Yesterday we installed the Lake Champlain-inspired bartop in its intended home in Wilmington, Vermont; it “fit like a clock”, as a friend used to say, and the installation process went  quite smoothly and with dispatch. The thoughts behind the design elements incorporated in this highly figured piece were apparent once it was resting in the surroundings; all the colors, shapes, and features worked together to form an ensemble or collage that “belonged” in the owner’s beautiful new kitchen. And there’s the magic: it is all about the client, the environment, and the artisan’s interpretation of it all through the medium of concrete. Functional art: You have to see it to comprehend it.

Pantone, the world-reknowned authority on color, has announced that the color of the year for 2010 is Turquoise, specifically #15-5519 in their coding scheme. What does that mean? Well, it will get a lot of buzz in the fashion and design world, and show up in increasingly large amounts in our current surroundings until a new lucky winner is announced. But for some people, turquoise is already a favorite and the endorsement of a global taste-maker is only icing on the already-baked cake.

We have been working on a custom vanity top with an integral sink for a local client with whom we have had a pleasant collaboration in the past – a garden sculpture/fountain. Expanding on the ideas we explored in that venture, we are now incorporating them into into the new commission. The  four foot wide top is hand-pressed in natural gray concrete (our “Stone” tone) and features a gently rounded, deep oblong basin inspired by an antique  hand-carved wooden bowl. On the edge of the basin is a  terraced soap recess which will hold a special incised leaf tile. The faucet fixture is a wall-mount style, a Waterbridge style in Rustic Nickle finish, from Sonoma Forge. We created a narrow backsplash “shelf ” to house the fixture at the back of the concrete countertop, since the wall partition there was too shallow to accomodate it. The whole is acid-stained in the aforementioned turquoise, with a touch of green and brown, to work into the bathroom’s design scheme. This includes warm Mexican tile on the floor, original natural wood trim and cabinetry, and white fixtures and tub/tile surround with a sprinkle of turquoise blue decorative inserts.  Another wonderful example of artisan concrete’s ability to become whatever one might wish!

The “Lake Champlain Shoreline” project we are currently working upon has taken on another manifestation: after several days of wet-curing, the piece was unwrapped and partially diamond ground to expose the native aggregate and the crushed beach glass hidden below the cast surface. The bands of color are striking in their many hues and shapes, wandering across the bartop suggesting eddies of water and an undulating coastline. The solid color band at the arched edge will be acid-stained after final processing and add its own characteristic mottled patina to the composition. Small terraced topographical indentations add to the freeform shape and lend contrast to the adjacent smooth surface.

The lake interpreted in customized concrete: Art-formed by Concrete Detail.

We are working on a sweet little project with some neighbors of mine in Wilmington, Vermont (I commute down the mountain to the studio in Brattleboro every morning…). The clients are a great couple I have known for a long time; I actually worked with Matt in my past life as a carpenter in the Deerfield Valley. He and his wonderful wife Angela have a summer cottage on the northeastern shore of Lake Champlain, Vermont’s closest thing to seashore (Vermont is the only New England state without a coastline!). Well, it may be a lake, but it’s a huge one and it has its share of beachcombing treasures. The bartop we are creating for their newly renovated kitchen in Wilmington is incorporating some of the glass treasures they have collected over the years. We are also emulating the undulating shape of a natural shoreline with the outer perimeter of this raised peninsula counter which will serve as an informal eating area overlooking the cooktop.

The crushed glass is only one facet of this accent piece: there will be three bands of color winding across the polished surface. One with the glass; another with exposed aggregate (native gravel), and a wider band with an acid-wash in greens and browns. Several small topographic terraces are sculpted into an edge to suggest natural erosion and the work of the elements that shape our world. Concrete is an excellent medium to showcase all of these design motifs in a single work of functional art which ties together the client, their environment, and the artisan/interpreter.

This is what we do – we love concrete!

A long absence from concrete countertop blogging, engendered by a protracted business relocation, is nearly over. No new posts since early December – wow! But now, six or seven weeks later, the shop is fully shifted and is now morphing back into production as we unpack boxes and crates and attempt to get the office/showroom into the same condition. We have been working the customer relations end from the old location at the Cotton Mill, waiting for the new office build-out to be completed – with mixed success; apologies to our clients and contacts who have been caught in the fallout. The new showroom plans include an overlayed and acid-stained floor!

Several concrete countertop projects have transpired in the interim and pictures and descriptions are long overdue. I hope to remedy that soon with updated posts and accompanying photos showcasing our latest work, including two more kitchens, a couple of vanity tops, a fireplace surround ensemble, restaurant tabletops and countertops, and others. Many more are in the wings as we begin to enjoy our new space and settle into a more efficient and productive studio workspace at the Book Press building in Brattleboro’s north end. Stay tuned, please!

Concrete Detail is creating a one-of-a-kind garden sculpture that will incorporate a bubbling water feature for a local family’s private backyard retreat. Simply put (and simple is always “more than meets the eye” than it appears!), it is a shallow concrete bowl set into a receiving free-form catchment basin. The water will well up from the center of the bowl and overflow its rim, infinity style, and be caught in the surrounding basin. From there it drops through a drain hole into the buried sump where a submersible pump completes the cycle.

These components were hand cast in plain gray portland concrete, using a glass bowl as an inital form and a lostwax sandcast technique to form the positive and negative match of the other element. A simple formliner technique was used to create small veins and patterns over the visible surface. They were carefully wet-cured for strength, lightly polished and filled to reduce porosity, and then acid stained with several colors, applied to create an organic, lush look. The clean smooth shape of the center vessel contrasts with the random “puddle” edge of the catchment basin. This sculpture will rest on a bed of stones near the patio plantings and provide a restful  fluid  background with ever-changing light patterns to soothe the people relaxing nearby.

We have installed the two-tone concrete farm sink with the branched integral drainboard and the acid-stained vanity with built-in ramp sink, both for the same client and both looking fantastic in situ. Every project is new and different when you are crafting artisan concrete and that’s why we like being in the concrete countertop business!

The latest integral concrete countertop and sink ensemble we have been working on is nearly complete, but for the installation (tomorrow!). Cast in natural gray portland (with flyash and VCAS, of course: our standard sustainable mix recipe), it was acid-stained in two different shades applied judiciously and allowed to blend and flow. Always a somewhat random process (which is the beauty of it after all), we choose the components and process and set the wheels in motion, never knowing exactly what may result. But it’s always good….

We sealed the piece over the weekend with our StoneLok sealing system, stain-proof and maintenance-free. Installation is set for Wednesday and this latest example of Concrete Detail’s “art-formed” will be put to good and appreciated use in its home…

A little instructional here: This demonstrates the forming process for an integral sink and vanity top for a client for whom we are also creating a kitchen ensemble…

A ramp-style sink plug is created with MDF and resin for the sink bowl; a small piece of shaped acrylic sheet forms an inclined soap recess in one corner. At the far end is a foam knockout to incorporate a built-in towel bar, saving space elsewhere in the bathroom and lending another custom touch to the latest  piece of functional art to come from our studio. Recycled crushed amber glass will be broadcast in a swath at one end for a little sparkle, blending with the green and brown acid-staining that will highlight this one-of-a-kind concrete countertop and sink for a special home right here in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Windham Art Gallery (WAG) in Brattleboro, VT will have an opening reception tonight for their annual Open Salon Exhibition, featuring the work of 60 artists from the surounding area who are non-members of the gallery. The submittals cover a wide range of media, many showing publicly for the first time as well as some more familiar names. Rich Holschuh of Concrete Detail has contributed a cast concrete garden vessel, a shallow bowl intended to catch water and sky. It is handpressed in natural gray concrete, acid-stained in several shades, and carved around the rim in a pattern of   divergent lines.

The gallery reception runs in conjunction with Brattleboro’s ever-popular Gallery Walk event, held on the first Friday evening of every month year-round. Dozens of art venues in the downtown and nearby area will be open for appreciative visitors to partake in the monthly feast of the senses: paintings, music, sculpture, dance performances, food, and more. Brattleboro consistently ranks very high on the list of best small “art communities” in the country – Hometown, USA I am happy to say!