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Summary

Can natural stone really bend? Mr Villa Stone walks the Yunfu Stone Fair in Guangdong, China. This year's fair has stone carvings by art students and master craftsmen, stone shoes and stone mosaic paintings, a large sculpture faced with marble from many countries, backlit natural travertine lamps and vases, ultra-thin natural stone about 2 mm thick on fiberglass mesh or honeycomb backing that can curve, a lavender stone used for a dining table, floors, feature walls and stairs, and a honed (matte) finish that keeps the natural pores. Along the way he also talks through the pros and cons of ultra-thin stone.

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Full transcript
Come see the Yunfu Stone Fair. Let's go inside and see what's on this year. A stone fair that never ends. This lobby is pretty grand. Goes well with the columns. Left and right, I see craft exhibits. Over here, carvings by Guangzhou art school students. All works by master craftsmen. This one's pretty abstract. Here's stone shoes. Looks so lifelike. Pure natural stone. See the sole color. The laces have color. All natural colors. Interesting. Here, stone slab paintings. This dog is carved so finely. It's like a pencil sketch. So detailed. And look, they've got food too. Called pork offal noodles. Got us food ready too? Halls on both sides. Let's check this side first. This painting is really fine. Every single line is pieced together from stone. Over here, fine decorative pieces. Finely carved. Look, the mountains, the trees, one or two millimeters each. And over here, this spider web is done very finely too. Good fortune; Step by Step. Rising fast. More striking. Look at this rich color. Over here, there's a big round platform. On top is a sculpture called Clouds Blown Apart. Like two people. See the angle — like he's waving at the viewer. One big, one small. Big means elder, small means younger — elder leading the younger. Each diamond face is marble from a different country. The whole thing is shaped-cut and 3D formed. A light-transmitting themed sculpture. Let's see this hall. This hall has lots of fine small pieces. All made of pure natural marble. Like this tray, small pieces, like these plates, look. Natural stone veining really does look good. Lots of small vases here, and raw stone too. Let me ask here. They help domestic stone companies go overseas. Going overseas is right. Domestic market's just too competitive. At these prices abroad, they'd get crushed. Wow, they've used lighting here. Light glowing through the stone has a special feel. Lots of small pieces here. Lights, vases — the pores in natural stone, light shines through. This travertine— Must be man-made travertine. This one's rechargeable. This is man-made travertine, right? Oh my. Sorry, my mistake. I thought it was fake. It's natural — pure natural, come see. Pure natural travertine, and a whole line of travertine products. Right. Let's go see more. This company specializes in curved panels. And ultra-thin stone. This thin — Believe it's natural stone? Natural stone cut this thin. The back is laminated with fiberglass mesh. So it won't break, and bends. Honeycomb backing here. So the whole face bends. This material is called Jinghong Chunxiao. A very popular stone. The thickness looks about two millimeters to me. Thin means it bends. But the downside is the texture gets weaker. Thin, it gets translucent. That's ultra-thin stone's pros and cons. Here's a purple stone, quite interesting. This is called Lavender — matches what I'm wearing too. Let's see what products they make with it. Here's a dining table. This feels quite fresh. Pinkish, very pretty. And the base has a sculpture. This is a Tang-style outfit. Let me stand up and feel it. In ancient times, with this face, I'd have no chance. Let's look at more. Oh, more across there. Across here, this stone is used for the floor. Let's take a look at this floor. The Nine Purple Fire period. A feature wall too, and staircase steps. This actually works, this feel. The feature wall has a matte finish. See, natural stone has these pores, these holes. For a polished finish, these pores get filled, then ground. With this matte finish, the pores aren't filled. It's a very natural, very raw texture. Let's go see more. Ceiling's done too. This must be the ultra-thin process. Because otherwise stone is heavy. That ultra-thin stone process we just saw. Ceilings work too. That's it for the fair today. More next time. That's it. See you next time.

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