Stone-Ideas.com 
“ROOM FOR YOU!” is the title of an exhibition of Rotterdam multidisciplinary artist Noortje van den Eijnde at iCOON Hoek van Holland until June 15, 2025. She presents three installations that each give a different sensory experience of bathing/enveloping oneself: bathing in matter, bathing in sound, and bathing in light. Visitors of the show are invited to make the experiences themselves. „The visitors‘ experience is central, not the work itself,“ is said in a press release.
“Today, Carrara is a battleground,“ is said in an Al Jazeera report from the white marble mountains in Tuscany. Initiatives are described that oppose the fact that, in their view, the wealth of the marble only flows into a few hands. Also criticized is ‚Extractivism,‘ i.e. the export of unprocessed raw blocks to China.
The year 2024 marked the best result in the history of Veronafiere, which organizes Marmomac, among other events. The Group‘s revenue reached €125.5 million, an increase of 5 million compared to the previous year. The net result shows a profit of €9.5 million, an increase of 150% (Italian).
“We Speak Stone” is the title of a business meeting held in Houston, organized by Marmomac and the Italian-American Chamber of Commerce. It is meant to bring together exhibitors at the fair with buyers from Texas. The meeting is part of the “Italian Design Tour 2025.“
A natural stone tessellated path by Lord Foster of Foster + Partners is among the five shortlisted ideas for a national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II.
“For those seeking a home with history, it will be hard to top the Ripley Castle Estate, a sprawling property in North Yorkshire, England, which has been in the same family for 26 generations,“ is what Christie’s‘ real estate department writes about one of the objects it has for sale.
UseNaturalStone webpage: „Marabar on the Move: Relocating a 225 Ton Granite Art Installation“ is the title of a report telling the story of Elyn Zimmermann‘s famous stone sculpture (1, 2).
Germany and Austria are almost on par in terms of purchasing power in 2025, but again well behind Switzerland, a Nielson-GfK study shows (German).
The BBC tells the story “How 50 years of climate change has changed the face of the ‘Blue Marble’ from space.“
Greek To Vima newspaper reports that „Oxford-based Institute for Digital Archaeology has its mind set on carving a giant replica of the horse’s head from the Parthenon’s chariot of Selene into Attica‘s second largest mountain.“ Mount Rushmore is to be the model. In 2002, Kathimerini newspaper described an initiative to carve an image of Alexander the Great into a rock face in northern Greece (1, 2).
“While companies in many parts of the world focus exclusively on profit – often at the expense of people and the planet – the Italian ceramic industry demonstrates that economic success and ethical responsibility can go hand in hand,” is said in a report in Italy’s CER magazine (April 2025).
Video of the Month: Arches made of natural stone bricks, how they are built and how they can be transported, are shown at the Clerkenwell Design Week in London (May 20 – 22, 2025). Stone bricks have the sizes of normal ashlars but a much better carbon footprint. The presentation is a cooperation of Albion Stone, Hutton Stone, Webb Yates Engineers, Hawkins Brown Design.