Fashion, a 26% annual increase in house prices and the emergence of the bathroom as the new home hot-spot, have stimulated UK sales in natural stone tiling for the home. Claire Santry reports.

This is not Raw Silk from China to make exquisite fabric for the fashion designers of the world. This is the fashionable granite from India that the Chinese are fond of!

Raw Silk is among the most imported granites into China from India after Black Galaxy, Ruby Red and Tan Brown.

Raw Silk Granites is basically of two types:

Raw Silk Ivory

Raw Silk Ivory quarries are located in a village by name Varchur located approximately 26 kms. from Madurai city in the Southern State of Tamilnadu, India. Madurai city can be reached by flights from Madras (Chennai).

In most parts of the world, stone extraction is usually done in countries with moderate climates, or, where the weather can become hot, extremely hot in the summer. The word “quarry”, for most in the stone industry, is thus synonymous with heat and dust and sweat, with problems of dehydration for the worker, lack of water, etc. But, on this planet earth, stone is also extracted in extreme temperatures, the word extreme signifying not very heat but very cold.

Armand-Thierry Pedrós Esteban

arpedes@esc.upv.es

Asher Shadmon

The chances are that the request "tiles or slabs with stylolites" from your supplier, will draw a blank stare at best, even if he has supplied the slabs to you for who-knows-how-long. A benign nod to your request still does not mean that he is spending much thought on stylolites. Why should we?

Published on July, 2004

No matter how much one has heard, read, or seen in an infinite number of movies and documentaries the Pyramids of Egypt, nothing is comparable to the sensation of finding oneself in front of what is, without any doubt, the greatest architectural project in the history of Humanity. These impressive mountains of stone surrounded by a mystery even today, in the much waited twenty first century, have not been deciphered completely, they make us feel small and insignificant.

Last 19 November, the Provincial Association of Businessmen of Marble of Macael awarded the prizes of Comarca of Macael in its XX edition. In this photo-report we present the images of the works rewarded in the different categories.

AWARD TO THE ARCHITECT

Architect: José Ángel Rodrigo García
Imagess: Comercial Centre la Verónica, Antequera (Málaga)

AWARD FOR PROJECT IN SPAIN

The world of natural stone is advancing at a frenetic pace, with so many improvements in technology, that we have no time to think how we have got to this point. We thought it would be interesting to remind our readers how it used to be only a few centuries ago, take a look back and do a memory of a past age not so long ago.

This exclusive report looks at the main sources of decorative stone on the 17.075.400 km² territory of the Russian Federation, the leading quarrying and processing companies, imports, exports, the consumer market and future prospects. Author Yuri Sychov is Head of the Stone Dept. of yhe Federal Institute of Mineral Resources, and President of the Stone House Club in Moscow.