Countertops and pretty stone

So, I'm taking Geology this term. It's interesting. the first day of class involved a "I am X, I'm studying Y, and I'm taking this class because Z." Well, my Z is "because this is a restrictive elective that I need to graduate, and I like shiny rocks.

Now, segue into another area of my, our, life. enLethe and I are very fond of stone, especially the idea of stone countertops in our kitched. It's pretty, durable, etc. Now, there are a lot of cool stones that can be used for this purpose, most of it isn't actually granite, I've found out. Anyway, what is below is a bit of a summary of a conversation we had regarding this.

First, a single type of stone is not necessary in the kitchen. Countertops and island top can be different. Having more than 2-4 major types of stone may be an issue, due to clashing colours.

What if, instead of large slabs of stone for counter tops, we instead bought a number of small boulders, 1-3 cubic feet at a time, cut and polished them ourselves, then set them into some sort of matrix to act as our counter tops? The matrix itself would have to fit a couple prereqs. It would need to be pretty in and of itself. It would need to be durable. We would also have to be able do this ourselves. This fits nicely. That's right, concrete counter tops. A lot more beautiful than you thought, eh? I'm not sure what else would work as a matrix, though. Resin would be too soft, I think. I can't readily think of any other materials.

The next idea we can up with was two part. First, we posit that we are using slab stone for our countertops, though this is not necessary, we could just as well be using the idea described above. Now, this idea is focusing on the area between the backsplash of the countertops, and the bottom of the cabinets. I'll term this area the "extended backsplash." Anyway, if we decided that, for some reason, the above-method was unfeasable for countertops, we could do something similar for the extended backsplash. A lot of the area I'm speaking of is either tiled or made of painted cement board. In this case, we have three options. Either use the above option of larger pices of polished, pretty stone, though this has the issue of large spaces between them, or we could get the 4"x4" countertop samples, cut, polish, and bevel them, and use them as tiles, insead of plain old ceramic. Finally, the third option could be a combination of the two- using large pieces of stone embedded in the stone sample tile work, in a mosaic-esque fashion.

So, the main problems that I see are as follows. First, these projects will involve a significant outlay of funds for the proper tools for the job. That's ok, because both enLethe and I feel that it's much better to get our own tools, and build/make most of what we want, rather than buying a finished, possibly shabby and/or exorbitant product. Second, and a much greater issue, involves technical issues with the matrix that the stone would be set in. Shrinkage and sealing at the stone-matrix boundary could cause quite a headache. Additionally, making sure that none of the matrix material ends up obscuring the pretty stone that's being embedded may be a challenge as well. Then there's the variable hardnesses that maybe cause unequal erosion of the surface over time, or the ability of the finished product to stand up to a regriding/polishing while in place.

Hmmmmmm.