I have seen lots of VA mist (I live in VA, about 90 mins from the Culpeper quarry), and I have never seen a slab I don't like. It's true that some slabs are swirlier than others. When we were picking ours we liked the swirlyness of the polished one better than the honed one we had planned to get and almost changed our minds from honed to polished. But really they were all beautiful.

Hi:
I looked at several slabs before choosing ours. Some had very little movement, others had a lot. They all had the same general coloring, but it was the amount of white ("mist"?) that varied. Hope this helps.

Have you considered any others? What is it you like about Jet Mist? I really wanted that but ended up with something else because of the headache and wait it would have been to get it. I really love what I have. Maybe if we know why you want it, we can suggest others that might fit the bill. Not promising, but it's possible!

jayhawk, I feel your pain. I live in MD, not far at all from where VA Mist is mined, and I had the same problem. One thing I would suggest is to check online for the distributors/importers in your area. These are the guys the fabricators buy from, Many of them have website where you can view thier slabs. Call a few of them and ask about Jet Mist aka VA Mist.

I had one distributor here in MD tell me he can't get the stone locally, has to import it from overseas. I'm not sure what the deal is with that. But I finally found a place that stocks it in VA. Maybe they have an exclusive with the mine?

Don't give up yet!

numbers,

Avanti had some leathered JM about a month ago. They are in Fredericksburg.

jsweenc - I saw that piece at Avanti! First actual slab I had ever seen, and I kept walking back to stoke it. But I need 2-3 slabs and the lady there didn't think they were getting any more anytime soon and suggested I check out Luck Stone in VA because they stock it. I did get a quote from them and will probabaly end up there when I am ready.

But finding this stuff can be a challenge, even so close to location where it is mined.

I wouldn't buy anything without seeing it first.

Numbersjunkie,

Luck Stone is where we got ours. They have big stocks of honed, polished and leathered. They also have finished countertops in their showroom plus statues in the stuff. Also, they will tell you places where they've installed it. You can't buy those of course, but if they are businesses you can go look when you are still in the deciding on a granite stage. Also, just FYI parts of the new Air Force Memorial in Arlington are carved out of Virginia Mist. Gorgeous!

I know this doesn't do the OP in Colorado any good, but maybe it helps out others in VA or MD or DC.

We chose our Virginia Mist without seeing it. Last winter when we had to order it there were blizzards and even getting good granite wasn't worth the risk of driving for hundreds of miles in bad weather. I worried a good part of last winter while waiting for the granite that we had made a mistake ordering our stone sight unseen. When we got the granite, it was leathered instead of honed, but I loved it too much to send it back. During installation one of the pieces of granite, our raised bar, got dropped and broken. We had to wait while they found another piece of leathered Virginia Mist that the fabricator said matched. Then we had to send the first replacement piece back because the surface was wavy.

I feel your pain. But I've got to add that now that the installation is over, I love Virginia Granite even more than I thought I would. It is worth every bit of suffering we went through in the process.

Jayhawk: I can help you out in a couple of days (possibly tomorrow) if you can wait. I just want to get my situation finalized. I'm sorry I can't be more help now, but I've been waiting for sooooo long (so I certainly understand your frustration).

I can also tell you that I think the slabs are gorgeous, with a medium amount of movement, with both some swirling and some flowing on each of the slabs I saw, and no big blotchy problems.

Please hang in there...

Jayhawk: The Stone Collection has jet mist. They told me they got 8 slabs in, all polished. I reserved 2 of them. I don't know if it's true or not, but they told my fabricator that someone else is interested in it, too. So, I would try to get over there ASAP. They are open today until 5:00 pm and have some hours tomorrow (check their website, linked below). It is located at about I-70 and 225.

The price I was quoted by my fabricator is REALLY high, almost 50% higher than the 'mid-priced' granite quote I got for budgeting purposes. We are looking at other granite places today, so maybe we will find something more reasonable. But once you're hooked on jet mist...

We are only using maybe 1/3 of the second slab. I know that this is a real long shot, but if we shared my second slab we could both save around $500 (I got a very rough quote from my fabricator). You would have to use my fabricator, though, which is asking a lot of you. If you are interested in exploring this option, post back and let me know.

Here are pics of my slabs. There are more pics in my photobucket if you click on one of them:

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Good Luck! Please reply to this post so I know you got the info.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stone Collection in Denver

pudgy...that is really nice stuff. I was not familliar with it until I read this thread.

We had leftover granite too. We are using it in our powder room.

Good Luck to you and jayhawk! Let us know if it all works out:)

Its BEAUTIFUL!!! But then I've never seen a picture of Jet Mist that wasn't. Hope it works out for you jayhawk (and pudgy too!)

Anyone find Jet Mist/Virginia Mist in Southern California? I'm in the Los Angeles area and have searched high and low for it. The stone yards have never heard of it. But it's sooo pretty and I think it would hold up better than soapstone against my 2 young children, monster dog, and husband who is a great cook but bangs the pots around. Any leads would be sooo appreciated!

pudgybaby,

THANK YOU! I'm so excited, not about the cost though! I just tried to call them but got vm. I'll head over there first thing when they open tomorrow! We too need 2 slabs but not a lot of the second so perhaps this will work...we don't even have our cabinets in yet though. That is supposed to happen early June. Who is your fabricator?

jsweenc,

I like the jet mist because it looks so much like soapstone, from what I can tell in pictures anyway. It seems as though a lot of people use it as a soapstone substitute. I really like antiqued cambrian black as well. I want a dark- near black if not black stone, honed finish but something that will be easy to maintain and won't show finger prints every time you touch it. Does anyone know how antiqued cambrian black and jet mist compare in price?

jayhawk: Hope you see this before you head over there today. I brought DH over there yesterday to see the slabs and look for alternatives. My 2 slabs are on the front of the stack - they have my last name (Hill) written in sharpie on the top right edge. You'll have to get them to move the slabs to see the others. There are 6 there including mine (they told me 8 came in - I never got a chance to ask if there are 2 more). Again, from what I saw, they all look very similar.

Also, I'm not sure if the Stone Collection requires reservations on Saturdays, but some of the stone yards do (I think Arizona does, for instance). If you get there early, you're probably ok.

Our cabinets are not in either, but it sounds like we are a week or two ahead of you. Ours are scheduled to be installed the last week of May with granite templating the first week of June. I think the timing is pretty darn good if we want to attempt to both get our granite out of a total of 3 slabs.

But - if you reserve slabs today, certainly reserve 2!! If we decide we can work this out and use 3, we can figure out which one of the 4 we have reserved we don't want to use. They will hold reserved slabs for 14 days.

I'm going to give you my email (encoded), and if you'd like, go ahead and contact me via email and we can attempt to work out the 3 slab thing. My fabricator is Joel Csotty (his last name is not misspelled - it's pronounces soty with a long o) with Colorado Stonecrafters in Longmont. The Longmont location is a bummer if you want to be there when he lays the templates (I do!), but I think I only have to go up there once. He is my GCs favorite stone guy, and I've got to admit that I haven't checked out his work or anything, I just went on the GCs recommendation. He got me the jet mist here in CO and I won't abandon him for anything at this point - I feel I owe him a big one. I don't think he has a website - it's a pretty small operation (I did go up there one time to pick a couple of jet mist samples, on the way to skiing). Like you, I want honed and Joel will hone my pieces for me. Do you already have a fabricator you are working with?

Here is the email encoding (sorry - I am gloriously spam-free and want to keep it that way). My first name is Linda and my middle name is Louise. My last name is earlier in this post. email is

first name dot middle initial dot last name at comcast.net. No pressure for sure, but contact me by email if you want.

They have lots of leathered cambrian black at the Stone Collection. We got a price group list from them when we were there yesterday and it says price category 4 (out of 5, then it goes to 'custom' and 'exotic'). Non-leathered cambrian black is cat 3. Jet mist is not on the list yet, so I don't know what cat it is. It seems that the Stone Collection leans toward the more dramatic/exotic granites and it might be that their prices are a little higher. I'm pretty sure I saw leathered Cam Blk at Arizona, too, which is not too far from Stone Collection. Might be cheaper there?

Sorry for the long post - Hope your search goes well today!

hi - I'm also in Colorado....near Boulder. Pudgybaby - how did you like the installer from Longmont? And do you have any pics of the jet mist - I'm also having to hard time trying to locate it here.