Evan Lloyd of Solid Solutions in Fresno, California, and his lead artist, Paul Sullivan passed along these photos of a recent job they completed using a Flatoo stencil. The client was a custom home builder who was building his own home, and was incorporating decorative concrete into the flooring and countertops.
Part of the job included nine custom integral sinks, but the most interesting request was for a lighthouse to be cut and colored into the concrete in the entryway. The client asked for a specific drawing of a lighthouse he had found on the label of a Sammy Hagar bottle of tequila. On the bottle, the lighthouse picture was only the size of a nickel, and it needed to be recreated to be applied in a five-foot diameter circle on the floor. Lloyd took the image to Tamryn Doolan at Surface Gel Tek to create a Flattoo, a vinyl adhesive stencil of the image, increased to the size needed for the floor. With the Flatoo in hand, Paul Sullivan headed up installation of the project.
To apply the stencil, Sullivan used an Engrave-A-Crete tool to cut out the five-foot circle. Once the stencil was laid in place he peeled back sections so he could apply certain colors of dye.
Sullivan prefers Colormaker's solvent-based Decographic dyes because they are quick-drying, produce vibrant colors, are easy to blend to make custom colors. He also prefers the dyes because he is able to get crisp lines between two dye colors in an image which he doesn't achieve as easily with acid or water-based dyes.
Sullivan was careful to apply the dye colors carefully and in a particular order. He used the black color first for the outline, because when other colors run into the black, the black color is unaffected. He then colored the blue of the ocean and clouds with a mixture of Colormaker's Teal and Reef green. The white within the blue is the actual white cement floor. Next, he colored just the sun with yellow (3-1 ratio). Then he dyed the dark rays of the sunset with Coral at 100% intensity, and the lighter rays with Coral diluted 10-1. Finally, he finished filling in the yellow horizon. A solvent-based sealer was used over the image because using a water-based sealer would have caused the colors to run.
Solid Solutions
Offices in Fresno, CA and Mesa, AZ
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