Limestone - Dolomite Fan / Scallop Honed Marble Mosaic Tile

With a dark outline, scallops sit forward as objects. With a light one, the arcs read instead as lines of illumination across a warmer field, closer to lace, or to the leading in a window, than to a tiled pattern. In a room with limited daylight that is a genuine advantage, because the pattern lifts the surface rather than weighing it down.

The pairing also puts two stones of different hardness on the same curve. Dolomitic marble contains magnesium carbonate, which makes it harder and less reactive to acids than an ordinary calcitic marble, while limestone is the softer and more absorbent of the two. On a wall that difference is academic. On a floor in daily use the limestone body takes the wear before the dolomite outline does, and over years the arcs can come to sit very slightly proud. Some people regard that as the point of natural stone and others do not, but it is better known in advance.

Honing holds both stones matte and equal in reflectivity. Seal the whole sheet before grouting; the limestone will draw considerably more product than the dolomite.