Beneath the Surface Blog

So Cool: White Onyx

Admittedly, sometimes when clients request white onyx slabs that have little to no color or texture, we wonder "why don't you just paint the wall white or use an acrylic surface?". But there's something to be said for a sleek white slab that has cloudy layers that drift beneath the surface or distinctive sharp veins that form artistic compositions when bookmatched.

Backlit white onyx is a popular interior material, particularly in projects that are located in warm climate zones. (Think the Middle East, American South and American Southwest). The sleek nature of the stone surface visually represents coolness, and because our flat LED panels generate virtually no heat, the stone panels stay cool to the touch!

How do climate and context affect your color and material choices?

Honey onyx is easily the most popular stone for interior backlit features. And when most designers use the term “honey onyx”, they are referring to a very typical stone as shown below:

Did you know that yellow and gold onyx is available in many variations? From cloudlike formations to strong linear veining, honey onyx stone panels are particularly inviting when backlit with our warm white LED panels. Here are just a few types of onyx available in honey and gold shades:

The warm glow of backlit honey onyx is quite complementary to dark wood surfaces, making it an ideal stone for use in rich commercial lobby spaces and cozy residential environments.

As we continue to spark your imaginations with stone slab images from our photo library, today we explore backlit red onyx.

From pale pinks interlaced with ivory to blood red interspersed with clear crystal, red onyx is the most ephemeral stone.

On the softer side, pink and peach toned clouds float among ivory, giving the stone a dreamy air. With the appropriate backlighting strategy, these stone panels take on a soft glow that brings out the detail in the lighter portions of the slab.

When sharper, deeper reds are used with clearly defined crystals, the stone erupts into an explosion of color and beauty.  When deep red onyx is backlit, the individual crystals are further emphasized and the color contrast intensifies.

Which color palettes do you most often use in commercial design? Continue to stay tuned for more inspiration!

For many, the word “onyx” evokes images of shiny black beads embedded in jewelry.  Yet as interesting as light-up gemstone necklaces sound, GPI Design creates features with a different sort of onyx, a sort of “jewelry for your walls”.  The world of onyx natural stone is a large one, filled with many colors, banding, and stone patterns.  Many people aren't aware of the enormous amount of onyx varieties available, so we're opening up our image library of slabs to set your imaginations running wild.

What exactly is onyx? In the commercial stone world, onyx is not a color or specific stone, it encompasses a broad range of stones. Onyx is a form of quartz.  Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth’s crust and comes in many different varieties, one of which is onyx.  But wait a minute, you might be asking: “isn’t quartz the stone that comes in large crystals?”.  Yes, those large chunks of crystal are known as macrocrystalline quartz.  The other major category of quartz is microcrystalline (or cryptocrystalline).  

Onyx is a form of cryptocrystalline quartz, which means that is composed of large bunches of much smaller quartz crystals. It’s the combination of tens of thousands of smaller quartz crystals that give onyx its huge variety of colors, textures, and patterns.  If you look closely at a slab of onyx, you can start to see the individual crystals that make it up. Particularly when backlit, the fine detail in an onyx panel is further revealed. 

Green Onyx- Rich layers of green are enhanced by billowing clouds of red and brown.  Green onyx has a luxurious, rich look, and is often used to create a sense of magnificence and warmth. Backlighting green onyx panels brings out hidden details and adds an additional layer of richness to the stone.

Now that you know the world is your oyster when it comes to designing with backlit onyx, unleash your most colorful imagination! Stay tuned for our next featured stone.

Looking for an alternative to glass or stone for a translucent wall feature? If the application is suitable, you should consider using acrylic products. Not the paint, but rather sheet acrylic.

Acrylic is stronger, more scratch resistant, and lighter than glass. It comes in an almost infinite variety of colors and textures, and has stunning clarity- as good as or even better than glass. In fact, acrylic panels are typically half the weight of glass, and do not require bushings or gaskets when installing.  And although acrylic may be slightly more expensive initially, the durability, ease of installation, and longevity of acrylic may make it the cheaper in the long run.

So now that acrylic is your clear choice, what exactly is it? And what do all those industry terms mean?  Sheet acrylic is a form of plastic known as Polymethyl methacrylate, or PMMA.  Different brands of acrylic include Plexiglas, Gavrieli, Vitroflex, Limacryl, R-Cast, Acrylex, Acrylite, Acrylplast, Polycast, Oroglass, Optix, and Lucite.  But at the very basic manufacturing level, there are three main forms of sheet acrylic: extruded, continuous, and cell cast.

Extruded acrylic is mass-produced on giant rollers, and is usually produced in large volumes for commercial use.  Of the three types of acrylic extruded is the most budget friendly, but also the most susceptible to scratches and blemishes.

Continuous Cast acrylic is mass produced as well. Huge vats of acrylic monomer and other chemicals are poured on large steel belts, which carry the heated acrylic through a series of coolers. Continuous cast acrylic is slightly more expensive than extruded, though the quality is slightly better as well.

Cell Cast acrylic is the most expensive form of acrylic and the highest quality.  Molds, typically 4’x8’, are made, and acrylic is poured in.  This method allows for a number of different colors and textures to be produced, and produces acrylic with the best possible optical clarity

Which one is best for you?  If you’re looking for clarity, then cell cast acrylic has the best optical clarity as well as the greatest surface hardness.  However, cell cast acrylic tends to have greater variation in thickness.

Continuous cast acrylic is the material of choice for skylights, and is the next best for clarity. It is not as hard as cell cast materials, nor does it have as many color and thickness options. However, it is much cheaper and maintains uniform thickness as sheets.

Extruded acrylic is dubbed the “industry workhorse”.  It comes in a fair number of colors and sizes, and that combined with its low cost satisfies the needs of most acrylic applications. However, it is the softest of all acrylics, and is subject to expansion and shrinking over time.

It’s important to carefully consider your project before selecting which brand, and which type, or acrylic you wish to use.

For further reading, try:

http://www.plasticsmag.com/features.asp?fIssue=Jan/Feb-04

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-acrylic.htm

http://www.modernplastics.com/polycast-cellcast-acrylic-sheet-papermask-p-1003.html