Stone Dimensions - Fall/Winter 2007 - (Page 21)

Photo: Stonemark With so many options available, granite can complement any style of home, from traditional to modern. School of rock One of the strongest natural stones on Earth—only diamonds are harder— granite is a crystalline, igneous rock, one of the various volcanic rocks that cools and solidifies very slowly from magma deep underground. It is the most common intrusive rock (so named because the magma from which it forms often intrudes into the neighboring rock) exposed at the Earth’s surface. Granite is composed primarily of feldspar, quartz and lesser amounts of mica, and may also include other minerals, in much smaller amounts, such as magnetite, pyrite, garnet and hematite. The varying percentages and patterns in which the minerals occur, and other factors, create the array of granite varieties we see, says Massimo Perinelli, owner of Tutto Marmo in San Diego. He lists the four main contributing factors as: (1) the chemical composition; (2) the mineral composition; (3) the time it took the www.stonedimensionsmagazine.com magma to cool; and (4) the pressure exerted on the magma as it was cooling. Because feldspar is usually the main component of granite, it also most greatly influences the color. Near-white, pinks, greens, reds and grays have long been used, but other colors are becoming more common. “You can find almost any color, now,” says David Snyder, owner of Unique Stone Imports in San Diego, “including cobalt blue, purples, golds, rusts, all shades of green, blacks, grays, silvers and iridescent blue (Labrador).” Granites are classified in various ways, one way being by grain (the word granite, in fact, comes from the Latin word granum, which means grain): fine, medium or coarse. The size of the feldspar crystals determines the grain classification; the crystal size is generally related to the rate of cooling, so the very coarse-grained varieties took the longest to cool. Photo: Antolini Luigi Verde Fantastico granite from Iran. The sinks are from Flaminia. StoneDimensions 21 http://www.stonedimensionsmagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Stone Dimensions - Fall/Winter 2007

Contents Featured Designer: Heather E. Adams: Creating Authentic Style with Stone Pricey, But Worth It: Kitchen & Bath Design News Masters of Design Awards Success the Second Time Around: Remodeling a Master Bath Gallery of Ideas Hard Rock...Easy Choice: Granite is Truly a Stone for the Ages White Marble: Gaining Popularity in Kitchens Travertine Index of Photographs

Stone Dimensions - Fall/Winter 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.