Timber can be re-stained. Velvet can be re-covered. Marble is decided the moment it is cut. That is why we never choose from a sample tile. A tile says nothing about a 3-metre slab. We go to the yard.
Our stone comes through importers in Karachi and Lahore. Calacatta and Arabescato from Carrara. Port Laurent from Morocco. Nero Marquina from the Basque country. Blocks are sawn into slabs of 2 or 3 cm. The slabs stand in numbered sequence on A-frames. That sequence matters.
Reading the veining
We walk the rows with the slabs wet. Water shows the true colour and every vein. Dry marble lies. We look for movement that suits the piece. A dining table wants a long diagonal sweep. A console wants something quieter. A fireplace can carry drama.
We look just as hard for faults. Fissures that run to the edge. Resin fills, which show as dull patches. Rust spots in Calacatta that will spread. A slab with a crack near the centre is rejected. No price makes it right.
Bookmatching
Consecutive slabs from one block are mirror images. Open them like a book and the veins meet. This is bookmatching. Done well, a wall reads as one gesture. Done badly, it looks like a Rorschach test.
We tape out the finished piece on the slab at full size. Every cut line is drawn in wax pencil. The client stands with us. They see which vein will cross the centre. Nothing is left to the fabricator to decide.
The stone was formed over 200 million years. It can wait one more afternoon.
Omar Farooq, in the yard at Port Qasim
After the cut
Edges are polished by hand to a soft radius. Sharp arrises chip. Tops are sealed twice with a penetrating sealer. Honed, not polished, for a dining surface. Honed marble shows less and forgives more. A slab of Calacatta will etch. We say so before it is bought.
The client keeps the offcuts. A matching plinth, a pair of bookends, a bathroom niche. The stone stays in the family. That is how we prefer it.
