Saturday, March 22, 2008

Leathered finish

We are now able to offer 'leathered' finishes on any stone. We also do honing and brushing.
The leather finish is kind of like a river-washed effect. As if the softer portions of the stone had been eroded by a natural stream over many, many years. To the touch, it has the slightest texture as you run your fingers over it. It also takes away most of the shine, although we can color enhance it to bring the uniqueness of the stone color back. But, it will remain a matte finish.
Several US slab distributors offer a very limited amount of colors in leathered stone. Usually in dark colors. [Cambrian Black seems to be used quite often]
Now, we can leather any stone. We are not limited to what their suppliers provide. We're running some Golden Crystal right now.
Any color you want can now be leathered, honed or brushed.

Water Jet

We now offer the only stone water jet service in the state.
We can do signs, business inlays [logos in a conference table as an example], outdoor signage, decorative inlays in countertops. Whatever needs you may have, we have the technology to do it.
We just completed some onyx inlays for Todd Luster, who is doing the Warren theater in Moore, Ok.
There are several examples in the showroom.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Gambling

Roccadxf

For most people, their home is their largest investment. Most are not into gambling on that investment. When it comes time to sell, the primary assets are the Kitchen and Master Bath. That is what we do for a living.

Since we are 100% digital, our work starts in a computer and stays there until a skilled fabricator finishes the polish by hand.

The above image is the bird's eye view of one of our client's kitchen. There is a sink in the top portion of the horse shoe, pretty much in the center. There is a free standing stove on the bottom right and the little piece goes on the other side of the stove. In the picture, the vertical lines on either side of the sink are seam locations. Most companies seam at the corners- we almost never do that, because that is where people look first.

The Stone choice is Crema Mara. It is very active with lots of pattern and color changes.

Next, I'm going to show you a 'normal' layout of this stone. All pieces except the sink piece come out of the first slab. The sink piece somes out of slab two, and it does not matter which corner you choose re the match. This one comes from the top left, which was the best, such as it is.
This method saves the most material. In this case, probably $400 worth of savings, if it was bought domestically [We actually imported this one].

Here's what your gamble looks like:

Roccabadseams

We're the second Stone Fabricator in the country using this new system. We got it in December and have used it numerous times.

Here is what the clients actual investment will look like:

roccanest

The difficulty on this layout is the grain and color match on the sink section. In our layout, the colors match and the grain is right.

Did we use more material than the 'normal' one? Yes. Does it show? Yes, it does.

The system actually shows you real time changes as you maneuver the parts over the picture of the stone. Sometimes, it takes a while to get it right. So be it. This one took two of us about 15 minutes to get the color and grain the way we wanted it.

There have been times where we actually changed the seam locations just to get the matches we wanted.

We're not gambling with your investment. We know exactly what it will look like before it ever hits the Sawjet.

2008

Its' been 13 months since I've updated this blog, and my how things have changed around here.
First, what is on the water right now:

From the Italians, we have a Marble order en route. It should be here in about 3 weeks.
Emperador 2 and 3cm.
Black Guinea 2cm. A very old Italian Quarry. [Guinea is pronounced Gwen-Nay] Our Italian rep is slowly teaching me some Italian. And, I do mean Slowly.
Calacatta Fantastico Light. 2cm. Very pretty white.
Calacatta Fantastico Dark. 3cm. A little darker, but equally pretty.
Breccia Oniciatta. 3cm. This stuff is really pretty, but really fragile. When we open the container, my guys will want to shoot me when they see it. It is difficult to work with.

From the Brazilians, I finished one yesterday. It should be here by the end of April.

2 bundles of 3cm Soapstone with the gorgeous white veining.
1 bundle of 3cm Supreme. A brand new offering from one of our favorite suppliers. Vibrant golds and blacks. This company is famous for their Classico Supreme. I'm guessing this is from a different part of that quarry because the golds and blacks are very similar.
2 bundles of 3cm Napoleon. We got one late last year from the same supplier. It was the best looking Napoleon I've seen in 5 years. Really top-flight. Great colors with no orange or peach.
1 2cm and 1 3cm Giallo Ornamental. Subtle whites, but very elegant.

I'll deal with the hardware and software changes in a later post.