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The Beacon of The STone InduSTry www.slipperyrockgazette.net
The Ellis Page Company: A Novel Model for a Commercial Fabrication Shop and Workforce
by Sharon Koehler
Photos by Sharon Koehler
and Courtesy Ellis Page Company
every machine to quickly and safely move material on and off the machines – safety is foremost in the shop.
One of Roy’s fabrication philosophies is: “Let the machines do the work.” His goal is that when his employees go home at night, their backs feel the same as when they came in.
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January 2023 Vol. 29-01
Just over three decades ago, Ellis Company, LLC opened its doors in Annapolis, Maryland, as a solid surface fabrication company. They spe- cialized in trim, walls, and toilet partitions. Since 1992, the company has moved around the Washington D.C. area several times, until they found and purchased the build- ing they are in now, in Manassas, Virginia. According to owner Roy Page, the city was a big help by bringing in 3-phase electrical so the location would work for them.
Mr. Page also commented that over the years, besides their occasional changing of workspaces, and the 2009 name change to Ellis Page Company, LLC., the business has evolved into something quite different than what it used to be. They do very lit- tle solid surface these days and they have transitioned over to 99.9% commercial work. They generally work on projects of a quarter million dollars or more. The only residential projects they work on are the occasional requests from the individuals at the companies they partner with. They are a
FINE STONETM
ALMA Art announces the launch of FINE STONETM. Based in the Greater New York City area, ALMA is pioneering the art of elevating rare slabs of natural stone into fine art using light mapping projection, connecting humanity with its collective stories hidden in nature.
Launched by Jay Zelingold in 2021, ALMA is built upon the process and tech- nique of artist Arin Jéda and has been developed and fine-tuned over a period of seven years.
Creating an ALMA artwork takes a team of about eight people on a laborious, yet gratifying, endeavor that spans four to six
CNC operator Elizabeth and Roy Page discuss the
morning’s production run.
Right: Fabricator Yensi removes a completed sink cutout from their prototype Prussiani CNC.
member of the Natural Stone Institute and ISFA. They also belong to the Facebook groups All Slab Fabbers and Women in Stone.
As the company has changed, so has their equipment. They still have their solid surface equipment for the occasional job. However, the com- pany invests heavily in the technolog- ical advances of our industry. Their fabrication shop houses a Marmo Meccanica edge polisher, three CNC machines, and two CNCs are dual table machines. They also run two saws: a Champion 5, and a waterjet saw. The CNCs and the saws are all made by Prussiani of Italy.
Four years ago, they contracted with Prussiani to build a prototype CNC. It was the first machine of its kind to be built, designed specifically for them. Two years later, they purchased an identical CNC machine to go with the one they already had. And they are now interested in a newer, more advanced saw. There is a crane over
Photos Courtesy ALMA Art
months. The artists undergo an intense discovery phase in which they scruti- nize countless slabs of natural stone such as quartzite, marble, onyx, and granite in hopes of finding artistic scenes within the intricate veining. The discovered scene is then digitally extracted using various tech- niques to create a projection directly onto the stone, elevating it into a brilliant work of art.
“We go through thousands of stones until we find one with an art-scene poten- tial and, even then, we need to go through tens, oftentimes hundreds of them, to find one with an actual, compelling image,” says Jéda.
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A slab of Onyx chosen for Benediction, shown here before the ALMA artist’s talents were applied, a creative process that can take from four to six months.
ALMA Art uncovers the hidden stories within natural stone