In a word, time. It has taken millions, if not billions of years, for Mother Nature to create natural stone. There are many factors that affect the  ltimate graining and coloration of natural stone. These factors include underground springs, mineral deposits, earth shifts, temperature,  atural solutions in the earth and the pressure exerted on these elements over time. Obviously, there is no way to duplicate these factors in a laboratory or manufacturing environment. Because of the vast differences in the conditions that created the stone, every block extracted from the earth is different. The hand of man has played no role in the process. Even after the stone has been removed from the quarry, there is little human intervention, except for cutting and polishing, to bring out all of the uniqueness and natural beauty. Nothing is done to alter the natural state of the stone. That’s why the number of different colors and patterns of natural stone is virtually limitless. True, some common types of stone have a similar “look,” but no two pieces are ever exactly alike.