metal infused concrete

[amalgam]

Doing some research online I found an amazing artist, Grayson Malone, who works with metal-infused concrete. I tried to find more information about this technique online but could not anything about it. Do any of you have information on this subject? any book? any site?

Thank you


Alfredo Alamo

[SPRINGFIELD]

Sounds to me like a fancy name for concrete with steel wool in it. Sort of along the line of Bonded Marbel which sounds better than resin and marbel dust. Or Cold Cast Bronze in stead of resin with bronze powder.

[suburbanartists]

Ah aren't just about all foundations made of "Rebar" infused concrete? Lets see a pic of the steel wool kind.... Anyone?

[beaulyons]

there is a company www.elastoplastic.com which sells a plastic rod for concrete reinforcing. I also believe there is a stainless steel version. the rods are quite stiff and not at all like steel wool.

[GlennT]

Looking at the artis's works, I agree with SPRINGFIELD. It is just a name, not a technique. It is an effort to make the materials sound more elegant than they are, like calling a work a "found object" piece rather than an "assembly of discarded trash".

Me, I keep it simple, working with estatic-energy infused molecular components of refined and reconstituted semi-viscous earth.

[evaldart]

Concrete can accomodate any number of aggregates. If this "metal infused" version causes a specific look then it might be worthwhile. If its just more structural engineering then Its useless...has nothing to do with the outcome of the artpiece. Concrete is gonna last no matter how you do it. And longevity...bah humbug, anyway.

[SPRINGFIELD]

Ah aren't just about all foundations made of "Rebar" infused concrete? Lets see a pic of the steel wool kind.... Anyone?

I mentioned this because of a book I read Sculpting with Cement by Lynn Olson. Using steel wool in cement is described in great detail.
Also if you go to http://www.a2of.com/grayson_malone.html
It appears that The before mentioned Grayson Malone used Bronze wool in at least one of the sculptures shown.
I like what GlenT said it realy captures my sentiments. Especially his making use of "estatic-energy infused molecular components of refined and reconstituted semi-viscous earth".

[cooljamesx1]

concrete is pretty col stuff. I read that the chemical environment of concrete helps protect steel from corrosion by causing the oxidation to be semi-protective. neat-o I wonder if this metal concrete has any advantages over that fiberglass concrete stuff. I've also heard of some concrete that has fibers that expand or something when the water is added so that as the concrete sets up, these fibers grow spikes all over the place and lock together or something....anyways...

[WeiMingKai]

Well - they already have had 'metallized' or liquid metal type stuff which is usually just epoxy or acrylic medium + solvent + metal powders mixed together. Use it paste thick for direct sculpting over armature or thin it out for casting or as a paint on coating for other substances (Jasper Johns (http://www.metmuseum.org/special/jasper_johns/view_1.asp?item=8) did this with sculp-metal). Once it dries you can sand/polish/buff it up to a metallic sheen (be careful not to entirely rub off the layer of painted on metal goop). If you were to 'infuse' metal powder into cement you might get some some interesting effects - I'm thinking if you used iron oxides or swept out your plasma cutting table dust/grit into the concrete mix you could cast forms that would develop rusty looking 'weeping' surface patterns as they weathered.

'Metal infused concrete' - a term which turns up next to nothing useful when googled or wikied makes me think it is some kind of neologism ginned up by the original poster - suggestion: speak more clearly in the future using language that wasn't secretly invented by you and people will be able to communicate with you. If 'metal infused concrete' is the name of some new or proprietary commercial substance then you may have posted a link to it so that we could read whatever the promotional sales literature has to say about it - that is usually what a lot of these 'new technology' posts on sculpture.net contain - a thinly veiled sales pitch (not that there's anything wrong with that). - nevermind.

Edit: I read the artists website where the idea of 'infused' came from...

I think Grayson Malone (http://www.cowboy-zen.com/index.html) explains her technology in her FAQ page. She mixes metal powders into her concrete mix and then polishes the hell out of the pieces once they are set (using progressively smaller grit abrasives to get very fine surfaces) and then waxes & polishes the surface to seal & shine it. That's the technique & technology - have fun.

[Grayson Malone]

Doing some research online I found an amazing artist, Grayson Malone, who works with metal-infused concrete. I tried to find more information about this technique online but could not anything about it. Do any of you have information on this subject? any book? any site?

Thank you


Alfredo Alamo

I just happened upon this website and began reading with some amusement and some irritation, responses you received from your post. Thanks for your interest in my technique using metal-infused concrete AND for saying I was an "amazing artist", what a compliment! To clear up some mystery about the method: It is a proprietary blend (which has not been sold or shared with the general public) that I developed many years ago in order to achieve a particular visual and tactile quality in my sculptures. It is my own technique, and it is not commercially available to others. I may or may not ever make it available. It isn't a product that I have developed for "marketing". It is a medium I devleoped for my own end and aesthetic purposes. The matrix is cement. There are no resins, polyesters, acrylics, epoxies, liquid metals, or crushed stones involved. And yes, I have made pieces using bronze wool. Those have been hand-built over an armature and have a very distinct and different appearance than the cast pieces.The technique is extremely labor intensive and expensive. Atomized Copper and Bronze costing $75/ per 5 lb. container (available at Douglas & Sturgess when I last bought it a few months ago). You really would have to want to experience the outcome in order to endure the cost and the effort. One of these days, I plan to do some teaching, but not in the near future. I read some of the other rather cavalierly worded responses to your post, one of which I quote as saying a "neologism ginned up by the original poster". Hopefully, this will help to clear up a few grossly uninformed opinions from those curiously self-fascinated-with-their-own-words, verbally preening persons, who did not bother, as you have, to look into the matter more fully.

Best,
Grayson Malone
www.cowboy-zen.com

[byron]

saw a show last night where the cement counter top had been infused with steel mill waste from a machine shop. looked interesting.