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News from
The Decorative Concrete Institute
| April 2009
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Car 54, where are you, where are you?
Yes, it has been a long
time since we have shared information.
So sit back , prop up your
feet, grab a cold brewsky, cup of coffee
or an energy drink because we have a lot
to catch up on and you're gonna need it.
Our last newsletter was
October 2008. OUCH! Booooo - Happy
Halloween... |
Cast-in-Place Countertop Class - Featuring enCOUNTER
November 5-6-7, 2008
 This was a great group of
students. We challenged this class with plenty of woodworking skills
while forming up their countertops in addition to helping those that needed
work on their finishing skills.
 The class was able to learn every step of
a successful cast in place countertop installation. Not only were some awesome cast in place
countertops produced, check out some of the custom table tops of which the
students were able to take home with them (at least the ones that drove to the
work shop. They were too heavy for the overhead storage on the plane).
 The most
enjoyable part of this class was watching the enthusiasm from the student's
creativity. Great job gang!
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Annual Decorative Concrete Cruise
November 10-14, 2008
You should have been
there! The Cruise is getting better and better. This year we
departed out of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach. This was a 5 day cruise
that took us to the Mexican Riviera and we ported at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan
and Cabo San Lucas.
 The days on the sea were filled with great seminars
and presentations by: John Kolencik (alias Spider Man) and Jeff Adney
both of BodyTek Training Center spoke on "Generating More Sales for your
Decorative Concrete Business"; John Abrahamson, former President of HTC
now independent consultant spoke on "Polishing your Profits and Concrete
Preparation"; Bob Harris, President of Decorative Concrete Institute
announced his new product line of "Paladiano - 'Wonders of the World' by Bob
Harris" Stamping Tool Line (more on this later)and spoke on Stamped Concrete,
from Rags to Riches; Patrick Jebber, of Two Monsters Creative Group
talked about Branding your Product and the Internet titled "Stand Out in the
Crowd"; Bent Mikkelson of Concrete Décor talked about "Professional Use Only"; the one and only Wayne Sellon of
Tajmawall spoke on "Take Your Business Vertical"; Other speakers consisted
of: Floyd Dimmick w/Crown Polymers; George McCullough
w/Epmar Corporation; Frank Lewis w/The Coatings Group; Dan Foytik
w/Brickform; David Boyer w/Prosoco; and of course the Host of the
Cruise, Michael Bulnes w/California Decorative Concrete. If we
forgot anyone............we are very sorry, and will mention you in next newsletter.
 Included in all of this fun,
Lee Ann picked up the cruise ship virus and tried very hard to pass it along to
Bob. That task was accomplished and the boat quarantined us to our room
for 2-days.............We started to hate our room. But all in all, we had a
wonderful experience with good friends-The Cardone Family, colleagues and
family. Well of course we took our Mom's Mary Lou and Mary. It
isn't a cruise without them!
Next Decorative Concrete
Cruise is scheduled for November 7-15 which will depart out of Ft. Lauderdale,
FL. This is an 8-day Eastern Caribbean Cruise which will visit: San
Juan, Puerto Rico / St Thomas, USVI / Antigua / Tortola, BVI / Nassau,
Bahamas. Visit: www.DecorativeConcreteCruise.com to register and find out more information.
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Stamped Concrete - Featuring: Brickform Products and Paladiano
November 19-20-21, 2008
This
was a small class that upon completion of the course went home with a ton of
hands on experience. 28 yards of
concrete was poured during the class (that's a bunch). During the class, topics included sub grade
preparation, form setting, proper concrete placement and mix design
considerations, color hardener application powdered and liquid release
application and sealers.
 The
students at this class were the first to use the Paladiano Stamping Tools in a
real-world setting. Talk about exciting
stuff! Whew! Although the students were
stoked about the new tools, Bob was grinning from ear to ear (we had to clean a
bug off of his tooth). A large panel was
poured using Venetian Rotating Marble.
Check out some of the accessory tools such as ½ and ¼ tools. Cool stuff!
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 Skim Coats-Stains-Dyes - Featuring: Colormaker Floors
December 8-9-10, 2008
What a fun class this was! We
had students from all over in this class: Alabama, Alaska, Georgia,
Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, New Jersey and North Dakota are a few examples.
 This group was all about using every tool available in class in route to their
finished pieces. The first days focus
was on installation techniques using ColorMaker's Sgraffino and
Pentimento.
 The second day the group
designed their panels and ultimately cut and engraved the designs. The last day was spent using acid stain,
tints and dyes followed by sealer. Great
work and a job well done by all of the students.
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 Chemical Staining & Specialty Techniques - Featuring: Kemiko
January 9-10, 2009
Our January Kemiko was hosted by Surface FX in
Santa Barbara.
 This was a challenging
class with limited working space. Despite the challenge, some gorgeous work was
produced. Students had the opportunity
to design a showroom floor for Surface FX. In addition to working side by
side with Bob and Lee Ann, the group was able to work on sample boards creating
some great work.
 Epmar Corporation sent two representatives,
Arnold Yasui and Ken Stoltenberg. It was good to see you two again!
Thanks to Michael and his staff at Surface FX for hosting this class
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World of Concrete
January 28 - February 7, 2009
 This was a long 10 days, but
very eventful. This was the formal announcement of "Paladiano - 'Wonders
of the World' by Bob Harris" stamp line and the relationship between Paladiano
and Brickform - A Division of Solomon Colors, Inc. Brickform - A Division
of Solomon Colors, Inc. is the Exclusive Manufacturer and Licensed Distributor
for the Paladiano Tool Line.
We had five days of
preparation: pouring, stamping and coloring concrete prior to the opening day
of World of Concrete on February 3 for Brickform's booth which turned out to be
big hit.
 A private invitation only
cocktail party to share the Paladiano Story and display Paladiano decorative
concrete was held on February 4 at a local Brickform Distributor, Border
Tools. We were delighted with an overwhelming response of approximately 200
+ people. Thank you to all of you who shared the excitement of this new
line with us.
Throughout the week
demonstrations were held at the Brickform / Solomon outside booth demonstrating
the uniqueness of the tools in addition to discussing the unique features about
the sets such as bottom and top tools, side 1/2 and ¼ tools. The floor was then opened up for questions
and answers.
The success of the booth was a
complete joint effort between Paladiano and Brickform / Solomon.
Job well done and cheers to everyone!
You're
half way there with the news letter. Take another hit off of your coffee or
energy drink for that needed jolt, and rub the haze out of your eyes. Here we go!
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 Filming of Paladiano DVD
March 2-6, 2009
Lee Ann and I would like to
send out a heartfelt thank you to Dave Blasedale of Brickform/ Solomon, Cody
Dawkins of Create-A-Crete, John Anderson of Paladiano/ Idealwork for a great
week of stamping despite experiencing all four seasons in less than one week.
 Our four days of pours included almost 50 yards of stamping using the new
Paladiano Stamp Line. The entire week
was captured on film of which we produced an Instructional DVD. The DVD will be included in each boxed set of
stamps or sold separately. Additional
filming was required to show cleaning, detailing, staining and sealing. The panels came out awesome. Another special thanks to John Butrey and
Bradley Smith of JB Productions for filming and producing the DVD. By-the-way, sorry John for getting Color
Hardener and Release Powder on your camera, or as you put it, "There is f...ing
s...t all over my camera." We will do
better next time! Another thanks to
Rusty Brooks, a student from the previous week's class that got stranded in
Atlanta. He just thought he would drop
by the shop to spend some time, then volunteered to help out. And of course, a big thank you to Ron Bailey
for hustling during a very busy week.
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 Ken Heitzman Event in Seattle
March 16-19, 2009
Ken Heitzman of Decorative
Concrete Systems invited Bob to attend his annual event and demonstrate stamped
concrete using the new tools by Paladiano.
 Bob and Harlan Baldridge of Brickform Solomon demonstrated proper color
hardener application and Paladiano's Pavimento Of Paris and Stones Of
Athens. The panel came out great
especially after the color stain was applied along with the seal coat. Despite a downed economy Ken and his staff
had a great turn out with over 130 people in attendance along with a
distinguished list of presenters. Great
job to Ken and his staff for hosting a great event!
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 Spec West Training in Sacramento
March 30-April 2, 2009
I wish we could say that we
have been sitting around with our feet propped up doing nothing however, that
is simply not the case which is apparent with a trip to Northern California to
visit our friends at Spec West.
 Mark ......
invited us out to present (you guessed it) the new line of Paladiano
stamps. This was truly a nice group of
attendees. There were approximately 35
students that weren't afraid to get in and get'er'done. I must admit that Mark Harrington of
Brickform/Solomon and I had our hands full because of the extreme conditions we
were faced with. During the stamping
portion of the seminar we literally had 25 mile per hour winds which not only
made for difficult color hardener application but, the stamping process as
well. Thank goodness for evaporation
retarder. The following day we had great
lectures on detailing the stamp work which was followed by staining and
sealing. Special thanks goes out to
Mark, Randy, Sergio, Donnella and their entire staff of Spec West for hosting
this event. You guys run a class act
over there and oh by the way, your red zin is pretty damn good as well.
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 Finally Poured Bob's Office Floor
March 6-10, 2009
If you can believe it, the
Decorative Concrete Institute staff actually had a few days in between projects
that they were able to pour Bob's office floor.
 Granted this was a small pour, the attention to detail was extreme. This three- layered floor came out
phenomenal. Read more about how we did
it in future newsletters (hopefully 60 hundred years won't pass before the next
one) or, pick up a copy of the next Concrete Contractor magazine article. This floor is talked about in Bob's column he
writes.
 Our hats off to those of you
who actually made it this far. For
those of you who did not make it here to the end, you're a bunch of wussies. We will leave it on a positive note: Despite of all of the doom and gloom we hear
these days regarding our flailing economy, keep your chin up. Forget all of the political crap we read
about or see and focus on what you love doing, decorative concrete. It will get better!
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Beautiful works of art were produced from the
students as you can see in the pictures. The complete Kemiko line was used and
demonstrated during our class. 
We were
all fortunate to have Barb and Earl Sargent as always present their
professional touch to the Kemiko line. Ken Stoltenberg was also present
to represent Epmar. Thanks for helping us make this class a smashing
success. We'll see you guy's soon
hopefully.
Skim Coats-Stains-Dyes - Featuring: ColorMaker Floors
But the most gratifying was the enthusiasm and their
will to not give up. Different design and layout techniques were used such
as gridding their designs for the projects. 
ColorMaker Floors product
line was used during this class in addition to Modello stencils. The nice thing
about this class is that some of the students attending mentioned that they
wished they had more ability with their artistic skills. After some basic discussions on design and
art theory, the students were well on their way to producing master
pieces. I was so proud of what they
accomplished. Probably the biggest
accomplishment was their new found confidence. I truly believe a few of
the finished pieces could have been hanging in art galleries. Job well done
guys! I can't wait to see some
additional art pieces from all of you.
Check out some of this class's handy work.