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Protective coatings may not deter graffiti artists, but they’ll make cleanup a lot easier.
Most cellars consist of pretty straightforward temperature control and wine-racking systems but Nathan Giffin, owner of Creative Rock Forming and the creative powerhouse behind a recent wine cellar project in Naperville, Ill., has rather a different idea of what a private wine cellar can be.
The Streets at SouthGlenn, a sprawling new shopping destination in south Denver, boasts a block-long urban park with a brick fireplace, tall "legacy trees," gardens and cafes, and a centerpiece: a grand, European-style fountain, more than 16 feet tall with four falls.
I’ve always been curious why certain decorative systems and finishes take hold only in certain regions of the country, while others are universal in their appeal and demand. The answer lies somewhere between perception, demand and what the market is offering.
If you apply vertical concrete, carve concrete walls or create cast pieces, sooner or later you may have to face a painful truth: Traditional metal lath can be troublesome.
Beginning painters get so excited by the smorgasbord of shapes, colors and textures they have been learning that they often try to put every trick they know into each of their paintings. This leads to a hodge-podge with no focus.
David Seils’ master craft, wall relief sculpture, is an art form that dates back to ancient times, when civilizations carved designs into stone walls, buildings and columns. But instead of chiseling away material, the Asheville, N.C.-based Seils builds up his wall sculptures in layers using mortar, a mason’s hawk and a trowel.
Concrete artist Emily McClintick has launched a new website showcasing her work. These images are just a taste of what you'll find on the Concrete Portfolio page of the website.
Whether you're working on a decorative wall in a backyard or the exterior walls of a 15-story building, consider stencils for vertical surfaces.
A job that began with a mere 80 square feet of overlay snowballed into a decorative concrete transformation — complete with faux hollow tree — for this restaurant and bar.
Nathan Giffin's Vertical Artisans hosted its second weeklong teraining at its West Coast Training Center, an underground "hobbit house" in Lorane, Ore.
Glass-fiber reinforced concrete and other materials can be molded to make rock structures so natural-looking, even Mother Nature will be fooled.
Nick Carosi III of Arban & Carosi Inc. brings up an intriguing point when talking about exposed aggregate on vertical surfaces — what if you’re pouring an L-shaped wall piece? Since gravity’s effect on the settling aggregate is essential to the process, how does a contractor make that work?
If you’re one of the growing number of contractors making the move from horizontal to vertical, this may be one of your first questions.
Decorative shotcrete is catching on, and as with any decorative concrete technique, there’s a learning curve. Here, we cover mix design, prep work and more.
Artisans Thom Hunt and Mark Whitten led the effort to construct, sculpt and color the ginormous dinosaur. The life-size replica spans 30 feet from nose to tail and is 13 1/2 feet tall.
While hand-mudding vertical concrete projects is the preferred method for getting a working surface ready to be shaped and carved, for bigger jobs it’s not necessarily efficient.
Enter a spray system.
When taking on pervious paving contracts, the San Diego-based contractor’s mix design is typically accepted by clients following mock-up, as custom blends can significantly increase a project’s difficulty. Yet, there are always exceptions, with the most recent being the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).
Cabela’s, a national retailer of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, designs its stores with elaborate dioramas of outdoor scenes teeming with life. Besides taxidermists, artists and landscapers, the chain has come to rely on the talents of decorative concrete professionals to help bring these displays to life.
Imagine this: You own an estate in the California hills overlooking Monterey Bay. You are a lover of art and natural beauty. You want a swimming pool complex with a large concrete deck and pool house. You want it to accentuate the surrounding landscape and incorporate the feel of the bay, but you’re not sure how you want to achieve that. Who do you call?
Pete Johnson, who founded the U.K. division of the stone-effect coating system manufacturer StoneCoat, traveled to Sin City from his home in Manchester, England, last November for a project inspired by the natural stone colors found in Nevada.
Sisters Cindee Lundin and Chenoa Pickrain were raised on a dairy farm near Perham, Minnesota. Lundin is an expert in faux finishing and horizontal and vertical carved concrete. Pickrain is a graphic designer and photographer.
In August 2010, the Assiniboine Park Conservancy in Winnipeg contacted Randall Klassen to get a quote for the demolition and removal of the Assiniboine Park Zoo’s Tropical House. The house had fallen into disrepair and the conservancy wanted to replace it with a rocky tropical oasis for animals, birds and plants.
As demand for vertical concrete work in the residential sector expands, more decorative concrete contractors and artisans are taking on vertical projects with the goal of achieving creative looks.
With more than 30 years of experience as a professional artist — and a darn good one at that — Thom Hunt has worked his magic at more happy places on Earth than even Walt Disney could have imagined.
