Anil Taneja,

anil.litosweb@gmail.com

First published in February, 2016. Edited in June,2022.

You know that person, of course, you meet people like him everyday in your professional life! That confident walk into any room, the sense of deference from everyone else when HE walks in. The orders being barked all around, to be obeyed instantly. He is the King of all he surveys, the Master of his universe, and, of course, the centre of all attention.

For those who think the polished, honed, flamed, bush hammered, aged, etc. are just about all the finishes possible with natural stone, the images shown below may well come as a surprise. With some imagination the beauty of natural stone is enhanced even more to give some unique looks that make any wall anywhere look truly spectacular.

In the 2015 edition of the Marmomacc fair in Verona (Italy), held from 30 September to 3 October, “The Italian Stone Theatre” was presented, a project made by Raffaello Galiotto and Vincenzo Pavan to demonstrate what design and technology can achieve when united to the unique possibilities of natural stone.

In the natural Stone industry several countries are associated in the minds of people with one specific stone even though that country may have different varieties of stones. When one talks of Portugal, a country with a large variety of granites and marbles, the first name that comes to mind is ROSA PORTUGUESE.

The marble denominated Negro Marquina is one of the Spanish ornamental rocks most known internationally along with Crema Marfil, Marron Emperador, Rojo Alicante, to name  just a few. For this very reason, there are some companies who, using the prestige of this unique material, commercialize the material of their quarries under the same name- Negro Marquina (sometimes also spelled as Negro Markina).

What are for some defects, the veins and the irregularities in natural stone (but which form its very essence) is in reality a design that nature has gifted us and which makes every slab of stone unique. If to this uniqueness that has been given to us we add the hand of man and his aesthetic criteria when playing with these designs and combining them with the style that we denominate "bookmatching", the result is a real work of art.

The Association of Businessmen of Marble from Andalucía has announced the MACAEL AWARDS, now in its XX1X edition. The projects in natural stone that have resulted winners in 2015 are the following:

 Richard Watzke info@richardwatzke.de

The export statistics for natural stone to USA during 2014 reveal a disturbing trend when analysed in some detail. During the 2014 the US economy had already more or less recovered from the severe financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 and, for many businessmen in the industry it was almost back to normal. Anecdotal evidence suggests most of the wholesalers were seeing growth in their business, on average, to the extent of 20%, though the figure quoted offhand  obviously varied from person to person and company to company.