I only played a small role in this project, but I’m proud to have been a part of it. I’ve worked with Fu-Tung Cheng, founder of CHENG Design and CHENG Products (ShapeCrete) for the past 4 years or so. I’ve learned a tremendous amount about concrete forming, casting, and finishing from a design and fabrication […]
Previous Post: Gold Concrete Bar Rubber Mold did some color tests to try and find a good color to make concrete look like gold. this is yellow base pigment in rapid set concrete mix. in the first test I used a 9% pigment load, which was too yellow. 1. 2 lbs. 1% load = 3.17 […]
After a day or two the form can be stripped and finishing begins. This piece was stuck pretty securely to the base board, so the whole thing was flipped over in one piece and laid on some scraps of foam. After the silicone seal was broken, the base board was easy to lift off, but […]
“Husk at elske mens du tør det Husk at leve mens du gør det” “Remember to love while you dare to Remember to live while you do” – Piet Hein (1905 – 1996) After finishing the outdoor tabletop and using it for a few weeks, I started thinking about what kind of top to make […]
The final step in securing the concrete tabletop to the contract base is to glue the shock mounts in place. Here I’m using smooth-on metalset A4 epoxy, and tinting it black with dry pigment. First the base is centered on the tabletop by measuring from each leg to the outside edge. The base isn’t perfect, […]
I waited an extra day to demold the tabletop because it’s so thin and I wanted to minimize the chance of it breaking. It was covered in plastic to keep the moisture inside and demolding was pretty simple actually. First the form walls and base board are unscrewed, and then the walls and liners can […]
This tabletop is made for an Eames contract table base and will be outdoors on the patio. The tabletop that came with this base is 36″ in diameter and is made out of MDF or something with a laminate surface that is an ugly marbled white / yellow (and weighs 24 lbs.). This top isn’t […]
At work we have a lot of different concrete color samples. Some of them are to show customers what colors are available, but the majority of them were buried in cardboard boxes. Most of the samples have a code which corresponds to a spreadsheet so you’re able to figure out what mix it is, what […]
The plaster mold had some imperfections, so I painted it with filler primer and wet sanded until it was very smooth. I packed the concrete into the form, same as before, but I made sure it was thicker all around. I decided not to put the rubber drain plug on the form this time, mainly […]
I put casters on the base and took this chair to work where I would use it more often. The cracks slowly grew bigger, and one day I leaned back and it sounded like crunching into a giant potato chip, and the chair broke in half. At the seat it was only about 1/4″ thick, […]
After waiting 2 weeks for reproduction shock mounts to arrive, it became clear that the company didn’t have any in stock, and there would be more waiting, so I made my own. The best resource is the eames patent from 1953, “FURNITURE SHOCK MOUNT CONSTRUCTION” (2,649,136). The patent goes into detail about shock mounts for […]
The first thing to address is how the hell to release a solid piece of concrete from a solid piece of plaster. A rubber grommet is glued to the form, and it will do two things. It will create a drain hole for a brass fitting to drop into, and it will give me a […]
Here is a concrete clock made from tupperware, a funnel, and a piece of foam. The form is pretty easy to make and uses a standard clock mechanism that you’ll find in most any craft store in the usa. This project was completed at work and the point was to find cheap forming materials that […]
These concrete jars are simple and cheap to cast, using plastic tupperware forms from the dollar store and a pigmented concrete mix. The wood lids here were cut on a CNC machine, but they’re just as easy to turn on the wood lathe, and really – round shapes are better suited for the lathe, it […]
The point of this project was to capture a brass ring in the center of a concrete candle holder. The form is pretty easy to construct, you need two funnels, a base board, a knockout for the tea light or candle, and a few pieces of wood to support the form during casting. First the […]
This table takes advantage of a unique property of glass fiber-reinforced concrete (GFRC). The material can be bent roughly 20 minutes after casting, when it has entered a false-set. I made this mould, and the one for the blue table, to demonstrate this technique for the 3-day advanced fiber-reinforced concrete training at work. This had […]