It's been a while since I have posted here. The last few years have been about exploring some new directions. A fairly steady amount of concrete countertops have been bid, and a good few kitchens have been made. Fireplaces of all kinds have been done as well. Painting, printmaking, and sculpture have been a big part of my past year as well. I'm running pretty hard with some good ideas there and adding a few collectors.  Requests for furniture keep popping up. The current piece is an oak-topped piece with legs cut from steel plate.

This first low table is reclaimed Southern Yellow Pine from a c.1870 building.

This fireplace surround wraps the existing brick structure.

This table leg system sits under a 9-foot by 42-inch walnut top.

The Bendy Leg is a big concrete sculpture (10-feet long and 65 inches tall) that now lives with a family on the east side of Kansas City.

This sculpture is called Footprint of Buddha. This picture was taken at a show I had at the end of 2012 and into January 2012 at the Bohemian Gallery in downtown Overland Park.

This fireplace surround is in a house in Mission Hills. We set it so that it actually hangs on the wall.

The latest table in process. This piece is 36 inches tall and 18 inches deep.

This small sculpture is called Servant Bowl. It's carved in mahogany and inspired by similar work from New Guinea

 Side table with the wide and flat legs that precedes the current hall table I'm working on.

Concrete hearth

This is part of 200 square feet of countertops for an office building. These tops are 1.25 inches thick.

Concrete Countertops - New Options for Spring

New options are coming online for concrete countertops this spring at Root Concrete.

Recycled glass terrazzo is gaining in popularity around here, and more requests are being made for glass as a decorative option. After several years of research and development, we are building a quality product that stands up as well as our regular concrete. Glass and concrete don't do so well together at the chemistry negotiating table, and we have been looking for the right mediator. All points indicate success, and it gives our concrete a higher level of green sustainability.

Thin concrete slabs have been requested more than once this year. Thin concrete poses a whole new range of challenges in construction, but we have driven a couple smaller slabs (24 inch sq.) down to 3/8 of an inch thick. We have yet to find the maximum size for the thinnest posssible piece, but production of up to 12 square feet is a nice size to work with right now.

Graphic images, set into a terrazzo slab, have been an old standby with stone and terrazzo for centuries. We have been using CNC technology and special mold making techniques to bring this process into the 21st century, and allow and a more complex graphic to be realized in concrete. Throw in some fiber optics, and you can have some standout concrete like none other.

Furniture has been one of our unmentioned options for years. Last year some of us focused for a few weeks and we put a show together in Kansas City. Since then a few orders have been trickling in, and we have responded with some great pieces. We use a lot of reclaimed wood, steel, concrete, found objects, wheels, and metal castings from our mini-foundry. Drop a line, and we can send some more images.

Thanks for reading, and look for more to come,

Dave Root