Jacob Benyi - Series 2

My second series intended to investigate integral coloration of concrete. All casts in this series use rapid-set cement. The coloring additive was India Ink.



The first test in this series was cast in four pours, alternating the non-colored cement with the colored cement. This did not achieve the dark coloration I had hoped for. It is basically a boring block of Neapolitan ice cream.










The second series set out to expand on test 1, but the finish of the sample turned out to be more interesting. (It did achieve a slightly darker, more even color in this three-pour version.)

With respect to the finish, this was cast into the same form work as test 1, using the same acrylic form liners. This time, however, the finish came out with an ultra-smooth glass finish. The peculiar thing with the finish is that it is so smooth that it provides a near-perfect specular reflection, as if it were polished. However, it absorbs water through itself as normal concrete would.



The third test in this series was intended to add the colorant immediately after the pour, rather than mixing it into the concrete. (The previous tests had mixed the ink and water first, then added it to the concrete mix.) In this case, it would have been added to the curing concrete and then mixed in.

However, when the ink first hit the water film surface of the concrete, it began to creep out in an interesting pattern. As such, I decided instead to observe the surface condition instead. Each of the six spots is a single drop of India Ink, which was dropped onto the surface about 10 seconds apart. The first drop (when the concrete was the most moist) was the lower left corner. The last drop (which did not exhibit any creeping characteristic) was the top center.

Jacob Benyi - Series 1

My first series tests elasticity and finish associated with different stretched materials. All casts in Series 1 used rapid-set cement.



The first test used a tight weave fabric stretched through a reusable frame form. (While I didn't notice it in the first pour, there is no honeycombing in the surface of the concrete where it touched the fabric.) My presumption is that the air-bubbles were able to escape through the fabric. - This also exhibited more "pillowing" at the edges; I think this was because the fabric did not stretch as tightly as the materials in the subsequent tests.






The second test changed to plastic wrap as the stretched membrane. The surface is shiny and smooth, though picked up all of the micro-wrinkles in the plastic wrap. It also has substantially more honey-combing from air trapped by the plastic. (I did not vibrate any of the forms in this series.)



The third test used vellum as the stretched material. This cast had crisper edges, and was smoother across the whole surface, but did not have the glassy sheen that the plastic provided.

Lena Fan