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Fabrication / Quality Beyond the Price — Inside a Shana Beige Project
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Summary
A good-looking Shana Beige project depends on choices you may never see. In the Yunfu workshop, Mr Villa Stone walks through finished panels and ongoing carving for a villa tea room feature wall: two large columns with carved capitals and bases, a central relief still being carved, a classic Chinese 'haitang' corner profile agreed with the client, and a door surround with relief work above. Shana Beige varies a lot, so a whole bundle of red-veined material was cut around and left out to keep a milky-white background with soft, flowing veins. Pieces over two meters long mean one slab yields only one piece. These are invisible costs — the standard is set by us, not by what the client can see.
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Full transcript
Now look at the quality.
To achieve this result,
we cut around a lot of material.
Shana Beige varies a lot.
To cut pieces with as few flaws as possible,
you have to avoid a lot of material.
Let me show you these pieces.
First, where do they go?
On a tea room feature wall.
We filmed the villa site before.
There are two large columns,
one on each side.
The columns are over ten centimeters thick.
The capitals and bases have carved decoration.
The large central relief
is still being carved—not finished yet.
Come closer and look at the Shana Beige quality.
It has a milky-white background,
quite white overall, with a soft, lustrous look.
This block has lots of red veins.
We cut around those red veins,
picking the affected pieces out one by one.
A whole bundle of red-veined slabs
wasn't used for these finished pieces.
Look closely at the finished wall panel
and its background color.
The flowing veins look soft.
Natural stone has variation,
and this variation is really pleasing.
Look along both sides.
This wall panel has a classic Chinese
'haitang' corner profile.
We agreed on this curve with the customer.
The customer really cared about this detail.
Over here is the door surround.
There's relief carving above it.
Come around: it's meant to be viewed
from that side.
Look at this Chinese-style wall panel.
This decorative element has the feel
of a Chinese knot.
Shana Beige varies a lot.
Making one small area look good is easy.
Getting every large piece and every size
to look good is hard.
This piece is over two meters long.
One slab yields only one piece,
so the cutting yield is bound to be low.
Here are two more large wall panels.
The finished result looks beautiful too.
The background has a soft, pleasing look.
Why does this block mean so much to me?
I watched the whole cutting process.
The block varied a lot,
so we avoided as much unwanted material
as possible for this finished result.
Customers don't see this selection.
It's entirely down to our own standards.
When customers trust us with a project,
we set our own standard.
If material needs to be avoided, we avoid it.
These are invisible costs.
Doing the work well inevitably costs more.
But that's why I think customers can trust us.
Our standards are higher than theirs.
Some customers are new to stone
and don't know the field.
They need someone with higher standards
to help check the quality.
This may sound like I'm praising myself,
but it's genuinely how I feel.
It's the same on many projects,
including the Hanbaiyu I filmed yesterday.
Sometimes, doing it well means
accepting a greater cost.
That's it for this video.