Green Veins: Verde Reimagines Taiwanese Serpentine

Serpentine comes in a variety of greens, from dark to aquamarine, interlaced with white or black lines. During the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan (1895–1945), the Japanese discovered deposits of it in Hualien County. It is named “serpentine” because its patterns are reminiscent of snakeskin.

Green memories

Along with Italy and India, Taiwan is one of the three main places in the world where the type of serpentine known as verd antique or serpentine marble is produced. In earlier times, when there was only a limited choice of imported stone materials available in Taiwan, this serpentine was widely used for everything from seats and tables in parks and tiles for sidewalks to the floors in the lobbies of luxury apartment and office buildings, as well as being inlaid in wood furniture.

However, as environmental laws have become increasingly strict over the last 20 years, many mining companies have exited the market and serpentine has gradually faded from daily life.

Hualien’s San Tai Stone Company and its processing subsidiary Gau Yang Yi are the only remaining producers of serpentine marble in Taiwan. Walking into the Gau Yang Yi factory in Hualien’s Ji’an Township, we see huge blocks of stone that have been transported by heavy trucks from the quarry deep in a river valley in Zhuoxi Township, at the southern tip of the county.

There are mountainous piles of rubble here in this place where Claire Chang played as a child. As a member of the younger generation of a mining clan, in 2019 she came out with the Taiwan serpentine home accessories brand Verde, which means “green” in Italian.

It was only after returning to Taiwan from study in the UK that Claire Chang realized that serpentine, which she had taken for granted as a child, was the basis of a whole cultural tradition.

Serpentine, once a common building material in Taiwan, was used as a decorative facing for structural pillars at Taoyuan International Airport.

These giant chunks of stone, stacked like wooden building blocks outside San Tai’s factory in Ji’an Township, Hualien County, come from a quarry in the mountains of Zhuoxi Township at the southern end of the county.

Updating an old-fashioned material

As a child of Eastern Taiwan, Chang barely noticed serpentine because it was such a natural part of her surroundings. It was only when she returned to Taiwan to work after studying in the UK for her master’s degree in cultural and creative industries that she revisited this material. Unbeknown to most, it is the foundation of a whole cultural tradition.

San Tai, founded by her uncle, had a strong position in the building materials market from its early days. However, this market has its limits. Motivated by the desire to expand the use of serpentine, Chang decided to develop products for the home and daily living.

A representative early product to carry the Verde label was a dinosaur figurine. Presented in the form of this ancient creature, serpentine exuded a refreshing sense of childlike fun. Beside their decorative value, the naturally porous ornaments could also serve as aroma stones.

Later Chang worked with a designer to develop fortune bonsais (a.k.a. money trees). Departing from the usual jade, Verde used serpentine and added a tray feature to create a piece that is fashionable and auspicious. Promoted on the Zeczec crowdfunding platform, it got a great response.

Verde also offers basic plates, cups, and saucers. These products have proved popular with hotel operators aiming to highlight special features of Taiwan, who place them in their guest rooms. 

The brand also produces a stone grill plate called Green Grill, which Chang says has the most intricate design of any Verde product. The grill plate, formed from a single piece of material, has a series of ridges and a curved surface to drain away grease. Though the process of crafting this product is extremely difficult, Chang says that serpentine is an excellent fit for cooking because it is a natural material that is also heat-resistant. In past years, serpentine stone grill plates from Taiwan were a big seller in the US.

In contrast to large-scale building materials, when manufacturing these small, delicate household accessories the stone not only has to undergo cutting and shaping by machine, but also further grinding and polishing by hand, making them even harder to produce.

However, it is only in this way that this material from the verdant, mountainous island of Taiwan, with its own unique cultural DNA, can be transformed into graceful contemporary products integrated into our daily lives. 

Considered a somewhat old-fashioned material, serpentine has been redesigned by Verde to become unexpectedly modern. They have used it to make “fortune bonsais” with attached trays, aroma stones, animal figurines, chopstick stands, paperweights, cups, whiskey rocks (small stone blocks used to cool drinks), and other knickknacks.