I have added Design to this site for several reasons, one being the vast scope that modern cement composites now offer decorative manufacturer . Not only the decorative industry but architectural , furniture and outdoor industries and it works in any genre from modern to classical . And given that the composites can be tailored to refractory applications, this means fire pits out door fire places. pizza ovens etc.
With design comes
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Product development and mold making seemed to represent a major part of my time in the GRC development over the years.
Design and development is one of the services we are happy to provide , Being based in Cebu Philippines we are well placed for the labor intensive pattern development and Mold making that goes with Decorative Molds . . We have at our disposal a team of crafts people who have worked developing the products you see on this site, feel free to contact us for product development and mold making services whatever your industry.
OUR APROACH
On every product I adopted , Conceived or developed , I selected for its form, its provenance , adaptability to Spray up GRC and suitability to the finishes we are developing ! I never listened to the markets for direction the markets seemed to follow. The fact is GRC was bringing something new to the outdoor garden industry that had begun to mature and evolve away from the cheap plastic, smaller terracotta or precast cement garden ornaments and was looking for something on the next level . Up till then it was the Antique dealers who had supplied this top end of the market, Antiques being very expensive and limited lead to an antique reproduction industry, but this was still controlled by the Antique dealers. GRC brought this more sophisticated look to the independent garden retailer. In Australia where we were initially marketing it the public snapped it up!
The following example is taken from a past Stoneaccents Catalog for an Urn selected and developed for GRC
This was is an important architectural Urn . The reproduction was taken directly from the original Block print of the Urn Published in the trade journal SOCIETE ANANYME DES HAUTS_FOURNEAUX ET FOUNDRIES , VAL D’OSNE . EXTRACT L’ALBUM ( No 17 )
Published 1870.
GRC DESIGN SPECIFICS
Spray up GRC has its own parameters , when I first reproduced this fountain below is was molded directly from an antique Roman marble using silicon rubber in usual museum fashion , from this mold cement composite was cast, seen below ! I recall it took a few good men to move it. When I started to develop Spray up GRC I tried to use the original molds that were used for precast, unfortunately they simply were not adaptable to this new casting technology . This was the beginning of the journey to develop the design and mold parameters that were needed for this new material and its processing. I refer to this as GRC design specifics!
Spray up GRC had its own design requirements for commercial production; the Antique reproduction shown above was simply molded directly from the original without considering the parameters of Spraying GRC. These molds where designed for hand casting of precast composite cement.
The concept that molds developed for Precast cement, fiberglass resins or even hand layup GRC were going to be suitable for spray up GRC proved to be a misconception.
As we developed the decorative spray up GRC procedures for export manufacturer we had to establish the design specifics that ultimately defined the parameters for good operational designs for the molds.
I
This version that was later redesigned and reproduced specifically for production in Spray Up GRC the development was done in Manila 2002.
DESIGN FREEDOM
The industrial revolution brought decorative ornament to its Epoch , nowhere is this better seen than the great corporate of decorative foundries in France from 1800 to 1900 the Val De Onse group of foundries , there is no corner of the world will you not find fine examples of their work . Producing Iron and Bronze fountains Urns, Street lamps and every form of architectural decoration. As an antique reproduction technician I have been fortunate to have handled hundreds of originals and made exact reproductions from them in metal Today we can reproduce these in cement with Spray-up GRC!
the industrial iron age gave the decorative industry unlimited freedom to design and build within the capabilities of cast metal . with fine refined lines and proportions that were impossible to produce in cement composites , though many fine composite articles were produced refer COADE STONE, BLSHFIELD simply these mediums did not have the freedom of the cast metal .
GRC gave us the ability to do just this with cement . it not only gave us the ability to reproduce antique metal fountains, urns etc. with the same fine lines and detail but it gives designer in composite stone the freedom to develop products without the limitations of the precast industry before it . GRC has its own design specifics but even with these it gives us unheard of design freedom !
Actual GRC fountain
These Fountains I re-developed for GRC . each design is based on original fountains I Cast 20 years earlier in Bronze from original Antiques or from Antique trade catalogs . Note here the fine line of the fountain Bowls that are no thicker than the original cast iron less than 6 mm or 1/4 inch thick . The finish on these fountains is REAL IRON finish and REAL BRONZE Finish on the Festoons
