1. Pyrolave's Volvic lava stone is unique 
  • Our lava stone comes from our quarry at Volvic in France.  This lava stone is unique because the lava flow erupted beneath the earth’s surface and was trapped and compressed between two granite seams.  Its formation has given us a very pure and dense material.
  • By contrast, most lava stone has many air pockets, fault lines, small stones and other impurities as a result of erupting above the earth’s surface. Applying glaze over this inferior raw material often results in an unacceptable level of visible faults and blemishes. 
  • The stability and density of Volvic lava stone give the unique advantage of allowing the extraction of very large blocks of stone (up to 3m x 1.3m) suitable for glazing.
  • Whilst the glazing process itself may reveal some variations in shade, crazing, and pigmentation as can be expected of any natural raw material, the high degree of purity of Volvic lava stone minimises the impact of these variations.

​2. State-of-the art manufacturing process 
  • Pyrolave’s large-scale investment in the finest CAD/CAM equipment means we can manipulate huge slabs of stone and shape them with a very high degree accuracy to virtually any design.
  • Our larger kilns mean that most orders can be fired in a single firing, thus enhancing the glazing consistency of the finished product.
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3. Exceptional quality control
  • Our end-to-end quality control processes ensure the optimum mix of robotic handling of heavy work, and expert manual hand-finishing of every piece single piece before being placed in the kiln.
  • After final firing and cooling, each piece is thoroughly checked by our Quality Control department and will not be passed unless it meets our high quality standards.

​4. Enduring experience & expertise
  • We are the world leaders in glazed lava stone. Our quarry has been operating for over 200 years, and we have been glazing lava for more than 30 years.
  • The inimitable strength and deep lustre of our glazes have been developed through extensive research, and our colour research laboratory has developed over 6000 archived colours.​
  • We engaged leading industry experts to develop our shipping and handling protocols, resulting in extremely low damage reports (less than 1%) from the thousands of crates we deliver world-wide each year.