Leading quartz company Caesarstone has released its first porcelain collection in the UK.

While quartz remains the most popular and still growing hard surface for kitchens, porcelains have been growing rapidly, so it did not come as a surprise when Caesarstone previewed a porcelain range at the KBB exhibition in the NEC, Birmingham, at the beginning of March. Now it is launching more than 20 porcelain surfaces this month (July).

The porcelain range will use the same Caesarstone name as the quartz, with the aim of strengthening the brand’s reputation as a leading provider of premium worktops.

Caesarstone Porcelain arrives after what the company describes as an intensive two-year design and R&D programme, in which the brand focused more than three decades of stone surfaces experience in the creation of an inaugural suite of porcelain surfaces.

Caesarstone says the porcelain range offers rich colours, bold designs, large patterns and “wonderful tangible textures”.

The porcelains have been aligned with existing Caesarstone collections: the Metropolitan Collection, with designs that celebrate an industrial aesthetic; The Supernatural Collection, inspired by nature; and The Classico Collection of shades that provide a foundation for interiors.

Mor Krisher, Caesarstone’s Chief Designer, explains what he and his team wanted to achieve with the porcelains. “We took stone back to its roots – to a raw, warm, earthy place – employing a range of colours, from delicate tones and pastels to warm shades in bold and dramatic patterns. Our goal was to emphasise stone’s materiality rather than attempt to flatten it, to pull out the texture. The feeling should be natural above all.”

Porcelain surfaces are sometimes described as ceramic, sintered, compact or ultra-compact materials. They blend ceramic clays, other natural materials and mineral colourings by compressing them (sintering) and then firing them. The design is printed on the surface before the slab is fired – and developments in printing technology over the years have helped increase porcelain’s popularity.

Quartz surfaces, sometimes described as engineered stone, are a blend of quartz minerals and other materials and colour pigments in resin polymers. These are then moulded, compressed, and heated to form the slab.

The final look and technical performance of either porcelain or quartz surfaces is reliant on the quality of the raw materials, as well as the expertise and capabilities employed in crafting them. Caesarstone considers both make ideal kitchen worktop surfaces when, like its products, they are manufactured to the highest standards using best quality ingredients. It offers a (not entirely unconditional) lifetime warranty on its products.

Caesarstone’s Porcelain collection includes:

• 501 Snowdrift – white with delicate golden-brown veins on a misty base.
• 503 Circa – a white base with bold, light grey veins outlined in heavier dark greys, reflecting Statuario marble.
• 504 Lumena – a white pearl base with veins in several greys that crisscross the slab. Translucent variations in the surface provide depth and dimension.
• 413 White Ciment – a whitewashed surface covered with a hazy imprint of a subtle mesh. It has an Ultra Rough finish creating an interplay with the soft colour.
• 511 Smokestone – with white lines across a ‘midnight’ body, again with a tactile Ultra Rough finish.
• 302 Metallio Black – inspired by the transformation of ores such as lead and iron.

Megan Jones has become the sixth generation of her family to work in the family stonemasonry company of AF Jones, run by her father, Angus Jones.

She has joined the company following the opening of a long-awaited new gallery at the company's main works at Ipsden, Oxfordshire.

The company was originally based in Reading and still has offices in its premises there, but production has moved to Ipsden.

The site address at Ipsden is, appropriately, the Old Quarry Works, but before AF Jones bought it it had been a fuel filling station and garage. It is next to the main road and a showroom was always part of the company's ambition. Megan has helped make it a reality.

With a background in fast moving consumer goods with snack company KP (famous for Hula Hoops and peanuts, among many other products), she has seen projects through from conception to presentation in stores. She says the experience has given her a lot of skills that are transferrable to the family business.

She grew up surrounded by the stone business and is familiar with it, but says her parents wanted her to gain experience away from that business to develop her own perspective. Hence, after studying for a business degree in Bath she joined KP and worked there for three years.

But when her family company wanted a new business manager to drive the company forward she felt she had the skills to contribute to its development and was given the job. "We are making products here that will outlast a human lifetime. We're creating legacies. That was a key factor why I wanted to work here," says Megan.

The showroom is about increasing the company's presence in interiors – and it has more plans to expand in that market. Megan says: "We have traditionally focused on architectural work but two-thirds of the stone market is interiors." She also wants to make sustainability a key focus of the business. "It was already part of the agenda here, but it's central now. It's important to our clients and they're our partners to success. They want sustainability and achieving net zero is important to us."

There will be more from Megan and Angus Jones about their plans for the family company in a future edition of Natural Stone Specialist magazine. Make sure you get your copy by subscribing here.

afjones.co.uk

The NAMM Tradex memorial masonry exhibition is back live at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre just outside Leamington Spa this year on its new dates of 15-16 September. 

Supported by many of the major memorial wholesalers and suppliers of equipment and accessories for memorial masons, the National Association of Memorial Masons' exhibition offers memorial masons the opportunity to view new products, materials, machinery, and services.

NAMM Executive Officer Peter Hayman says: "Tradex should be well attended this year. We've had some good feedback from exhibitors and masons generally. I think many have missed opportunities to get out and about over the last couple of years with a lot of events cancelled or rolled over. Pre-booking will make entrance a smoother operation, as it means just ticking off their name and giving them a visitor name badge. Those who pre-book will also get a gift pack containing a few useful items and a food voucher."

To book, call 01788 542264 or email admin@namm.org.uk.

At the seminar that goes along with the exhibition, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is giving a talk 11.45am to 12.45pm on each day detailing its contract procurement procedure. The Blast Shop is giving a talk at 11.00am both days with advice on avoiding injuries from manual handling. The talks are classed as CPD and a certificate will be provided for those who want it.

NAMM is providing a function room for a wholesalers' meeting that will take place at 11am on the Friday.

Once again, the exhibition will feature the work of memorial masons in the Craftex competition, which always includes oustanding memorial decorative work demonstrating the skills of lettercutters, etchers, sculptors, engravers, and others working with natural stone.

Craftex entries will be on display throughout the exhibition. They will be judged and awards will be presented at 3.00pm on the Friday.

Tradex is open to everyone working in or associated with the memorial industry, either directly or indirectly.

As Peter says: "Let’s hope the weather is kind, there is enough fuel (and water), there are no Covid restrictions and WWIII hasn’t kicked off. It's about time we all got together and enjoyed ourselves and worked as a family for everyone’s benefit."

www.namm.org.uk

York Minster plans to develop and extend its craft skills training facilities by creating a world class campus for research, education and training in craft skills.

York Minster is one of England’s 10 cathedrals with their own stonemasonry department. The 10 cathedrals work together on training through the organisation they have established called the Cathedral Workshops Fellowship, although its foundation degree course is now also open to masons (and other heritage craftspeople) working outside of the cathedral network.

Now, York Minster plans to develop and extend its craft skills training facilities by creating a world class campus for research, education and training in craft skills on the Minster’s 15-acre site.

This Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills & Estate Management came a step closer following a community referendum of residents in the Minster Precinct Neighbourhood Area, which showed a majority in favour of the Minster’s proposed £5million, fully funded project that is being co-ordinated by the York Minster Fund.

As well as the training centre, the project includes new visitor facilities, a new public square, enhanced public realm and green spaces, and a discovery and learning centre and museum.

Following the referendum, the Minster’s neighbourhood plan is being adopted by City of York Council as part of the statutory development plan for the city, and a planning application has been submitted for the work in the Minster Precinct to progress. A decision is expected before the end of the summer and, if consented, the work is expected to be completed in 2024.

The scheme, designed by the architectural practice Tonkin Liu, will provide new facilities for craftspeople, including York Minster’s stonemasons, and house and deliver training in modern techniques and processes to apprentices and students in York and further afield, working with cutting edge digital facilities alongside the ancient craft skills for which the Minster’s stoneyard is renowned.

Existing buildings within the Precinct will be re-ordered, re-purposed and renewed to provide new workspaces and associated facilities, enable greater engagement and interaction with the public around key crafts and trades, and facilitate improved links with education. The Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills & Estate Management will bring benefits including continuing the craft of stonemasonry and encouraging global learning and knowledge sharing, as well as being a shining example of best practice in managing complex heritage estates.

The vision for the Centre of Excellence is a key element of a plan that sets out a policy-led approach to creating a sustainable future for the Minster and its estate.

The British-made Trolex Air XS Silica Monitor, which measures the volume of deadly respirable crystalline silica in the air in real time, has won another award.

The latest recognition is a Gold Award for Best Product Development at the UK Business Awards, presented at an online ceremony on 7 July.

Previously, the Air XS from Trolex, based in Stockport, Manchester, was Highly Commended by the British Safety Industry Federation in the BSiF Awards in April and gained the ‘Best of Technology 2022’ Award at StonExpo / Marmomac in America in February. SiG (Stone Industry Group), which is selling Air XS to the stone industry in the UK and America, had made a feature of it on its stand at the American exhibition.

It is expected to be particularly attractive to worktop fabricators, who process high crystalline silica content materials such as engineered quartz and natural granites and quartzites, as well as to those working onsite sawing concrete and sandstone paving, both of which produce high levels of RCS.

There is a legal limit of exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) over an eight-hour period of 0.1mm/m3 of air, but until now it has been difficult to measure the level of RCS without calling in expensive experts. Air XS makes it possible to monitor the air continually.

The unit that does the measuring is also portable, so can be moved around a factory or site to test the air in different locations. Most fabricators would be surprised how much of their factory exceeds the legal exposure limit, even when all processing is carried out wet.

Granite House in Preston, Lancashire, has become the first worktop fabricator to buy an Air XS (they cost about £10,000 each) from SiG. Granite House, which is a member of the Worktop Fabricators Federation (WFF) and fully supports its professional approach to stone fabrication, is always pushing to have the best environment for its staff, as demonstrated by its recent achievement of the quality management standard ISO 9001. It believes RCS is an issue waiting to bite worktop fabricators through fines and claims for compensation.

The UK Business Awards are judged by a panel of independent experts from across industry and Trolex faced stiff competition from entrants that included world leading companies in the category for innovative products.

Announcing the Gold Award, Chair of Judges Christina Melling said: “Trolex have spent nearly a decade perfecting the Air XS Silica Monitor, an incredible device that will save lives around the world by detecting silica so that silica inhalation and silicosis can be prevented.”

Steve Holland, Managing Director of Trolex, said in his acceptance speech: “We are delighted to have received this Gold Award in recognition of our efforts to develop an innovative product that has the potential to save lives. The competition was fierce, and we are proud to have come first among a strong field of candidates.”

“Our Gold Award reflects the confidence of the judges in the Air XS Silica Monitor as a product, and the opportunity for the growth and development of our business going forward.”

trolex.com

SiG.ltd

Great Britain is one of safest places in the world to work, but figures just released by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) show 123 people died at work in the year to the end of March this year.

Construction once again recorded the highest number of deaths (although not the highest death rate) at 30. Agriculture, forestry & fishing had 22, so did manufacturing. Agriculture, forestry & fishing had the highest rate of fatal injury per 100,000 workers.

The three most common causes of fatal injuries continue to be falling from height (29), being struck by a moving vehicle (23), and being struck by a moving object (18).

At 123, the number of deaths is lower than during the 12 months to the end of March 2021 and is in line with pre-pandemic figures.

The long-term trend in deaths at work remains downward, although in the years before the coronavirus pandemic the rate had flattened out.

As well as those who died at work, those working managed to kill 80 members of the public. This is worse than the previous year, when the Covid restrictions kept people at home, but below the pre-pandemic level.

The release of the annual figures coincides with the 50th anniversary this month (July) of the publication of the landmark Robens report that led to the Health & Safety at Work Act two years later, in 1974, and the creation of the HSE a year after that.

Since then, Great Britain has become one of the safest places in the world to work, although HSE’s Chief Executive, Sarah Albon, says the latest figures show “we must continue to ensure safety remains a priority”.

She said as the figures were published: “Every loss of life is a tragedy, and we are committed to making workplaces safer and holding employers to account for their actions as part of our mission to protect people and places.”

The figures relate to work-related accidents only and do not include deaths from occupational diseases or diseases arising from certain occupational exposures such as respirable crystalline silica dust in stone workshops.

The HSE has also also published figures for Mesothelioma deaths up to 2020. Mesothelioma is a cancer that can be caused by exposure to asbestos. 2,544 people died from it in 2020. Many of them had worked in the construction industry.

It is a shocking number, but is in line with the average of 2,523 deaths over the previous eight years. Current mesothelioma deaths reflect exposure to asbestos that mainly occurred before the 1980s, so deaths from it are expected to decline during the next decade, reflecting the banning of making and using asbestos and the diminishing number of people exposed to it.

www.hse.gov.uk

Fully qualified stonemason Samantha Peacock, who has a Master’s degree in the archaeology of buildings, has joined the conservation team of Cliveden Conservation at the Bath workshop. She will work on projects primarily (but not solely) in the south-west of England.

Samantha has spent 14 years working in heritage construction. She has an NVQ 3 in both banker masonry and heritage skills. She is also a trained stained glass conservator, having gained the skill with Holy Well Glass, boosting her overall understanding of building conservation.

Her career began with an apprenticeship at Wells Cathedral Stonemasons, working on different types of limestone and sandstone producing masonry and mouldings in styles from Gothic to Neo-Classical.

She gained a placement on SPAB’s William Morris Craft Fellowship scheme and an NHTG bursary at York Minster, where she helped restore the Great East Window and conserve the 14^th century iconography of the statue of St Peter.

While in York, she completed her Master’s degree in the archaeology of buildings and went on to become a self-employed stonemason.

Notable projects include the conservation of 18^th century coade panels of the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford and working on masonry for the King’s Entrance on Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim.

Most recently, Samantha was contracted by Cliveden Conservation to help conserve the statues to the West Front of Wells Cathedral.

Tom Flemons, Cliveden Conservation’s Bath Workshop Manager, says he is delighted to have Samantha on board. “We’re really pleased that Sam has joined us and look forward to her becoming a key member of the team. Sam’s existing skills will be put to full use on some of the wide range of projects with which we are associated.”

Cliveden has also appointed David Bloxam as Project Manager for the Stone Section of the business.

With a solid background in stone restoration and construction project management, David comes with a wealth of practical and organisational skills.

Having completed an HND in Historic Decorative Craft at Lincoln School of Art, David spent five years with DBR carrying out stone restoration and stucco before joining Priest Restoration.

He quickly progressed to Contracts Manager, running major restoration projects including the West Wing of Somerset House, Kensington Palace façade and Knebworth House.

David was headhunted to put a team together to restore the former home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor near Versailles in France.

When he returned to the UK set up his own restoration business and set about restoring a 12^th century private property.

For the next 10 years, he worked mostly on domestic properties, specialising in stonework, repointing and building limes, before becoming a freelance Project Manager for new builds and hotel buildings.

Eventually he became an Asset Manager working alongside clients such as Whitbread and the Landmark Trust.

He has now gone full circle and returned to the heritage sector, with his new position at Cliveden Conservation harnessing his knowledge and extensive experience of historic buildings, traditional craftsmanship and project management.

He says: “There is nothing more satisfying than returning something old back to its former glory, whether it is architectural or a vintage car (another one of my passions).

“Cliveden Conservation has some incredible projects, so this is a great opportunity for me to work with some of the UK’s finest conservators to deliver exceptional results.”

clivedenconservation.com

Burngate Purbeck Stone Centre in Dorset has been releaunched to continue training in the use of stone.

After a challenging couple of years due to Covid closures, the Centre has just published its summer programme, which includes a range of courses including geology, stone carving, lettering and masonry. You can find out more about them on the Burngate Centre website: burngatestonecentre.co.uk.

The Centre is run as a small charity that does not receive any external funding and the courses have to be self-supporting. However, Juliet Haysom, a trustee of charity, says that following consultation with Natural Stone Industry Training Group and CITB, the Centre is now offering professional training in support of the local Dorset stone industry. It believs that might be particularly beneficial now Weymouth College has closed its stonemasonry courses. “We're hoping we might be able to contribute to training via apprenticeships and 'upskilling' in due course, if we can fund this activity,” says Juliet.

burngatestonecentre.co.uk

Applications to QEST for funding of up to £18,000 to help you improve your skills are being invited between 11 July and 15 August.

Since it was founded in 1990, the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) has awarded more than £5.2million to 675 individuals working in 130-or-so different crafts.

And it continues to support its Scholars throughout their careers, often putting them forward for prestigious exhibitions and awards.

It defines craft broadly and welcomes applications from people involved in skills ranging from stonemasonry, thatching and jewellery design to glassblowing and millinery.

You can see some of the people who have benefitted from a QEST scholarship on its website, where you will also find details about how to apply to become a QEST Scholar. 

And if you want a bit of help putting together your application, there are Zoom ‘How To’ sessions coming up about the submission process, with tips that will help you get your application accepted. These sessions will take place as follows:

How To Apply For A QEST Scholarship 

• Wednesday 13 July at 4pm
  Register in advance for this meeting at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUudemrqjIiHN3ysqq6JGCPaSHZKW997iQU
•  Thursday 28 July at 4pm
  Register in advance for this meeting at:
  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYsf-igrjkvHdxoFOuaEYkLqRy4jh8SdXgO

QEST also runs apprenticeships. You can apply for one here and find out more about how to apply at a Zoom presentation as follows:

• Tuesday 19 July at 4pm
  Register in advance for this meeting on:
  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMscOGhpj4tGNIbJtxfY6gXyQOHr6cOZ7_R