Deep Blue

One of the most striking stones in the book: a half-translucent blue-green ground with real depth that light enters, carried over by a rust-amber vein network that branches like limbs, or like cracks in ice. The contrast between the cool blue and the warm vein is the whole point.

Three slabs are in stock and all three differ — on one the veins are fine and branching, on another broad and flowing. This is a stone for an island or a splashback rather than a whole kitchen, and in a room with natural light it looks different at every hour. Both finishes are in stock; polished brings the translucency out, leathered softens it.

Quartzite is a metamorphic natural stone: quartz sand compacted under heat and pressure until it became a single crystalline rock. It is harder than marble and usually harder than granite — a knife, salt or a ceramic plate leave no mark — and unlike marble it does not etch from lemon or vinegar. It is porous, though: the slab is sealed before delivery, and resealing every year or two keeps it that way. There is no resin in it as there is in engineered quartz, so a hot pan will not scorch it — a trivet is still a good habit, particularly near an edge or a joint.

Every slab is one single piece of rock, and no two slabs of the same stone are ever identical. So we drive out to the supplier's yard with you, choose the actual slab there, and mark the layout on it before it is cut.