces of the cube to the cardinal points of the compass, which includes entry to the north, transepts to the east and west, and apse to the south. The north porch features four massive Greek Doric columns that are unfluted, except for a small portion below the capitals. The four visible corners of the cube are rusticated, and the deep horizontal joints create strong horizontal shadows emphasizing the mass and weight of the stone walls and the dome above.

“The client initially wanted the building to feel dank and oppressive,” said Daum. “We considered doing it as a load-bearing stone building. In the end, with consultation, the team decided to build a concrete box and dome and suspend the granite interior and exterior from that.”

Daum conceived and developed the building’s design. “Castellucci took the drawings and was the intermediary between me and Coldspring to get the details how I wanted,” he said. “Both Castellucci and Coldspring understood pretty quickly what was necessary. The client representative, interior designer, and I flew out to Coldspring where they pulled large slabs out that were reviewed and gave a range in terms of the grading, size, and quantity.”

The austere exterior gives way to a more luxurious colorful interior, with varied jewellike shades. “Working with the interior designer, he kept saying we need to push the design,” said Daum. “Looking at a broader range of Neoclassical architecture, I found an example of a reclaimed floor. I basically took that design and blew it up to the scale of this room. Having historical precedent was very important to me.”

Influences

One of the most prominent influences for the memorial pavilion was the Württemberg Mausoleum or sepulchral chapel located outside of Stuttgart, Germany, which was designed by Italian architect Giovanni Salucci. A second inspiration was the mausoleum designed by Scottish architect Robert Adam for the First Earl of Shelburne at his estate, Bowood in Wiltshire, England.

The floor features seven types of Italian and Spanish marble: Bianco Carrara Statuario, Fior De Pesco, Salome, Giallo Siena, Breccia Pernice, Rojo Alicante, and Portoro Black & Gold. The pattern was inspired by a design in Schnikel’s Glienicke Casino in Posdam, Germany.

“I showed Castellucci the casino photo and asked them to suggest a range of colors,” said the architect. “They provided 10 to 11 samples. The project team sat in a meeting and made choices together. That was a fun part of the process.”

The intricate marble floor pattern is complemented by six fluted columns carved from dark green Verde Alpi marble with dramatic veining. The columns have a diameter of 1 foot, 10 inches and are 10 feet, 6 inches high. They are composted in five stacked segments.

Beneath the sanctuary is the crypt, which can be reached by a Charcoal Black granite staircase positioned at the south of the building. “Originally, we were going to put the vaults in the floor, but the client decided that he wanted to use the building,” explained Daum. “The interior designer had worked with him for years, so he pushed the client. He told him that it could be used for dinner parties and intimate events, and that he should think about building a basement.”

The project was completed in five years from initial conceptual design to final construction. “It was put on hold for a little bit and then we came back to it. The foundation was poured in December 2016 and it was completed in October 2018. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Daum said. “The client’s team was tough and it was an incredibly aggressive schedule in regards to the production of the drawings. It was a tense and difficult project at times but having a superb contractor and stone contractor who all rose to the occasion, and Coldspring, too, made it a success.”

The Boch Garden Pavilion was the recipient of both a 2019 Pinnacle Award and a 2020 Tucker Design Award.

TAGS: case study residential inspire granite jennifer richinelli

SIMILAR ARTICLES:

Note: This article is the first in a series about American quarries. If you work for a quarry that’s a member of the Natural Stone Institute and you’d like your quarry to be featured here, contact Karin Kirk. Thank you!

Every block of stone holds a story. Not just in its geologic past, but also in the ways that stone becomes part of human history. In 1886 the Statue of Liberty presided over New York harbor to greet waves of immigrants earnest for their chance to pursue the American dream. Lady Liberty stands on a pedestal built from American granite quarried 80 miles away, off Long Island Sound. The stone is from Branford Connecticut, which was home to more than a dozen quarries and a workforce of skilled stonemasons and quarriers from around the world. Families from Italy, Sweden, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Finland settled in Connecticut to work in the dusty, noisy, and prosperous quarries. These immigrants built the very foundation of one of the defining symbols of America, which in turn welcomed thousands of new immigrants to American shores.

Darrell Petit, who’s worked at the Stony Creek Quarry for over 30 years, admires how “the great immigration workforce” played a large role in launching the Stony Creek granite into prominence. Over 160 years later, Stony Creek’s legacy shines as brightly as ever, upholding tradition while keeping a clear eye on the future.

“We have a really patriotic story,” says Tom Cleveland, Director of Sustainability at Stony Creek Quarry. Behind every successful quarry is a collaboration between the forces of nature that created the stone, and human inventiveness that built it into a successful venture. What better time to celebrate American ingenuity and craftsmanship than right now?

A granite capable of ‘monumental-scale work’

Stony Creek granite blocks were quarried and handcrafted to build the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1886. Image by K. Daley/NPS/ Statue of Liberty National Monument.

While granite is a common stone in New England, Stony Creek granite has an ability few can match. “If architects need huge blocks, this quarry can make them,” says Cleveland. Petit describes the quarry’s output as “colossally large-scale blocks” that make “monumental-scale work.” He praises the stone as “capable of interacting with the world’s great designers.”

In addition to the Statue of Liberty pedestal, Stony Creek granite forms the Battle Monument of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, designed by Stanford White (McKim Meade & White) made from a single, seamless piece of stone of astonishing scale: 46 feet tall and 5 feet in diameter and 96 tons. Dealing with stone that large is no mean feat in any era, much less in 1897.

Stony Creek’s combination of an impressive stone and the creative efforts of designers has produced scores of iconic works, particularly in the Northeastern U.S. The variegated pink, black, and white granite can be found on the campus of Columbia University, Battery Park, the Smithsonian, and the landmark Phillip Johnson designed former AT&T corporate headquarters, as well as sidewalks, parks, and facades throughout New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.

Petit appreciates the outsized role of Stony Creek granite: “We’re part of the legacy of classic American quarries that built the foundation of this country’s architecture.”

Early adopters of sustainability

Stony Creek granite has been quarried in Connecticut for over 160 years and has been used to build landmarks and iconic projects throughout the United States. Image by Sean Kernan Studio.

“Sustainability is a cornerstone of our brand,” says Cleveland with equal parts pride and enthusiasm. “We want to exert leadership by promoting natural stone as the sustainable building material.” The stone industry’s standard for sustainability is called ANSI/NSC 373, which sets various benchmarks for ethical and environmental performance throughout a quarrying operation. The Stony Creek quarry obtained Gold-level certification in 2018.

Ariel Russ worked on Stony Creek’s original sustainability certification as part of her graduate degree in environmental management from Yale University School of Forestry, located just 20 minutes away from the quarry. “It was really cool to get boots on the ground – literally – and to see the whole operation,” she says. The first step toward managing one’s footprint is to understand where the big draws of energy and resources are occurring. Russ compiled and analyzed baseline data on the amount of electricity, gasoline, diesel, water, and chemicals used in the operation.

Russ describes quarrying as “a very slow, natural process. It didn’t feel deleterious.” She came away with an affinity for the small and careful operation. “It doesn’t feel as industrial as I’d originally anticipated. It’s not super loud, it doesn’t feel aggressive,” she says.

Russ passed the baton to Cleveland, who now spearheads Stony Creek’s sustainability program. Cleveland is part of a new focus to quantify ‘embodied carbon,’ which is a tally of the amount of energy and greenhouse emissions used during the manufacturing of materials. Although buildings typically employ ways to save energy during the structure’s lifespan, the up-front energy that’s inherent in the materials is sometimes overlooked. Cleveland would like to change that, and he emphasized that since natural stone was created by the earth, naturally, the amount of energy required to make it is smaller than other materials. “We’re in a race to reduce carbon emissions,” says Cleveland. “The most important thing is just not putting it into the air.”

Cleveland went on to describe some of the company’s sustainability efforts, such as reducing the use of blasting in the quarry and instead using diamond wire saws to remove blocks from the quarry face. Compared to blasting, using a wire saw generates less dust, is less disruptive, and is safer for quarriers.  Stony Creek has also managed to reduce their use of toxic chemicals, dramatically shrink their solid waste output, and has adopted a more deliberate planning process throughout their company so that the impacts on the surrounding landscape can be minimized. The sustainability standard requires public communication and transparency, so you can read about Stony Creek’s benchmarks in their corporate sustainability report.

Both Cleveland and Russ are excited about larger shifts in the industry, where customers and architects are helping to drive improvements in environmental stewardship. “A quarry is at the root of the supply chain,” says Russ, and what better place to start improving the environmental impact of a project.

Managing Stony Creek’s ‘ongoing legacy’

Petit speaks to a different type of sustainability – the ability of the quarry to continue to generate stone for historical projects. For these “ongoing legacies,” new stone must match the original stone. When historic projects undergo expansions or renovations, the quarry can ensure that the correct stone is in continuous supply. For example, the floors of some buildings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are made from Stony Creek Granite. As the museum expands, the same stone can be matched to existing stone.

The Statue of Liberty is another chapter in Stony Creek’s enduring story. More than 130 years after the original granite pedestal was built, about 450 tons of freshly quarried Stony Creek granite was installed throughout the Statue of Liberty Museum, which opened in 2019.

These historic projects require more care and planning than when starting with a blank slate. Getting the details just right is a major focus for Petit and his colleagues. “It leverages our knowledge and experience,” he says.

Projects great and small

Not every project involves 25-ton blocks of stone or 100-year old architecture. Stony Creek granite is used for more typical projects, too. “We’re open to the community,” says Petit. Homeowners, contractors, architects, landscapers are welcome to visit. “If you’re looking for stone, go to the source,” he advises. Stony Creek granite can be used as countertops, veneer, stair treads, building stone, and landscaping stone. In any case, Petit would be happy to lend advice on how to best use the stone.

“There’s no better phone call to make than to the origin, instead of third, fourth, or fifth-hand information,” says Petit. “We’re an educational resource.”

Stewardship of the stone

For a stone that’s made such a big impact, the quarry is surprisingly small. “It takes like 10 minutes to drive around the whole thing,” says Russ. “It’s very tangible.”

The 55-acre site is “completely surrounded by civilization,” says Petit. “We have to operate as environmental stewards.”

While the massive blocks are the hallmark of the operation, every piece of stone that comes out of the quarry has a purpose. From 30-foot long blocks, down to crushed gravel, “everything on this property is a material that has its use,” says Petit.

Petit explains that sustainability can’t be an afterthought – it’s at the forefront of the business. “You’re after the choice blocks,” he says, which take time, experience, and care to extract. The ethos of a sculptor shines through in his comments. “There’s no need to proceed recklessly or carelessly,” he says. “We’re working with the utmost respect.”

A tectonic cataclysm

While a 160-year old quarry is noteworthy, Stony Creek granite is far older than that.

New England is the geologic equivalent of one of those disastrous traffic-accident videos one sees on YouTube, where at first one car smashes into bridge abutment, and then cars from behind skid into the scene, adding layer upon steaming layer to the carnage. On a continental scale, New England took shape as one landmass after another slid into the coastline, crumpling up the existing rock layers, wedging oncoming rocks into the midst of existing rocks, and re-melting old rocks into newer versions of themselves.

At the end of a 200 million-year sequence of tectonic cataclysm, all the world’s continents stood fused as one colossal landmass: Pangea. During this moment in Earth’s history, Stony Creek granite was beginning to cool off for at least the second time.

The deep history of Stony Creek granite is told by some of its tiniest ingredients. Minerals called zircons are geology’s storykeepers. These minerals crystallize from liquid magma and have a remarkable way of preserving the telltale clues of subsequent events that have taken place, packing a huge expanse of space and time down into a tiny grain.

“Go to Figure 5,” says Robert Wintsch, as he guided me through his research paper. Wintsch is a geologist who has spent years solving the puzzle of Stony Creek granite and similar rocks that dot southern New England. In the paper, Figure 5 showed magnified images of zircon crystals that are about the size of a small gain of sugar. Detail by intricate detail, Wintsch narrated his way through the image, pointing out the original core of the crystal that first cooled around 360 million years ago in the Devonian Period, around the same time as the first four-legged animals nosed out of the sea and began to explore the land.

But the story doesn’t end there. The texture of the zircon crystals revealed a spider’s web of cracks running through them. In some cases the crystals had become “dismembered,” says Wintsch, as the stone was fractured. This microscopic evidence spoke to a landscape-scale event, as Stony Creek granite got caught at the “tip of the spear” of an oncoming landmass called Avalon. The collision shattered the rock and shoved Stony Creek granite deep into Earth’s crust, where it melted somewhat, but not completely. As the rock cooled off, large, blocky feldspar crystals formed. The zircon crystals, which survived the re-melting event, received a fresh layer of material around their edges, not unlike a tree ring. At this point in geologic time, 288 million years ago, the supercontinent of Pangea had finally taken shape. A Himalayan-scale mountain range loomed over New England. This was the last tectonic collision endured by the eastern U.S.

Geology holds the key to Stony Creek’s large blocks

Wintsch speaks with a sense of affection as he describes Stony Creek granite. “Like cirrus clouds,” he says, of the wispy bands of black mica that give the stone a hint of a wavy, linear grain to it. The subtle movement is leftover from the stone’s original texture, and it gives the stone character. But when the stone was partially re-melted it erased most of the stone’s linear flow and replaced it with a blockier texture, which has no particular direction to the grain. This lack of grain is what allows the Stony Creek to be quarried in large blocks, free from planes of weakness. Stony Creek’s re-melting turned out to be its 288-million-year-old secret to success.

While Wintsch looks for clues buried deep in the past, Petit asserts that even in the relatively short span of human history, Stony Creek granite has made a lasting contribution. When it comes to sustainability and long-term use, “there is no better material than stone,” he says. “Our legacy is in terms of centuries.”

More from the American Stones Series

How to Tell If Your White Stone is a Granite, Quartzite, or Marble

One of the favorite parts of my job as a roving geologist is to share not just an appreciation for natural stone, but a deeper understanding of it. With a little guidance and practice, anyone can learn to recognize the properties and aesthetics of various types of stone. No matter a slab’s label, country of origin, or price tag, some basic geologic savviness can help us understand it better.

The process of identifying stones gets most confusing when they look alike, and nowhere is this more vexing than with white stones, which are popular, frequently mislabeled, and often misunderstood. But fear not. Even similar-looking stones can be sorted out by using a few basic guidelines.

Read on, as we step through the process of differentiating light-colored granites, quartzites, and marbles.

Granite has a distinct look, compared to quartzite and marble.

Granite is the most common type of natural stone in the trade and comes in a satisfyingly large range of colors and patterns. Despite their diverse aesthetics, granites have common elements that make them recognizable. Below are some rules of thumb. Please note that I’m referring to the general industry classification of granite, rather than the narrower geologists’ definition.

• Light colored granites have flecks or blocks of varying colors. White granites are rarely a homogeneous, even-toned color. Most light colored granites have more than one color in them, and it’s rare to have a white granite without any darker minerals at all.

• Individual minerals are visible. Look for blocky crystals of feldspar, glassy areas of quartz, and a smattering of darker colored minerals. Learn more about what different minerals look like.
• Sometimes granite has giant minerals! If the slab has minerals larger than couple of inches, then you’ve got a pegmatite. That’s special type of granite with super-sized crystals. Patagonia is one of the more dramatic examples of a granite pegmatite, and Tourmaline, Alpine, Alaska White, and Delicatus are other examples.
• If it contains garnet, it’s granulite or gneiss. Garnets are small, round minerals that are dark pink, burgundy, or reddish brown in color. Their presence is an instant giveaway that you’re looking at metamorphic variations of granite. Gneiss has stripes or bands of lighter and darker minerals, while granulite tends to have few or no stripes and is generally light colored overall. There are many white granulites on the market, including Bianco Romano, Colonial White, or Giallo Cream. Viscount White is an example of gneiss.
• Mica is common in granite. Mica is present in small amounts in granite, and it makes an appearance as glittery minerals that can be silver, gold, bronze, or metallic black. If a stone is mostly made of mica, then it’s schist.
• Granite can have quiet patterns or vivid movement. Leave it to Mother Nature to create waves of color, veins of contrasting minerals, and all sorts of other interesting effects. That’s a big part of the appeal of a natural stone.
• Read more about the variations, colors, and origins of granite.

Marble and quartzite look different from granite, but similar to each other.

Marble and quartzite look alike in several ways.

• They tend to be mostly light colored: white, light grey, cream. Darker colors are also possible.
• Marble and quartzite are usually fine grained overall; you can’t put your finger on an individual mineral grain.
• They often have layers or bands of contrasting colors. The layering can be straight, wavy, or chaotic.
• Slabs can have quiet patterns or vivid movement.
• If a slab has fossils, then it’s limestone, not marble. Limestone has a chalky or matte finish compared to either marble or quartzite.
• Read more about marble and quartzite.

To tell marble from quartzite, check their properties.

 The fact that these two stones look alike is why they are so frequently mislabeled and misunderstood. Your best bet is to rely on the way the stones behave rather than how they look. Thankfully, marble and quartzite have consistent traits that you can use to tell them apart.

• Quartzite is much harder than marble and slightly harder than granite.
  You can use a glass tile or a knife blade to gauge the hardness of a stone. Quartzite will leave a definite scratch on glass, and a knife blade will not easily scratch the stone (though it may leave a silvery mark on the stone, which is the metal rubbing off on the stone). Learn more about identifying quartzite in the Definitive Guide to Quartzite.

• Marble is relatively soft.
  A knife blade will make obvious scratch marks on marble; and marble will not scratch glass. Some marbles, like Super White or Fantasy Brown, may have isolated pockets of quartz amid an overall composition of marble. When in doubt, check a few different areas of the stone.
• Quartzite is not affected by acids.
  Vinegar, lemon, wine, citrus, or any other common acid won’t affect quartzite. Strong chemicals like oven cleaner or rust remover can damage almost any stone, though, so be careful with those.
• Marble is acid-sensitive.
  The mineral calcite is dissolved by acids, and many types of stone contain calcite, such as limestone, onyx, travertine, and marble. (Science trivia: this is why acid rain caused damage to buildings and monuments before we got a handle on the pollution that causes acid rain.) Dolomite is a mineral that is chemically similar to calcite, and it’s also affected by acids but not as quickly. In either case, acids leave an etch mark or a dull spot on the surface of the stone. Etches do not affect the structural integrity of a stone, and they can be polished out if need be. For people who love marble, etches are often considered a part of the living surface of the stone, which develops depth and character over time. If that idea makes you cringe, then you know marble is not for you. Choose quartzite or granite instead!

Granite, marble and quartzite can be porous…or not.

Some types of stone have small pore spaces within the stone, and a porous stone can absorb liquids and become stained. There are several geologic processes that affect a stone’s porosity. For example, if a stone does not get buried too deeply when it forms, tiny spaces can remain between mineral grains. Another possible cause of porosity is underground fracturing along fault lines where rocks grind up against each other. Sometimes groundwater dissolves away pieces of the stone. On the other hand, groundwater can also do the opposite – it can add bits of minerals that will fill in pore spaces.

So we just have to live with the fact that sometimes granite, marble, and quartzite are slightly porous, and sometimes they are not. That also means that porosity cannot be a guide to helping us identify a stone. We can’t say that a stone is porous therefore it’s marble, for example. Because plenty of marbles are dense and impermeable. The same is true for granite and quartzite, too.

The porosity of quartzite can be especially confusing, and you can learn more in the Deep Dive Into the Properties of Quartzite.

So while rules of thumb fail us, what we can do is test slabs to learn about their porosity – which is actually ideal, because you’ll get specific details on the slabs of interest.

Refer to How to Be Your Own Stone Sleuth for instructions and photos showing how to test your slab’s hardness, acid sensitivity, and porosity. Nothing can beat the hands-on information you’ll get from doing a little “sciencing” on various slabs, and it’s pretty fun, too.

So don’t let the array of white stones get the better of you. By learning a bit more about how different stones get their particular aesthetics and properties, you’ll be able to enjoy them all the more.

More from the Geology Series

Our thanks to Slabworks of Montana and Montana Tile and Stone for allowing us to explore and photograph their beautiful stone slabs.

A handy guide to the ingredients of your favorite natural stone

Minerals are the components of all natural stones. The color of every natural stone, whether it’s jet black, glittery silver, or a kaleidoscope of Technicolor – comes from the individual minerals.

Minerals also give each stone its personality. Is it flashy, or subtle? Is it a uniform color, or a melee of diverse ingredients?

And, of course, minerals dictate the properties of a stone: Hard or soft; acid-resistant or acid-sensitive; flaky, chunky, or smooth.

Given that minerals determine so much about a stone, it warrants a look at some of the more common minerals, how to spot them, and what they tell you about a stone.

Before we dive in, one important point is that you can only see individual minerals in coarse-grained stones. A smooth stone with small grains, like Absolute Black or Pietra Grey, doesn’t reveal much about specific minerals because you can’t see them. But many popular stones have big crystals in all kinds of patterns and colors, inviting curiosity about just what those minerals are all about. 

Feldspar

Feldspar is the most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust, but it’s far from mundane because it occurs in a huge range of colors and forms. When you look at a slab of typical granite, you’re looking at mostly feldspar. Igneous rocks like granite take shape as they solidify from liquid magma. You can think of magma as a ‘slushy’ drink. It’s a mixture of solid bits and liquid. Feldspar crystals are often the solid chunks within a body of slushy magma, and you can see the chunky texture of feldspar in some granite slabs.

In other cases, feldspar is altered by metamorphism, changing its shape from pushing, pulling, or shearing. In these cases, the blocky shapes of feldspar crystals can become more rounded.

Color:

Feldspar crystals can be white, black, and any shade of grey. They can also be pink, cream, brown, and sometimes green. Best yet, the variety of feldspar called labradorite is iridescent blue, and plays the starring role in Blue Pearl and Volga Blue.

Identifying features:

Since feldspar can be nearly any color, using color to identify it won’t help at all. But it does have a few features that make it recognizable.

• Feldspar is not glossy and its luster is similar to porcelain when it’s not polished.
• It is always opaque, meaning, you can’t see ‘into’ the crystal at all.
• It’s more or less rectangular in shape.
• The crystals break into naturally flat faces called cleavage planes. This is especially visible on a honed or leathered slab when you look at it from an angle. The flat faces will catch the light. This is also evident on the edge of a slab where you can see a crystal in three dimensions.
• You can sometimes see subtle stripes or grooves in a feldspar crystal.

Properties:

Feldspar is an all-around easygoing mineral. It has no special needs, has a Mohs hardness of 6 to 6.5 (harder than glass), and holds up well to hard use. It won’t etch, flake, or offend anyone in any way.

Examples: Alpine White, Antique Brown, Patagonia, Coral Grey, Blue Pearl, and many others. Since feldspar is such a common mineral, there are dozens of examples.

Superpower: Feldspar makes you more gracious and less self-involved. The relaxed flow of energy from feldspar allows you to let someone else take that last slice of pizza, even though you’re still a little bit hungry.

Quartz

Quartz is the second most abundant mineral on the Earth’s crust. Even though it occurs in similar colors as feldspar, it has a distinctly different look.

Colors: Clear, white, grey, black, pink, amber, brown, purple. Some colors of quartz have their own name. Purple quartz is amethyst. Amber quartz is citrine. Grey quartz is smoky quartz, and so on.

Identifying features:

Once again, color is no help in identifying quartz, but quartz is easy to spot once you see it a few times.

• Quartz is often translucent, meaning you can see down into the crystal.
• Quartz looks a lot like colored glass, because it has the same chemical composition as glass.
• Unlike feldspar, quartz does not have a ‘preferred’ shape and it almost never breaks along a flat plane.
• When looking at an igneous rock, quartz is often blob-shaped, because it’s the last mineral to solidify and it fills in the gaps left open between the other minerals.
• In a metamorphic rock like gneiss, schist, or a quartzite like Fusion or Marine Blue, quartz forms white blobs that are often squiggly-looking. In these cases, the quartz melted as the rock was undergoing metamorphism.

Properties:

Quartz is heralded for being beautiful, durable, inert, and generally bombproof. It’s 7 on Mohs hardness scale and isn’t bothered by acids or less-than-ideal cleaning habits. In fact, quartz is such a cool mineral, that a type of manmade countertop material borrowed its name, leading to endless confusion within the countertop industry.

Examples: Quartz is prevalent in light colored granites like Alaska White or Bianco Antico. And, of course, quartz plays the starring role in quartzites like Taj Mahal, Fusion, and Sea Pearl. Quartz is also the main ingredient in Wild Sea sandstone.

Superpower: Having quartz-rich stones in your home makes you less likely to snack between meals. No one knows why.

[Disclaimer – these superpowers are not to be taken literally. Hopefully you already realized that?]

Garnet

Garnet is January’s birthstone, and it’s a beautiful mineral. Garnet is dark-raspberry pink, maroon, or maroonish-brown.

Identifying features:

• The color is usually a total giveaway.
• The crystal shape is usually round-ish. It often occurs in specks.
• Garnet crystals have a glassy luster, and when viewed on the edge of a slab or in an un-cut rock, they are brilliantly sparkly.

Properties:

Garnet is 6.5 to 7.5 on Mohs scale and is often used as an abrasive. Large, translucent crystals of garnet are used for gemstones.

Examples: Garnet is not a major ingredient in any stone, but its recognizable crystals are in River White, Colonial White, Dallas White, and St. Cecilia, among others.

Superpower: People who like garnet are above average at math. Unfortunately, simply owning a garnetiferous stone will not, in and of itself, improve your math skills.

Mica

Mica is the defining ingredient in sparkling stones like Orion and Magma Gold, and is a minor player in granite and gneiss. Mica is nature’s glitter: it’s shiny and forms in flat flakes. It’s hard to identify mica in a polished surface, but if you look at the edge of the slab you can usually make out the trademark shape.

Identifying features:

• When you view mica crystals end-on, you can see the very thin edges of the flakes. Sometimes these are stacked like pages in a book.
• Mica sheets are pliable and you can likely bend them with your fingernail.
• The mica family includes minerals of silvery white, golden, brown, and black. There is even a green mica called chlorite that gives green slate its color.

Properties:

Mica is best in small doses, because it’s soft and does not conform to polishing like other minerals. Small-grained mica is ideal because you can enjoy the sparkle without having the stone flake apart. Mica is a major ingredient in schist.

Examples: Many granites and gneisses have small amounts of mica minerals. Some examples include Delicatus White, Vahalla, Rocky Mountain, or Viscont White. Schists contain larger amounts of mica, as can be seen in Desert Dream, Galaxy Schist, or Saturnia.

Superpower: Mica makes you more tolerant of your family members.

Amphibole

Black flecks in an otherwise light granite are either amphibole or black mica. Amphibole and black mica are also the duo that makes up the dark stripes in gneiss. (The light stripes are feldspar and quartz.) Amphibole is also called hornblende.

Identifying features:

• Amphibole is an even, jet black.
• It tends to form crystals that are skinny rectangles, but sometimes it also has an irregular, blocky-ish shape.
• You can tell the difference between mica and amphibole by shape. Mica = thin flakes, and amphibole = thin rectangles. It’s subtle, but different enough to be a reliable way to tell these minerals apart.
• When in doubt, look at the edge of the slab to determine the crystal shape.

Properties:

Amphibole has a hardness between 5 and 6, which is similar to or slightly harder than glass. It takes a polish well, and does not need any special care. In most stones it’s a minor ingredient.

Examples: Amphibole is usually a minor ingredient in slabs, but it makes a spectacular appearance in Crowsfoot Schist, Montana Brown, and Alaska White. Stones like Barcelona, Roca Montana, and Bianco Antico have more subtle crystals of amphibole.

Superpower: Eases headaches; but also may cause cravings for salty things or Chinese food.

Calcite

This humble mineral expresses itself in so many wonderful ways. Calcite is the main ingredient in marble, limestone, travertine, and onyx.

Color:
Calcite is almost always white or nearly white, and it can have tones of other colors like cream, apricot, light brown, light green, light grey, or light pink.

Identifying features:

• Calcite can look a bit like quartz (hence the perpetual confusion between marble and quartzite), but it has a few differences.
  • Calcite has a satin luster, while quartz looks glassy and is more translucent.
  • Calcite forms crystals with flat surfaces, and also breaks along flat planes. So when light reflects off calcite, you see glints of light from flat surfaces (see photo).
  • When in doubt, go by the properties rather than the looks.
• Calcite is easily dissolved in groundwater and it often fills in cracks in rocks. Bright white stripes in dark colored limestone or marble are veins of calcite.
• Just to make things more confusing, quartz can also make light colored veins in a stone. A quick hardness test with a pocketknife will reliably tell you which is which.

Properties:

The best way to tell calcite from quartz or feldspar is by its properties. Calcite has a Mohs hardness of 3, which is harder than a fingernail but softer than glass. A sharp-tipped nail or pocketknife will leave a definitive scratch in calcite. Also, vinegar dripped onto calcite will often gently fizz.

These same properties apply to slabs and tiles. Stones made of calcite can be etched from acids, and can also be scratched by metal or ceramic kitchen implements.

Examples: All marbles and limestones are made of calcite. Some well-loved examples are Carrara, Danby, White Cherokee, and Colorado White marbles; or Belgian Blue, Fossil Black, Saint Pierre, or Emperador limestones.

Superpower: Calcite makes it easier to keep world events in perspective and has been shown to reduce social media use.

Dolomite

This is calcite’s cousin, and shares similar color and properties of calcite with a few exceptions. Compared to calcite, dolomite is slightly less susceptible to etching from acids, giving you some time to wipe up spills before the stone is affected.

Identifying features:

• Dolomite and calcite look alike and you can’t tell them apart visually.
• The test for dolomite is called the ‘powdered rock acid test.’ Calcite will have a fizzing reaction when in contact with diluted hydrochloric acid. Dolomite will not, unless the stone is powdered first. To do this test, use a nail or tip of a knife and scratch up an area of the stone. Leave the stone dust in place, and then put one drop of acid on it. If the stone is dolomite, it will have a weak, bubbling reaction. If it’s some other type of mineral altogether, like feldspar, there will be no reaction at all.

Properties:

Dolomite has a Mohs hardness of 3.5, which is slightly harder than calcite. Dolomite also etches more slowly than calcite, but it will still etch.

Example: Super White a well known dolomitic marble that is frequently mislabeled as quartzite.

Superpower: Proximity to dolomite strengthens teeth and makes dental visits less stressful.

This is not a natural stone – it’s a slab of engineered quartz. One of the reasons manmade quartz does not look natural is because the ‘crystals’ are all blob-shaped and have the same luster. The recognizable rectangles of feldspar and glassiness of real quartz are absent.

QUIZ

Name these minerals:

A = quartz

B = feldspar

C = garnet

D = amphibole

More from the Geology Series