The Paladiano Story

For the past several years my wife Lee Ann and I have been fortunate to travel to different destinations around the world teaching decorative concrete.  On these trips we were able to meet interesting people in addition to experiencing how different cultures lived, worked and played.  Once our work was complete, and if our schedule permitted, we tried to spend additional time touring historical regions to truly understand and absorb the beautiful surrounding architecture.  It was during our field trips that we fell in love with colorful natural minerals and textured stones.

One evening Lee Ann and I were enjoying a bottle of Italian wine and some unbelievable pasta with good friends and now business partners John and Gail Anderson, Luca Seminati and Mauricio Pontello of Ideal Works, we discussed the current stamped concrete market and how there had been no new creations for several decades relative to innovative tools. During our relaxed evening it dawned on us – why not come up with our own inspirational line of stamping tools capturing the local feel of some of the most historical regions in the world! We all agreed that evening that our main motivation was not financially driven but, rather that the market was ripe for something fresh and innovative and that this endeavour needed to happen. Years before this meeting John and I had been fortunate to work on many projects and demos in the past and one evening while drinking a pint of English beer (ok, a couple) we both agreed that we were fed up with the current stamped concrete market and that we needed to something about it.  Of course, back then it was all talk with no formal action plan until this special evening!

Moving forward with an actual business plan along with a new sense of motivation, we visited countless quarries obtaining native stones from more than nine countries, we were able to take castings from the real deal and started to fabricate our own line of tools, which would ultimately be named “Paladiano”.  We also found out how expensive it is to ship these beautiful HEAVY stones from country to country!

It’s humorous how things have a way of working out.  We were all having an intense business meeting with the topic of discussion being a new name for the company. After spending entirely too long on this subject and needing a break from a meeting that seemed to be going nowhere, I opened up my favorite book titled “Floors of Venice”. While scanning the glossary we came across the term Paladiana. We all agreed that we liked how the name rolled of our tongue not realizing the impact this name had relative to architecture.  The name was actually inspired by the classic Palladian style of 15th century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, refers to flooring with an irregular surface of cut stones of various sizes, arranged to leave as little space as possible between one piece and the next.  We had reason for celebration; we now had a name for the new company!

It was after our first initial meeting and several more trips abroad that our team realized we shared many of Palladio’s various visions and goals.  He was very sensitive to a building’s surrounding environment, taking into account the natural setting so occupants could take adventure of views from all directions.  The Paladiano team used similar logic when creating the ‘Wonders of the World’ line of stamping tools, which are cast from natural stones from historical regions around the world to produce authentic textures and shapes pleasing to the eye from all angles.

Athens, Greece, Paris, France, Barcelona, Spain; the Italian cities of Venice and Verona, and Yorkshire, England are just a few of the locations that inspired the “Wonders of the World” stamping tool line.  The Paladiano team visited 28 cities to obtain copies of more than 450 textures from 33 different types of natural stone, including granite, limestone and marble.  We took the samples from local quarries, exterior plazas, walkways and interior floors.  We also studied how the stones were laid, which allowed us to replicate the architectural characteristics of each location.  Overall, our exhaustive research and development work involved more than 45 people, more than 800 hours of experimentation, 650 hours of flight time, and the use of over 2,500 pounds of urethane and 40 cubic yards of concrete, the addition of many grey hairs and for some of us, the loss of hair.  The result is a line of innovative stamping tools is truly extraordinary.

Although authenticity was the main goal in producing this line, we also considered the practical and creative needs of the artisans and craftsmen who would be using the tools.  On many of our patterns, we were able to produce a very random appearance by increasing the number of tools per set.  On some patterns, there are no repeating stones and textures.  We experimented with handle placement, so when the craftsman lifts the tool from the fresh concrete the edges of the stamp don’t bow and cause marring of the surface.  We also reduced the need for hand tooling and simplified the creation of monolithic borders by designing sets of tools that include top, bottom, and left and right halves.

Another unique feature of our tools is their special urethane construction, which expands the time frame for imprinting.  They permit earlier stamping of the concrete while resulting in less fracturing of the joints if the concrete sets to quickly and stamping begins on a firmer surface.  Paladiano combines the talent of several veteran concrete artisans with extensive international experience in stamped concrete finishes, including Bob and Lee Ann Harris of Decorative Concrete Institute, Temple, GA., and John Anderson, Luca Seminati and Maurizio Pontello of Ideal Work, and Italian company with a network of trained decorative concrete finishers that extends throughout Europe, the Middle east and the Caribbean

Our most recent whirlwind of a trip was back to Europe to shoot video of some of the inspirational locations we visited, which will later be used for an instructional DVD for the Paladiano package.  Our trip started with filming in Yorkshire, England.  After several days in this area, we flew to Paris to capture footage in front of the Eiffel Tower and surrounding area.  Once complete, we were back on a plane heading south to Castle Franco, Italy, for more filming in Venice with our friends from Ideal Work.  This was a great yet exhausting trip.

The Paladiano Series will be available at your local Brickform / Solomon Distributor.