Hello dear customer. We are happy to see you here. A little while ago we with our social media team took a decision to start a new section in our web page, which will be dedicated to the most relevant issues. By writing articles, we expect to clarify doubts and accede to the request about the most common questions and problems, which our customers and clients may face before the buying or working on their project.

Even nowadays we can see how beautiful marble and how durable it is. Think about Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, old marble streets in Verona, fountains and other architectural buildings where the marble was applied. After centuries, its surface has become rubbed as after leather finishing, soft and glazed, more similar to confectionery marzipan then to marble rock. Nevertheless, it still preserves its hardness and beauty.

Now let´s go a little bit back to the process of forming stone rocks. Do you know how many years does the nature spend to form that layer of beautiful countertop in your kitchen (if you have one for sure)? And why for example the pattern of each stone is unrepeatable? Why the marbles are different colours and from country to country, from quarry to quarry this difference even stronger?

I will do my best not to use special and difficult terminology, however I will try to explain basic things in a simple way. Let´s start one by one.

a) Why is colour of marble different?

Can you imagine the cake with layers of biscuit different colours covered with confectionery mastic? So to make the biscuit colourful, what do you need? Exactly, one colourant. In nature this colorants, which give different shadows, veins and background colour, are chemical elements. For example, iron oxide can cause yellow and brown deposits, while iron and feldspar will create pink and red coloration. Serpentine creates a green hue while porphyry deposits will create a violet colouring.

There are also gold, pink, and blue marbles on the market, all of which get their shades from different mineral deposits. Thus, you can imagine when cream feeds the biscuit and depends what is the base of the cream, whether it is milk or red berries, the biscuit adopts the colour under the pressure of its own weight, so similar process happens between marbles and chemical elements in it.

b) So what exactly marble is?

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals; generally, it is calcite or dolomite. Otherwise, we can say that marble begins life as limestone, which is a soft stone made primarily of calcite. Rock itself has been physically and chemically transformed over time due to intense heat and pressure.

Now, let’s come back for a moment to the bakery. For example, you decided to bake a biscuit cake, what do you need and what are the conditions under which ones your biscuit will be well baked? Therefore, here is the next question comes.

c) How marble is formed?

Marble forms during a process of metamorphism of carbonate minerals. Metamorphism is the change of minerals or geologic texture in pre-existing rocks. Under heat and pressure caused by magma or the tectonic plates, this limestone begins to recrystallize, changing the texture of the rock and causing the calcite crystals to grow and interlock. Marble can be found in many areas around the world, but the most famous varieties come from Italy and Greece, where it is often purest and whitest in colour.

Next and last question I wanted here to be explained is connected to the veins and through that high interest of the customers to bookmatched material. Bookmatch is matching of two or more stones the way that two adjoining surfaces mirror each other, giving the impression of an opened book. This bookmatching effect can be achieved when a block of veined marble is cut into slabs and slabs are polished into a “book” way.

d) Well, how do the veins appear on the surface of marble?

Purity, of course, refers to the lack of colour variation within a specific sample of stone. However, coloured veining in nowadays fashion for many people is a very desired characteristic.

Think about Bianco Gioia with its greyish typical dots, Statuario with its amazing veins throughout the surface of the stone, Calacatta with its unrepeated pattern of lines. Mineral deposits cause the veining. The minerals tend to settle in layers, which we call “veining”. Depending on the amount of minerals present in the stone, the veining can either be very minimal — thin, delicate lines — or dramatic — large stripes of colors that can seem almost like smoke within the marble.

In the conclusion, I would like to add only one thing. When you are in the quarry watching all the process of extracting marble from the earth, then in the factory you can look at complete cycle of cutting a block into slabs, polishing marble and finally discovering breath taking feeling of perfectness of ready marble it is similar to sensation of deep satisfaction that you have become part of this unique natural beauty word.

Your team,
"Savaş Mermer"