Ascale Onice Blue

One of three onyx tones in the range, and the cool one: a pale ice-blue ground that seems to have depth below the surface, with amber and gold-brown veins branching over it like cracks in ice. The pairing of a cold blue with a warm vein is what holds the slab together — without the amber it would read too cold.

Ascale is large-format sintered porcelain from the Spanish maker TAU Cerámica: a blend of minerals fired under high pressure and heat into a dense, non-porous slab. It absorbs nothing and never needs sealing, and resists scratching, staining, heat and UV, so it works on a worktop, on a floor and on an exterior façade alike. Supplied polished or in Velvet vein-touch — a matte finish in which the vein can be felt under the fingertip — in 1.2 cm on a 162 × 324 cm slab and 0.6 cm on a 160 × 320 cm slab. The polished finish is what draws the translucency out of an onyx; the matte quietens it.