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Working with
chemical stains, dyes, tints, and a limited amount of
water-based stain, Dana Boyer produced this mural. She
used a "wasp" to etch her drawings onto the slab through
transfer paper.
Braaksma cut shapes of sea life from marble and aluminum
and placed them In the plastic concrete. Graf used his
skills with large floor polishing equipment and diamond
polished a 3000-grit finish on the concrete surface.
The result is high-gloss and maintenance-free. |
Readymix, Las Vegas, adapted a Clark
County-approved concrete mix design that had a 0.38 water-cement
ratio and used polycarboxylate superplasticizers to get a
placement slump of 6 inches. Clokey conservatively estimated
that, over the 4 days between casting the slabs and the start
of the demos, the concrete achieved a compressive strength
of 4000 psi.
Artists and artistry
As you can see by the photos, each
concrete artist's work was unique. And even though you may
not have seen anything like these works in public places,
all of the presenters have installed decorative work using
these techniques.
 |
| Yoder's trowel-applied concrete
mix, built up as much as 3 Inches, Is a combination of
hand-carved rock patterns and stamped rock Impressions.
Note the vases, which were cast and then turned on a lathe
with woodworking tools |
The materials used for the demos included:
• Chemical stains
• Water-based
stains, dyes, and tints
• Color hardeners
• Overlay cement
• Polymer cement
capable of 4-inch troweled buildup on vertical surfaces
• Water-cut
marble and aluminum shapes that were embedded into the plastic
concrete
• Polymer cement
with metallic powders
• Integral color
• Adhesive template
stencil material-PVC plastic sheeting with an adhesive backing
• Transfer paper-paper
with an adhesive backing used for layout work Colored aggregates
Tools used by the artists included:
• Angle grinders
with an assortment of diamond blades and crack chasers
• Sand-blasting
equipment
• Rock-texturing
stamps
• KaleidoCrete
cutters (with reciprocating teeth that nibble into concrete)
• "Wasp"
(a reciprocating pencil stylus for marking patterns on concrete)
• Planetary
head diamond floor polisher
• Handheld planetary
head diamond polisher
• SuperCompact
saw for cutting circular brick patterns
• High-volume,
low-pressure (HVLP) spray guns
Sandblast stenciling
Andre Plouffe, owner of Designs
in Concrete, Thousand Oaks, Calif., and Glen Roman started
their work on a buff-colored slab cast with dry shake color
hardeners broadcast at twice the normal rate (1.2 pounds per
square foot). They cut borders and pattern lines into the
surface to separate different applications of colored chemical
stains. After washing and sealing the slab, they applied a
sandblast-resistant template with an intricate vine pattern.
Sandblasting through the open parts of the stencil removed
the chemical stains to reveal the color hardener.
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