In February a local metal sculptor, Sam Osroff of Salmon Studios, invited me to collaborate with him on two projects.  The first is a mural for the new bicycle bridge that spans lower Main Street facing downtown, the second project is designing “gateway” signs to be placed at the major roadway entrances into Northampton.

Both projects are being funded through private donations, and have enough funds pledged to move forward and go public.   The bike bridge mural reflects downtown Northampton celebrating the return of passenger trains to town meshing with a city block perspective.  The materials are Corten steel, cnc cut aluminum, polished stainless, and copper sheet.  Sam plans to fabricate the locomotive and balloon with artistic license.  We collaborated for several months on this design and are excited to see it realized.

The Gateway signs use the same language as the bridge mural.  In this case we added an agricultural theme with a barn and tractor.  Combined with the train station or the downtown theme it will be customized to each of the seven locations throughout Northampton.  It too will be fabricated from Corten steel, anodized black aluminum, copper sheet and cnc aluminum.

The second of two sinks designed and built for the RKM house in Amherst, MA.  This sink was cast in bright orange to match the children’s bathroom.  The fabrication of sink 2 was much smoother due to the lessons learned in forming and casting an identical sink 1.  The orange color was achieved while the concrete was mixing.  After putting all the liquid yellow dye the shop had into the mix, liquid red dye was added to taste.  Realizing the color was muddy and drab, I overloaded the prescribed red until it seemed to punch.  This might be due to the use of Flows additive which is used to reduce the water content in the formula, which seemed to brown the color.

When deforming the top of the form the orange was striking!  The next day the plexi form was removed.  It took under 15 minutes to free the sink, unfortunately the form cracked and was not reusable.  My plexi welding skills are improving but not perfected yet.

The sink was then sanded and due to time constraints, plumbers and building inspector scheduling, delivered to the site unsealed!  Risky but a fact in the architecture world.

The sink is at home now, and the orange color balances with the tiles and timber columns of the bathroom.  Sealing with 101 and Hydrogaurd this week.

The form then needs a drain knockout, and in this case a faucet knockout, both made of rigid insulation.  As the pieces are assembled (designed to separate once cast) they need silicon caulk on all seems and corners.  A “top hat” is built to hold the concrete  in vertical and hydrostatic pressure after pouring.  Next the form is blown out with compressed air to remove dust and particles, and sprayed with a release solvent.   The final step is the weighing out of concrete.  Stone Soup has experimented with various methods for water reduction, sealing, and color matching in the mix formula.

After all the time invested in preparation, over 20 hours on this, the actual pouring is/has to be quick.   In less than two hours you know if your planning worked.  Mixing the concrete, an experimental orange color in this case, takes under 45 minutes.   The form is then progressively filled, closing up each stage with the aforementioned “hatboxes”.  This is all done on a specially designed Vibe table.    After buttoning up the top of the  form a small celebration is in order, but don’t put your guard down, the top plates or “top hats” should be removed within the hour.  This is your chance to smooth out the underside of the sink to make for an easier install…will update on the removal or release from the plexi/plywood form.

Ray just installed the first of two concrete vanity sinks we are creating for the RKM house in Amherst.  This is located in the lavatory on the main floor off the living room/kitchen.  The second sink mold form is complete and ready to cast tomorrow!  It is going into the full bath between the bedrooms on the second level.   Color…bright orange.

ed 8 miles from Amherst but the site makes up for the driv1

A photo of my friend Urs in Nepal installing an open source PV system. It’s the first of three projects he has designed and attained funding to build. The location is at a rural school in the hills of Nepal.  Two photovoltaic panels producing 150 watts are mounted to a tracker using a small pv panel to operate a mechanical motor that follows the sun.  The rack was fabricated by a friend of Urs in India and assembled on-site.  It has room for growth by adding panels to the pole.  The Dc power created is converted to AC for use of lighting, charging and powering small electric devices at the school.  Next up is a solar-fire steam generation array, using mirrors to boil water for electricity generation or cooking.

This vanity sink was a challenge to say the least.  In the works for a year now, the concept was drafted and calculated.  At this point it had to be fabricated.  Familiar with standard concrete countertops the 3d aspects of this eluded me.  After many months in the shop pondering the process I started to build the box in the shape of the sink from HDO plywood.  My expectations were simple at first not realizing the need to taper the sink box in all directions.  this taper helps drainage and deforming the box after casting.  Then the introduction of plastics became another necessity, a sheet of plexi-glass was in order.  Having worked with this material in the past I was not familiar with straight seem welds or chamfering the corners by hand, after several tests the material seemed to play nicely.  The form got built with PETG laminated outside walls and base surfaces for the to be tops of the back splash.  As the project continued I learned many factors that go into a sink with an integrated backsplash such as how to caulk the seams you can’t reach by hand.  Improvisation became key as I started the mixer using a formula I was not used to.  Extra forms, rebar modifications and advice were all administered during the 1 hour pour!  Soon after pulling the top-hat off the sink the 2% flow mix reared its ugly head.  A great agent to eliminate gas buildup, it didn’t trowel well for finishing.  Alas here are images of my first attempt of a integrated sink /backsplash/counter in concrete.  Taking the sink from the form is another story…