Breton granite has its GI (France)

Breton granite, which has to fight against aggressive foreign competition, has just been awarded the "geographical indication" (GI) label following a new system that entered into force in 2015.

After the "Siege of Liffol", (a type of seats manufactured in the Vosges and labeled in December), it is the turn of the granite of Brittany to see itself homologated geographical indication from 20 January 2017, the date of publication of the Decision in the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property, "says the Inpi.

The Inpi (National Institute of Industrial Property) recalls that the "Consumer" Act of March 2014 extended geographical indications to manufactured products, whereas previously they concerned only agricultural and viticultural products.

The geographical indication "Granit de Bretagne" covers granite extracted from quarries, riprap, semi-finished products (slices, products being finished) and finished products (funerary, roads, urban development, building, decorative products) .

Five departments are involved

The extraction and manufacturing operations must be carried out in a geographical area comprising the 4 departments of Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, Morbihan and the commune of Saint-James in the English Channel . "Official sign of quality and origin, geographical indication ensures consumers the authenticity of the products they buy," says Inpi.

"It is the consecration of the reputation of the granite of Brittany, the quality of our work (...) our profession has too often suffered deceit on the origin, economically disastrous, at the heart of a globalized offer, "Said Christian Corlay, General Secretary of the Geographical Indication Association Granit de Bretagne.

The association, which currently gathers 22 companies, is delegated the defense and management of the geographical indication. "This label will make it possible to differentiate the Breton granite in the face of an international competition, particularly Chinese, often exacerbated.

Accompany an up-market product

The challenge for our industry, for our companies, is to accompany a rise in the range of our products thanks to clearly identifiable distinctive signs ", reacted in a statement the deputy of Ille-et-Vilaine Thierry Benoît.

A geographical indication consists of a product name, associated with that of a geographical area. Its characteristics are specified in a specification examined by the Inpi.

Only a group of craftsmen and companies has the possibility of submitting an application for homologation for a geographical indication.

Two other requests for geographical indications are being studied: "Savon de Marseille" and "Espadrilles de Mauléon".

Next Ural Expostone

VIII International specialized exhibition  URALEXPOSTONE 2017: production, processing, use of natural stone. Organizer - The Association Stone Industry of Russia "Center Stone", with the participation of the Ural State Mining University.

The exhibition will be held on 14-16 March 2017 at the International Exhibition Centre (IEC) Ekaterinburg EXPO. Association "Center Stone" combines companies of Russian stone industry. We provide support and assistance to our colleagues, including in cooperation with the Russian government agencies, as well as the communication with the organizations and companies of the stone industries of other countries.

Objectively, in the Urals, in the geographical center of Russia, which is a unique resource base, where there is a lot of stone mining and processing enterprises are located head office of the Association "Center Stone" and the exhibition "URALEXPOSTONE." The purpose of the exhibition - the development of equipment and technologies for the extraction and processing of stone, to promote the use of natural stone in construction and architecture. The exhibition is held a lot of activities: conferences, seminars, round tables.

The Stone and its decor. Vial Edition

Editions Vial publishes 4 interesting works on the work of stone.

Volume 1: decoration books

Public: Anyone interested in the size of the stone and ornamental sculpture: future artisans, young professionals as well as those who are more confirmed, specialist antique dealers, architects, lovers of old stones.

The stone and its decor. Tome 1. Book of Marc Chevalier-Lacombe. Decorative works: moldings, benches and seats, engraving, sundials and fireplaces.

More than a strictly technical manual, this book describes the works that a stonecutter or an ornamental sculptor can ambition to achieve. It provides a documentary basis and methods specific to the size of the stone which, often at eye level, approaches ornamentation. The author is convinced that the manual aspect of the trade remains the basis of the training and hopes to prove by this book that it is possible to evolve in the trade while keeping the traditional values ​​of the beautiful work. At a time when modernity is everywhere, it is important to be able to refer to our roots and ancestral know-how: classic projects are numerous, merchants constantly ask for reissues of old works, restorations of old mansions Are still relevant. Contemporary creation itself demands knowledge of the rules of classical work to know how to circumvent them.

The author starts with a description of the extraction, the machines, the techniques of the craft such as cladding and sawing. The tooling and its use are described in detail.

He then tackles the first elements of the stone decoration, the central theme of this work, describing in succession the size of the facings and the bosses, the moldings and their evolution, the benches and the stone seats, emphasizing their historical and stylistic evolution. He speaks in particular of the exedra, the cushions and even the latrine seats. The engraving of letters is dealt with in detail (origin, vocabulary, examples of alphabets, tools and specific techniques), many examples ancient and contemporary illustrate the purpose. An important chapter devoted to sundials will smooth out the difficulties related to the drawing, orientation and realization of equatorial, horizontal, vertical, declining, polar or spherical dials which will no longer have secrecy for the reader.

Finally, a long chapter is devoted to the chimneys, to the evolution of their style from the Roman era until today, and to the techniques of pose. Numerous illustrations (old engravings, historical chimneys, modern achievements, plans and elevations) enrich the statement.

This book is already becoming a work of reference for the purists and all others, with as common denominator, besides the material, the integral passion of its author

Summary:

Part I: Working Stone

Quarrying and quarrying, sawing and shaping machines

Standards

The cladding

Sawing

Cutting tools

Plotting and control tools

Part II: The first elements of the decor

The different aspects of size: facing and bosses

Moldings

The benches and seats

Mortars

Engraving

The sundials

Part III: Fireplaces

The evolution of styles

Kitchen fireplaces

Installation techniques.

Glossary and bibliography

The Morocco. Marble an untapped raw material.

With only 10% of Moroccan reserves of marble exploited, the economy of the kingdom passes by a very promising sector. The professionals of the sector therefore seek to revitalize this activity.

While its reserves are estimated at hundreds of millions of tons, Morocco currently produces only 298,000 tons of crude blocks, or 0.37% of world production, L'Economiste announced in its 29 December edition. Professionals in the sector believe that the dimensional stone is under-exploited and very little transformed locally. Only 20% of marble workers operate in the transformation of blocks into slabs and tiles. The vast majority export raw marble, as a whole, from quarries to Italy, Turkey, Spain ... Once transformed, marble from Moroccan stones is often sold with the words "made in Spain ".

Among the obstacles to competitiveness, the absence of a legislative framework. According to the professionals, this situation is due to the archaism of the texts governing the exploitation of the quarries and to the administrative burdens underlying them. The Act provides for the establishment of a prefectural or provincial career committee chaired by the governor, in the presence of the representatives of the organizations concerned and the provincial delegates of the ministries responsible for Health, Trade and Industry, and Regional Planning. To this is added the problem of land tenure. Careers are governed by several schemes depending on the nature of the land they occupy.

It is also difficult to pinpoint the supply of the dimensional stone sector. Apart from certain companies whose vocation is exclusively oriented towards quarrying, the sale of blocks of marble in the state and export, all the others are often positioned on extraction, processing, installation Or marketing.