Ruchika Grover is on a mission to streamline sustainable stone design with a new line of precise, hand-finished cuts.

What first captivated Ruchika Grover as a teen remains her chief muse today: natural stone. The Los Angeles–based founder of Borrowed Earth grew up in India, surrounded by quarries filled with centuries-old rocks and minerals.

At 14, she began accompanying her father, a marble and granite trader, on work trips. “My first job was as a block marker, where I would travel with my father’s clients to quarries all over the world and help select materials for them,” she says. The formative experience gave her an inherent understanding of stone and a deep respect for the material. “Building with stone today connects us to history,” she says. “Going back to antiquity, bringing certain aesthetics and values into the modern context—there are few materials that have comparable human dimension and connection.”