A NEW ADDRESS, a new stone in the StoneLeaf edifice.
Ten years after its creation, StoneLeaf opens its very first showroom in a 150m2 space designed by architect Maxime Perron in the heart of Paris's Right Bank.
StoneLeaf is the result of an innovative process. What is it exactly?
Emmanuel Dahdi: We don't work with stone by cutting, but rather by ripping. Generally speaking, when you use stones like marble or granite, you have very large blocks that come out of quarries and are sliced. These products are heavy, thick and complicated to transport. At StoneLeaf, we apply sheets of fiberglass to the stone block, followed by several layers of resin. The resin infiltrates the fiberglass and glues it to the stone block. After drying, we pull the fiberglass sheet off the block by hand. In doing so, the natural force of traction acts like a suction cup, pulling several thin strata of the block with it. These strata remain attached to the substrate and we obtain a sheet of stone averaging 1.5mm. We repeat this operation over the entire thickness of the stone block. This process enables us to preserve the stone's bath, its original structure and its natural strata, without recomposing or denaturing the product.
What does the finished product consist of?
Alexandre Dahdi: The mix of resin and fiberglass in the substrate gives the product a unique flexibility. Our sheet of stone bends very easily, offering unprecedented possibilities compared to traditional stone. StoneLeaf can also be laid on any type of substrate (earthenware, ceramic, concrete, plaster, wood...), without any preparatory work.
What types of stone do you prefer?
Alexandre Dahdi: For 80% of our range, we work with schist stones. These are slate or mica stones, which are very brittle. In their natural state, they look like a millefeuille of very thin layers, and with our process, we need stones that aren't too dense so that they can be pulled out by hand. The remaining 20% of our range is unpolished marble. Otherwise, it would be impossible to make them flexible without breaking them.
Practical information
" For us, this showroom is a real achievement. It enables us to offer our customers the full range of StoneLeaf solutions via a carefully designed, product-specificscenography . " Emmanuel Dahdi.
Open by appointment, the showroom is organized around several areas. At the front, a material library, where samples and large formats of the 34 StoneLeaf references are on display. In the middle, a majestic arch in Stoneleaf Translucide opens onto the second part of the showroom, featuring a side desk in pink Nairobi marble, a kitchen in sandblasted Ankara slate, a bathroom in Riga mica, and a toilet with two translucent versions of Prague and Montreal stone.
23, rue de Cléry, 75002 Paris. T : +33 1 43 96 49 59
