I had wondered if it might be Falling Water slate(I had seen that tile on this forum months ago). I do like Falling Water,(though I've never seen in it person, only in photos.) However, I believe that the stones in Falling water are only either 1" or 3/4" high, and the ones in the "mystery photo" appear to have some larger ones in there. I would like some larger ones like that. Maybe I could call the company to be sure. epressler--thanks so much for the link. I followed it, and fortunately, the photo had a tag (hover over with the mouse) giving the name of the supplier and of the stone!! How cool is that (don't you wish all those design photos did that!)So I googled, and I will put the link below to the tile supplier, Statements Tile, for anyone else who might be interested. I think I may email the mystery photo to both those tile companies and just ask if it could be there stone! Gigi- the photo came from Boxerpups' collection of design photos--as far as I can tell from her photo bucket album, there is no info from where it came! Newchapter--I wondered about limestone,too. I will check into it. Thanks eveyone, again. Here is a link that might be useful: Statements tile- Golden Gate Tumbled quartzitie

So I took the drive to SLT and was disappointed to see that their steel is 14x14 rather than a more standard 14x16. I already don't like the 14" dimension on my stone (although I realize it's about as deep as reasonably fits in a residential oven) but I wasn't willing to sacrifice the width. I should have looked it up online first instead of assuming it would be a standard size. While there I doublechecked at bakingsteel, yes theirs are 14x16 and I and saw that for $20 more they have one that's 3/8" thick rather than 1/4". Might just go for that one for the heck of it, I find there's a distinct difference that I prefer between pizzas I've cooked on a stone as opposed to a pan, and I hope I'll see added improvement with a steel.

I think the first clue to the intent of oldryder's post was his first sentence, "This is a teaser." The second, which actually appeared first was "dyed blobs of plastic with rock chips." Personally, I thought it was funny and not the least bit serious. We can get way too solemn here sometimes. A good twist of the tail every now and then can put things back in perspective. We've talked about stone vs. quartz before (just a little ;-) ), but I think both palimpsest and GreenDesigns added new thoughts to the conversation. I'd never seen the ceramic product GreenDesigns mentioned as a potential contender, and really appreciated barthelemy's contribution on that subject. I wonder if it would be practical for shower walls? And second place for funny (after dried blobs...) goes to may_flowers for "Granite is for those still in the stone age; quartz is for us hipsters who love technology. " Made me smile. *snort*

In designing homes with stone I try to use stone that is native to the site or nearby. It gives the architecture a better connection to site and a better sense of place.