Statistics say that only 30-percent of marble quarried ends up as a finished product. Italian designers Paolo Ulian and Moreno Ratti have set out to do something about that.

The designer duo makes a line of products from rejected marble. Their latest collection is Little Gerla, a collection of four vases. Each one is made from a single tile and yields zero waste.

Little Gerla is a collection of vases by Paolo Ulian and Moreno Ratti made from leftover pieces of marble tile. 

The vases are made from discarded Marmette slabs that have been rejected because of prominent veins, inconsistent colors or minor damage. The tiles started out pre-cut to 40-centimeters by 40-centimeters by 3 centimeters. They use a water jet to cut each tile into four pieces of 20-centimeters by 3-centimeters, and then cut those into concentric rings. They stack the rings together, creating the unusual shape of the vases and the designers have no fixed idea of what the final form will be when they start experimenting with the tiles. 

Considering they’re made from marble, the vases are surprisingly lightweight, and each one bears the characteristic markings of the water jet. The pair challenged themselves to only use the water jet machine for cutting and sought out to assemble the 2-d forms into the 3-d vases without creating any waste.

Ulian and Ratti first created a collection from the Marmette slabs last year featuring a larger version of the stacked vases. Their previous designs include lamps, fruit bowls, and clocks—each made from only one single tile.

Thinking about using marble tile in an upcoming project? Check out our collection online or visit one of our two area showrooms to experience our collection.