Why is your Stone Swatch sustainable?

We want any readers to clearly understand that although it is intuitively obvious to our customers that our products are more economically-friendly than real stone samples, we are still in the process of documenting our products in accordance with the FTC Green Guides, which provide guidance on making environmental claims.   Our interim justification of the sustainable stone sample position is based on a number of factors:

1.  For every Stone Swatch Image used, there is a lesser need for an actual stone sample to be mined or quarried from the earth (fundamental claim:  lower consumption of natural resources).

2.  For every Stone Swatch Image used, there is a significantly lower transportation cost to move a 1-18 pound (vs. a 0.16 oz. Stone Swatch Image sample) stone sample from:

   a.  Quarry to manufacturer

   b.  Manufacturer to shipping port (or shipping point if domestic sale)

   c.  From shipping port to local shipping point

   d.  From local shipping point to distribution center

   e.  From distribution center to local warehouse

   f.    From local warehouse to customer

These cost savings are documented in our Stone Swatch Savings worksheet on our website.

Our current product is comprised of a recyclable plastic (recycle code "01") that contains only up to 15% recycled content at this time.  This is an unacceptably low amount of recycled content and we are working with potential suppliers to qualify a much higher recycled content plastic film.

The plastic film we have chosen is recognized as one of the most environmentally-friendly films in the industry to use.

We produce and assemble our Stone Swatches within a 250 mile radius.  We encourage assembly of our product to be done at centrally-located sites or at workers' homes or shared work areas.

Finally, none of the products used to produce our product are imported and are sourced locally within a 500 mile radius from our manufacturing facilities.

How accurate are your colors?

It's what we're known for.  We have developed a method to capture a stone's color and depth and reproduce it under exacting conditions so that it closely matches in color, image depth and surface gloss.

Granite colors vary. How can you tell me that your colors are what I’ll get when I finally choose my slab?

You probably won’t get the color on our sample product when you pick out your slab…just like you won’t get the color from an actual granite sample piece that has been cut from yet another different slab!  Granite is a natural material…no two pieces are exactly alike. Our samples represent what industry experts agree are “typical” shades/colors of popular granite colors today.  The Stone Swatch does an excellent job of representing an available color palette of stone.

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Are your images reproduced at a 1:1 ratio, or are they reduced in size?

Every image in our Stone Swatch is reproduced at the exact 1:1 scale.  We don't shrink or expand an image to fit a certain size.

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I don't see the stone type or color that I want.  Can you add mine?

Our plan is to add roughly 25-50 colors per month of various stones; if you don't see what you want, email us to see if we have it.  If we don't have the stone you're looking for and you can provide us with an acceptable/representative stone (sorry...we can be kind of picky on this) to reproduce, we'll give you an additional two full line Stone Swatches in return on any order over ten stone swatches from us.  Call us if you have anything you think we need!

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Can I just provide you with my photograph and have you print it for me?

We could, but you wouldn't like it.  We have three main areas of technology:  1) How we photograph a stone, 2) How we print the stone, and 3) Our patent-pending technology to embed the reflective elements in the stone.  All three must occur in order to optimize our image quality.

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Can you print my company information on each sample piece?

Yes.  This option is available and currently used by a number of companies.  The minimum order size is typically around 500 stone swatches that have at least 50 images each in order to be cost-effective.