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    • May/June 2012: Reactive Stain Effects Using Household Items
    • October 2011: Using Brass and Glass to Create Concrete Poetry
    • July 2011: I Have Seen the Future, and It Is Gray
    • April 2011: Let’s Be Careful Out There
    • Feb/March 2011: Staining Was Never Easy, But Now It’s Complicated
    • January 2011: Patina Stains and Embedded Fish in Wyoming
    • Nov/December 2010: Freehand Means Freedom for You and Your Customer
    • October 2010: Lead Bricks and Black Holes: Weight and Scale
    • Aug/September 2010: Berkely’s Street of Concrete Dreams
    • July 2010: A Tale of Two Topping Slabs
    • May/June 2010: Good/Evil, Day/Night, Color/No Color
    • April 2010: Bubbles, Balloons and Broken Glass: Concrete Ideas from Outside the Box
    • Feb/March 2010: Far Far Away
    • January 2010: Entering the Strata-Sphere
    • Nov/December 2009: Residential Concrete Reminiscences
    • Sep/October 2009: Underappreciated Structural Slabs Can Be Recycled
    • June/July 2009: Designing Concrete That Is Maintenance Free
    • May 2009: This Stamp is No Cookie Cutter New-school Methods of Concrete Embossing
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May/June 2012: Reactive Stain Effects Using Household Items

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

Reactive Stain Effects Using Household Items
(May/June 2012 Vol. 11 No. 6)

vol-12-no-4-mayjune-2012

May_June_20121When I started as a pup-salesman at L. M. Scofield Co., the suggested method of applying reactive or patina stains (at that time called chemical stains) was with a mop out of a bucket. This was kind of like performing brain surgery with a battle axe. And the results weren’t surprising — a floor that appeared coarse and like it was blood-stained. by Michael Miller I started as a called chemical stains) (Read more…)

October 2011: Using Brass and Glass to Create Concrete Poetry

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

(October 2011 Vol. 11 No. 5)

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As concretists, each of us defines ourselves as “one who practices concrete poetry.” As we craft this material, we are crafting a poem. At the most basic level, that poem can be a haiku — deceptively simple. (Read more…)
Oct_20111

July 2011: I Have Seen the Future, and It Is Gray

Posted on July 1, 2011 by

(July 2011 Vol. 11 No. 4)
vol-11-no-5-july-2011
We really needed work last year. We really needed it! But in California, not much was to be had. Then my friend the Emeryville, Calif., colorist Tim Caton called. “Mike, I think I’ve got a good one for you.” And he did. (Read more…)July_2011

April 2011: Let’s Be Careful Out There

Posted on April 1, 2011 by

April 2011 Vol. 11 No. 3
CDCover-11031Friday night, 9:45 p.m., at the start of a long Fourth of July weekend … The Incident.
I don’t remember a sound. Rather, I remember a sense of being swallowed. The fireball flashed and briefly expanded. Temperature: 1,800 degrees. (Read more…)

CD-Apr-2011

Feb/March 2011: Staining Was Never Easy, But Now It’s Complicated

Posted on February 1, 2011 by

February/March 2011 Vol. 11 No. 2
CDCover-1102I was once a much younger concretist, really impetuous and passionate. I was working for L.M. Scofield Co., and as my wife told me, I worked way too much. So she left me. To be more accurate, she left me in charge of the kids for 10 days while she and her best girlfriend toured a bit of England and Scotland. (Read more…)CD-Feb-Mar-2011

January 2011: Patina Stains and Embedded Fish in Wyoming

Posted on January 1, 2011 by

January 2011 Vol. 11 No. 1
CDCover-1101Most places that I’ve traveled to, the concrete has taken me there. And when I’ve returned, sometimes it’s been because of the concrete. And sometimes, it’s been because of the people. (Read more…)Mike-Wyo-2-jan-2011-e1308042708799

Nov/December 2010: Freehand Means Freedom for You and Your Customer

Posted on November 1, 2010 by

November/December 2010 Vol. 10 No. 8
CDCover-1008
So many things in construction, in concrete, involve straight lines. Or rectangular shapes with right angles. Or, if the architect is really bold, perhaps, a skewed grid at 45 degrees. There are a few nuts that opt for circles, even ellipses, and the very occasional freak asks for a spiral. (Read more…)
Picture-to-Go-in-Media-with-Nov-Dec-2010-Concrete-Decor-e1308044362980

October 2010: Lead Bricks and Black Holes: Weight and Scale

Posted on October 1, 2010 by

October 2010 Vol. 10 No. 7
CDCover-1007
I’m waiting for a plane in Vancouver, B.C. A flight to LAX. It’s Sunday and it’s been a great weekend! I arrived late Thursday night with my youngish uncle, Vito. We met frank and feisty Tom Ralston, of Tom Ralston Concrete, Santa Cruz, Calif., and the Australian mad scientist, Gary Jones, of Colormaker, Richmond, B.C., at The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant, snug under the Granville Island Bridge. We ate. We drank. We told the truth and lied, and then admitted that we had lied. We laughed. We talked business. We talked wives. We talked ex-wives. We cried, but just a little. (Read more…)Pic-for-Concrete-Decor-October-2010-e1308043619885

Aug/September 2010: Berkely’s Street of Concrete Dreams

Posted on August 1, 2010 by

August/September 2010 Vol. 10 No. 6
CDCover-1006
I received a call a little while back from an architect and general contractor named Graham Simmons. Graham had been referred to me by Jim Duvall, a concrete contractor who specializes in difficult lots, basements and foundations in the Berkeley Hills of California. Jim places and finishes the mud, and we sometimes follow and provide applied finishes: patina stains, dye washes, etc. (Read more…)
Aug-sep-2010-e1308044160646

July 2010: A Tale of Two Topping Slabs

Posted on July 1, 2010 by

July 2010 Vol. 10 No. 5
CDCover-1005
This column has little to do with discussions of intuitive freestyle art versus disciplined mechanical graphics, or with criticism of superfluous decoration as contrasted with really spare concrete – my normal “literary” territory. It’s a column about me and a museum. It’s a tale of two topping slabs. (Read more…)

Terrace_3-july-2010-e1308043515411

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  • Archives

    • Media
      • May/June 2012: Reactive Stain Effects Using Household Items
      • October 2011: Using Brass and Glass to Create Concrete Poetry
      • July 2011: I Have Seen the Future, and It Is Gray
      • April 2011: Let’s Be Careful Out There
      • Feb/March 2011: Staining Was Never Easy, But Now It’s Complicated
      • January 2011: Patina Stains and Embedded Fish in Wyoming
      • Nov/December 2010: Freehand Means Freedom for You and Your Customer
      • October 2010: Lead Bricks and Black Holes: Weight and Scale
      • Aug/September 2010: Berkely’s Street of Concrete Dreams
      • July 2010: A Tale of Two Topping Slabs
      • May/June 2010: Good/Evil, Day/Night, Color/No Color
      • April 2010: Bubbles, Balloons and Broken Glass: Concrete Ideas from Outside the Box
      • Feb/March 2010: Far Far Away
      • January 2010: Entering the Strata-Sphere
      • Nov/December 2009: Residential Concrete Reminiscences
      • Sep/October 2009: Underappreciated Structural Slabs Can Be Recycled
      • June/July 2009: Designing Concrete That Is Maintenance Free
      • May 2009: This Stamp is No Cookie Cutter New-school Methods of Concrete Embossing
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