Equator Wave Marble Tile (305 mm x 610 mm)

Equator carries fine linear veins running consistently in one direction, closer to a grain than to the drift of a Carrara. Set the tile so that the flutes run with those veins and the two reinforce each other: highlight, vein, shadow and vein all line up, and the wall reads as strong continuous striping. Turn the tile through ninety degrees and the flutes cross the veins instead, producing a fine grid where light bands are interrupted at regular intervals by dark ones. Both are legitimate; they are simply different walls, and the decision has to be made at setting-out rather than discovered afterwards.

Because the veining is regular, this is also the fluted tile that repeats most predictably across a large area. There is no dominant figure to place, so panels can be run continuously without matching.

Angled light remains essential to any carved profile: without it the relief flattens. It is a wall material, not a floor one, and being marble it is calcitic, so acidic products will leave dull marks that cannot be polished out of a milled surface.