How a Young Filmmaker Became Trove Stone’s Top Rock Hunter
Kyle Keith blog

By Kyle Keith – Import Manager, Trove Stone

When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I travel the world searching for rare, beautiful stone. That usually gets a raised eyebrow and the inevitable follow-up question, “You’re a diamond hunter?”

“No,” I tell them. “Think bigger. The richly veined marble and intricate granite you see in luxury homes, fancy hotels, upscale restaurants . . . that kinda thing.”

That intrigues them, and the next question is almost always, “How the heck did you get into that?” It’s a story I love to tell.

As a film student back in the mid-1990s, I had every intention of being an indie filmmaker or documentarian. A part-time job changed that. To pay the bills, I started working at my brother-in-law’s stone company warehouse as a cleaner on evenings and weekends. Picture thousands of unlabeled stone samples jumbled together in crates scattered throughout a giant, dusty room like something out of the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. My job was to organize everything. For most folks, that might sound overwhelming. For me, it was a revelation.

I treated it like a game of memory, studying each piece, searching for matches, working my way through stone by stone by stone. As an inherently visual person (did I mention film school?), I was in my element. Deeper than that, however, this rekindled my childhood love of rocks. As a kid, I was fascinated by geology and loved hunting around for cool stones. Now I was doing that and getting paid for the privilege.

From there, the move to working full-time for my brother-in-law made sense. I was asked to take over marketing, then started working in sales and purchasing. By the time I left in 2002 to join what would eventually become Trove Stone, I was hooked for life, a certified rockhound on a cinematic scale.

For me, this is more than a job. It’s a calling. Trove Stone sources from around the world, allowing me to explore breathtaking underground caverns in Vermont, search for rare deposits of French limestone, and stand before stunning marble in Italian mountaintop quarries. Along the way, I’ve dodged tarantulas, been chased by hornets, and had plenty of other adventurous moments—all in pursuit of beautiful stone. Fortunately, some of the best moments don’t involve venomous insects or spiders.

One of my favorite stories is from about 15 years ago when I was in Brazil. I met a man at a dinner party who was also in the stone business, and he told me he had a friend with a special material I had to see. It felt intriguing, possibly even illicit, and at first I declined. My schedule was full; I was legitimately too busy connecting with other potential stone sources. Undeterred, this mysterious contact called while I was on the road between meetings the next day, saying, “Listen, we’re minutes away from you. Take five minutes and meet us on the side of the road.” His determination won me over. I agreed, and I soon found myself on a dusty road deep in the Brazilian countryside.

“I felt like I was scouting locations for a Hitchcock thriller, but I wasn’t picking up secret files or stolen microfilm.”

I felt like I was scouting locations for a Hitchcock thriller, but I wasn’t picking up secret files or stolen microfilm. Instead, this gentleman presented me with large sample pieces of an astonishingly beautiful, pure quartz—an extraordinary material that was still without a name. He had serendipitously found it while searching for an emerald-green quartzite. Its translucency was unmatched, as if I was staring directly into a glacier. I dubbed it Iceberg on site. He proceeded to explain that he had a massive deposit over a mile wide producing large, clean blocks. I knew immediately that he had something the market would devour. The deal was done, and it didn’t take long for Iceberg to become one of the most sought-after materials in our portfolio.

That feeling of discovery and excitement was overwhelming and chasing that same Iceberg moment is what keeps me going today. Even after 30 years, I can stand in front of a piece of stone and feel a profound connection in the same way an art lover might respond to a great painting or sculpture. What the earth created over millions of years becomes a stunning piece that moves you to your core. That feeling is amplified knowing skilled architects, designers, and artisans will transform that marble, quartzite, soapstone, or granite into something even more remarkable. Like a good film, it will tell a complete, moving story.

For me, that feeling is also the foundation of Trove Stone. For years, Trove Stone Vice President Dan Johnson and I dreamt about creating a gallery that would showcase a curated collection of the world’s most extraordinary natural stone, presented the way great art deserves to be presented, for clients who truly appreciate it. We wanted a space where putting that beauty on display is the whole point. That space is Trove Stone.

As remarkable as my job is, I’m not brushing dust out of my beard every day. I spend plenty of time studying design trends, connecting with our sales teams, and seeing what’s selling around the world. As with art and fashion of all kinds, what’s popular in Europe will soon make its way to New York and then throughout the United States. I’m constantly building a deep selection of materials ready for release when the moment is right.

Still, for me, nothing beats being on the hunt. Somewhere out there, in a quarry half a mile underground, at a factory in Verona, or on another dusty roadside, the next breathtaking stone is waiting to be found. I’ll know it the moment I see it.