Bathroom Feature Tiles featuring Thin Section Mineral Photography - Australian Minerals

Mineral Photo Custom Feature Tiles - these tiles start out as blank white tiles, to which I add a digital print of Sue's Mineral Photos. My process works on most tile surfaces. I'm currently working with standard ceramic subway tiles (10cm x 20cm) which look great with Sue's photos, as she took the photos with a 'landscape' orientation. I can also work with other sizes up to 30cm x 30cm.

The photos depict magnified views (under crossed polars) of various Australian minerals. Rock thin sections viewed at an average thickness of 0.03mm (30µm). There are twelve different images in Sue's Series 1 Australian Minerals, the last image in this item shows each photo and the corresponding image number. You can just let me know in the order notes which photo you would like to use for your tiles.

For the technically minded, below is a description of the rock ‘thin section’ process in Sue’s words:
After cutting and roughly trimming with a diamond tipped saw the rock is slowly cut, ground and then polished to a thickness of 0.03mm (30µm). Using resin to hold this incredibly thin slice of rock onto a glass slide the constituent minerals are now ready to be viewed under a polarising microscope. The diagnostic colors produced by projecting various wavelengths of light through the rock sliver, in conjunction with mineral shape and its association with other minerals are used to determine the mineral type. The diagnostic colors and shape of the mineral can also tell the experienced petrologist the approximate chemical composition of the mineral.

The process I use to customise the tiles involves a manual process to place each image on the tile using a specialised photographic paper or vinyl. The image is then either enamelled and baked or sprayed to fix the image and ink on the tile, and sealed using a commercial grade epoxy resin to achieve a permanent UV stable, high gloss finish. This is a fairly labour-intensive and time-consuming process to produce each tile, but the result is worth it as the tiles look spectacular. The main credit goes to Sue's beautiful photos obviously.


ORDER QUANTITY
There is no minimum order quantity, if you would like to order just one tile to see if they will work for you, that's quite ok, just select quantity '1' for the size you require and I will make a single tile for you at the price and shipping cost indicated.

If you are ordering a larger quantity of tiles, I am happy to discuss a discount, just email me before you place your order 😊