Where Collaboration Becomes a Form of Love

A reflection on shared intent, living stone, and the collaboration between Curación and WOMAG

February tends to frame love as something brief – a gesture, a moment, a symbol that passes. In the world of design, love is quieter and more enduring. It lives in collaboration. In shared intent. In the willingness to listen.

In the first episode of the WOMAG × Curación series, Coral Kruger-Sachs from WOMAG and Dylan Thomaz from Curación sit down to reflect on what it really means to work together – and why meaningful work is never made alone. True collaboration asks us to step back, set ego aside, and trust another’s craft. When that happens, the outcome moves beyond product or specification. It becomes something layered, thoughtful, and alive.

This way of working mirrors the nature of stone itself.

Natural stone is not silent or still. It carries time within it – movement, grain, and variation shaped long before it enters a space. It already has a voice. The role of the designer or maker is not to dominate it, but to listen carefully and respond with intention.

Anyone who has wandered through a slab yard understands this instinctively. Hands reach out. Fingers trace surfaces. There is a quiet pull toward texture and temperature, toward something older and more grounded than ourselves. Stone invites connection.

Its finishes – honed, brushed, sandblasted — do more than alter appearance. They change how stone is experienced, how light settles across it, how it softens and deepens with time. These subtle shifts are where stone becomes human.

Designers hold this space with care. They notice what others might overlook: the way light moves across a surface, how imperfections create rhythm, how wear becomes memory. A mark left behind is not a flaw, but evidence of life lived.

The same is true of meaningful partnerships. When designers, suppliers, and clients work together with clarity and respect, something unexpected emerges. The work inspires. It invites others in. It reminds us that design, at its best, is a shared act of creation.

This episode is an invitation to slow down — to listen more closely, to collaborate more deeply, and to see both material and partnership as something living and alive.

🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUb–eDQri4

🎧 Listen to the full conversation on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4jefVg9CpQSZMXpfJJO0Hb