Concrete Vases

The mold for this vase was filled with concrete of alternating color.


 

While I was still in school I developed a fascination with concrete.  I liked the permanance of it, the fact that actual buildings were made of it, and using simple paper molds I could make fairly complex forms of it.  The earliest of these were concrete vases, the first of which was large, 18" tall and 6" square.  I didn't vibrate the form so the mix didn't fill the space completely.  The result was interesting but not what I was going for.  Subsequent vases were smaller, 8" tall and 3" square.  I produced a few dozen of these, but gave most to family and friends who admired them before I could photograph them.






The vase in the second picture is a variation on the themes of the first one, and marks the first time in my cocnrete work that not all of the edges were canted to allow for easy formwork removal.  In virtually all of my later work, no edges were canted.  On small scale concrete casts like these, and with paper or flexible rubber molds, it is completely unnecessary.