Great stuff! Watching you peel the mold away reminded me (because of the colour of it) of how much success I've had with cement in a molding material you might never have tried: gelatin! It's great for any short-run or one-off castings (as long as the object can stand the heat of molten gelatin, which can be fair, but not sooo bad - 35-40 deg C/95-105 deg F I think): it starts to shrink as it dries out afterwards which is why it doesn't last more than a day or two without some serious deformation. It's also (almost) endlessly reusable. I've got two big bowls, solid as rocks, of gelatin in my fridge that have been there for over a year, having been used for probably the whole year before that. And if I gently microwaved them, with lots of stirring and making sure I don't burn it, I can get it back to a liquid state and use it to make molds all over again. A few drops of clove oil every few months helps keep it smelling of something other than dead pig, and keeps away mold and bacterial growth. And if you ever need ballistics gel, it makes a pretty good stand-in!! LOL
I used a tube of Daler Rowney's simply acrylic to do several washes of color in varying strengths and that works superb ... The downside is it takes a little while because you got to let the paint absorb into the cement that's why I'm looking for a different way to color cement but you get vibrant vibrant colors and with the pallet of red blue yellow white and possibly green
Perhaps playing with paint mixing would work... I reckon turning the white of the base concrete mix into a yellow (with iron oxide pigment which is appropriate for concrete coloring) would be a lower hanging fruit to pick and you would add some black (again, iron oxide) to darken just enough to give the hue a lift. As you mentioned, adding the pigments to the initial water would be ideal. Then you would make the slurry with ultramarine blue.. Now we just cover the darn thing with plastic (when it gets to the magic of concrete's chemical reactions all help is needed for a sound hydration, imirite) and when it's time to unmold we got to see if reality before our eyes has some semblance to the vision we had in our minds. If not, back to the mixing table and play again 😅
I'm wanting to create a faux stone facade onto a concrete block wall. Could I just sponge on light layers of browns and grays in acrylic paint after the concrete stone facade is completely dry and hardened? May be a silly question, but I just wasn't sure.
To make small pots with a silicone mould ,can I just use cement without sand ?and if I use acrylic paint will that damage the silicone mould ?thanks learning lots.
What about casting with coloured mortar used for tiling - grout. You can get a rainbow of colours pre mixed at the factory and sold as dry mix. Standard colours at builders merchants are white, grey, black but a tiling supplier will offer cerulean blue, moon white, silver, yellow, terracotta etc etc. or is this not a thing in the USA? Coloured grout I mean
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Great stuff! Watching you peel the mold away reminded me (because of the colour of it) of how much success I've had with cement in a molding material you might never have tried: gelatin!
It's great for any short-run or one-off castings (as long as the object can stand the heat of molten gelatin, which can be fair, but not sooo bad - 35-40 deg C/95-105 deg F I think): it starts to shrink as it dries out afterwards which is why it doesn't last more than a day or two without some serious deformation. It's also (almost) endlessly reusable. I've got two big bowls, solid as rocks, of gelatin in my fridge that have been there for over a year, having been used for probably the whole year before that. And if I gently microwaved them, with lots of stirring and making sure I don't burn it, I can get it back to a liquid state and use it to make molds all over again. A few drops of clove oil every few months helps keep it smelling of something other than dead pig, and keeps away mold and bacterial growth.
And if you ever need ballistics gel, it makes a pretty good stand-in!! LOL
I don’t like green much, but thought this turned out pretty cool.
Thanks for sharing with us.
I am going to try some acrylic paints in my projects.
I used a tube of Daler Rowney's simply acrylic to do several washes of color in varying strengths and that works superb ... The downside is it takes a little while because you got to let the paint absorb into the cement that's why I'm looking for a different way to color cement but you get vibrant vibrant colors and with the pallet of red blue yellow white and possibly green
Perhaps playing with paint mixing would work... I reckon turning the white of the base concrete mix into a yellow (with iron oxide pigment which is appropriate for concrete coloring) would be a lower hanging fruit to pick and you would add some black (again, iron oxide) to darken just enough to give the hue a lift. As you mentioned, adding the pigments to the initial water would be ideal. Then you would make the slurry with ultramarine blue.. Now we just cover the darn thing with plastic (when it gets to the magic of concrete's chemical reactions all help is needed for a sound hydration, imirite) and when it's time to unmold we got to see if reality before our eyes has some semblance to the vision we had in our minds. If not, back to the mixing table and play again 😅
Have ye tried alcohol ink or Unicorn Spit Gels or even Ritz dye? I wonder if they would colour more deeply. Great work. Love the faces and mugs.
I want to make a concrete countertop for a small vanity. I want it to be white. What concrete would I use?
Any hints on using acrylic along with a superplasticizer?
Good info!
I'm wanting to create a faux stone facade onto a concrete block wall. Could I just sponge on light layers of browns and grays in acrylic paint after the concrete stone facade is completely dry and hardened? May be a silly question, but I just wasn't sure.
This is my pool guy! LOL
Can you add white paint to white concrete mix?
To make small pots with a silicone mould ,can I just use cement without sand ?and if I use acrylic paint will that damage the silicone mould ?thanks learning lots.
I find rubbing an "oil (Pam Spray for example)" on my form helps my stones come out of the form easier. Can that "slurry" be put on top on the "oil?"
What about casting with coloured mortar used for tiling - grout. You can get a rainbow of colours pre mixed at the factory and sold as dry mix. Standard colours at builders merchants are white, grey, black but a tiling supplier will offer cerulean blue, moon white, silver, yellow, terracotta etc etc. or is this not a thing in the USA? Coloured grout I mean
What about mica? I used gold mica in bone with yellow pigment and thought it looked great.
thanks man
Use a darker green color because it will always dry lighter.
Hey it’s the pool guy
Seth Rogan? Is that you?