Farewell, Jenny Lind. The craft continues.
After more than 50 years of good service, the oldest machine at stoneCIRCLE has finally stopped working.
Our Jenny Lind polishing machine has featured in several factory stories over the years. Now it is time to tell her final chapter with us and introduce her successor.
A manually operated radial-arm machine, Jenny Lind helped our masons hone and polish stone surfaces, including smaller pieces cut to size. Her articulated arm carried the polishing head across the stone, guided by the operator. Knowing the material, judging the surface and handling the machine were all part of the work.
When we introduced her in Something old, something new, she was already working alongside much newer equipment. Her place in the factory was practical: she kept doing useful work.
Eventually, after more than half a century, that working life came to an end.
Jenny Lind at work: our skilled mason guides the polishing head across green, veined stone in the stoneCIRCLE workshop.
The team prepares Jenny Lind for removal after more than 50 years of service.
The old Jenny Lind polishing machine hangs from lifting straps beside a yellow telehandler in the stone yard.
Her replacement is a similar machine equipped with the latest technology, chosen to carry forward the same essential stone-finishing role. These photographs document the changeover: the new arrival in its protective wrapping, the work to release the old machine, and Jenny Lind being carefully lifted out of the factory.
It is a small but significant moment in the life of a workshop. Equipment becomes familiar through years of daily use, and replacing it means saying goodbye to a piece of the company’s history.
A yellow telehandler lifts the replacement polishing machine, wrapped in blue film, beside rows of upright stone slabs.
The new polisher is guided into the factory to take over Jenny Lind’s stone-finishing role.
As we explored in Our Toolbox: What We Use and Why, every tool has a role in the finished work. Investing in its successor keeps that work moving forward.
Thank you, Jenny Lind. The next chapter belongs to a new machine, and the skilled hands that will guide it.
The new polisher, just installed.
narrative & photography by Marco Joe Fazio Studio
