Waterjet Mosaics

What that means for the joint color

A waterjet figure is defined by its outline, and the outline is a joint a sixteenth of an inch wide running through the whole composition.

So the joint color is not a finishing decision here, it is part of the drawing. A joint close to the darker stone strengthens the outline and the figure reads sharply; one matched to the lighter stone softens it and the two marbles start to blend into each other. Neither is wrong and they produce different pieces.

Honed carries this range

Nearly everything here is honed, with single polished, fine textured and multi finish pieces behind it.

That is the opposite of a plain marble mosaic, where polished leads. A waterjet figure is already giving the eye a great deal to follow, and a polished surface adds reflections that compete with the outline. Honed keeps the drawing legible, which is what the piece was cut for.

Some of these are one figure, not a repeat

The sizes here run from a small 4 7/8x6 13/16 up to panels at 12 1/4x16 3/16 and 16 9/16 inches square.

The small ones are interlocking shapes that repeat across a field. The large ones are single compositions: one figure per sheet, meant to be placed rather than tiled. Those two are different products and the size field is the only place the difference shows.

Why marble and not something else

Marble is the largest material here by a wide margin, and the reason is what a waterjet actually does.

It drives water and abrasive through a fine nozzle at very high pressure, and it cuts anything uniform through its whole thickness. A marble is dense, even-grained and the same material front to back. A printed tile would show its unglazed body at every cut edge, which on a figure made entirely of edges would be the whole piece.

3/8 inch, and meeting the field around it

Every piece in this range is 3/8 of an inch, which is the standard for stone mosaic and for most marble field tile.

That consistency matters because a waterjet piece is almost always set into something else: a panel in a plain wall, a medallion in a floor, a border around a field. Where it meets a 9 mm porcelain the difference is small and real, and it is resolved in the bed rather than at the edge of the figure.

The stones that get cut

Athens leads the series here, with Jerusalem, Thala, Emperador, Bardiglio, Alpina and a black among them.

Those are limestones and marbles from several countries, and a single figure frequently combines two or three of them. That is the other thing a waterjet enables: the pieces do not have to come from one block or even one quarry, because each shape is cut to fit the next.

Where a waterjet mosaic goes

A backsplash panel, a shower niche, a floor medallion, a border around a plain field and a wall behind a basin.

It is used where one surface is meant to be looked at, which is why the pieces are small and the collection is not large. Marble mosaics carries the sheets cut by other methods, and arabesque tile takes the interlocking figure in detail.