International standards for marble, granite & Co: the Natural Stone Institute’s Chuck Muehlbauer was appointed chair of the Technical Committee TC 327

The coming ISO-approved definitions will be about “requirements and test methods for blocks, slabs, semifinished and finished products intended for use in building and for monuments“

The Swiss designer Isabell Gatzen takes echoes from the famous graphic artist M.C. Escher for some of her furniture pieces

The contrast between form and the material marble gives her works a down-to-earth flair, even if some of the pieces reflect unusual ideas

Miscellaneous: calls for artists

On our list for the time after Corona: an Assyrian alabaster relief in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York City

News from the Calçada Portuguesa: a book shows art with the individual stones and a film gives a bird’s eye view of the paved squares in Lisbon

The initiative from the Portuguese capital to make the cobblestones a cultural heritage of humanity has made little or no real progress

Accidental discovery: Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe can see through the clouds around Venus

During the flyby, the special camera WISPR captured the thermal image of a dark area hiding the highland Aphrodite Terra

10 international and Turkish stone sculptors may apply for the 2nd Neopolis Sculpture Symposium in Kuşadası south of Izmir, to be held in October 2021

Application deadline is July 16 / Royalty of 2400 US-$ and accommodation, food, transportation paid

Miscellaneous: ideas around natural stone

British sculptor Ben Russel has adapted his art to the Corona situation and shows in his latest collection called “Terrariums“ the fungi made of stone under glass domes

The Summit Visitor Center at “America’s Mountain” Pikes Peak is expected to open in early summer

The buildings with a spectacular view at 14,115 feet mimic the pink granite that formed the National Historic Landmark in the Rocky Mountains