Selecting The Stone
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Part of our mission is to search the world over for new and
exciting stones, while simultaneously perfecting the art of
selecting our newly acquired and classic materials. Our goal is
to bring you the highest quality and most beautiful stone
available from each quarry.
You may be familiar with the end product as it appears
within the context of your designs, but it is the aim of this
article to give you some insight into the clear communication
and labor intensive processes that are required to select Stone
Source quality materials, and prepare them for your projects.
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Click on each photo to see a larger image.
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Calacatta Vision is a very elegant, highly selected, version
of the classic Italian Calacatta marble. The marble is
characterized by a very compact, bright white background color
with dramatic rivers of gray and sometimes gold veins running
through the stark white fields.
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The selection process begins with examining the quarry face
and determining how best to extract the areas that look like
they will yield the most favorable blocks.
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Newly extracted blocks are then initially examined for
dimensions, defects and more or less evident veins which
determine the quality and value for each block. Smaller and
irregular shaped blocks with good color are set aside
to make strips that will be used to make tiles.
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Larger dimensional blocks are further inspected and in this
phase our experts are trying to imagine, from looking at the
exposed faces of a block, what the inside of the block will
look like. This phase is carried out through collaboration
between our offices in Carrara, Italy and New York and the
family run factories that we work with in the Carrara region.
For special projects, our customers are also welcomed to become
a part of this process via visits to the factories, or through
digital imagery, and selections are made accordingly.
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Once the choice blocks are agreed upon, a discussion ensues
about how best to utilize each of the chosen blocks.
Prized blocks are primarily for slab production and it is
decided which thicknesses are to be sawn, and if it would be
better to saw the block perpendicular to a particular face of
a block or parallel to it. This is dictated by case to case
dimensional requirements, structural integrity and veining
characteristic.
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After the blocks are sawn and the slabs are finished, we view
images of the slabs for the final approval and inspect them for
our desired aesthetic and any structural flaws that may not
have been captured in viewing the outside of the block.
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Tile strips move on to a final phase of selection before
being cut to their desired size.
The factories we work with are steeped in a rich history going
back several generations in the marble trade. These factories
are amongst the best we've found in the art of selecting marble
tiles into matching lots. They use techniques that have been
passed down from generation to generation, and are now enhanced
by cutting edge modern technology to select with regard to
background color, veining characteristics, and blending to
create an aesthetic that nature cannot perfect without their
assistance.
Our man in Carrara goes to inspect the tiles once more before
they are very carefully packaged, labeled, and loaded on to
a container. This rigorous selection process ensures that
your projects come out looking their best.
The following photographs are of a recently completed project
in New York for Brown Rudnick, a law firm with offices in
Times Square. Designed by Gensler's New York office, the beauty
of the stone competes with the amazing view of the New York
skyline from the 45th floor.
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