About

This site shares a research project created by Colby Parsons at Texas Woman’s University, and further developed with the help of Graduate Assistant Hanna Selman. The project involves the use of “ceramic concrete” mixtures, cast into molds 3D printed with PLA plastic. In the usage we are pursuing, these molds can only be used once, as they are removed by melting away the plastic. The process makes it possible to cast forms with features that would be difficult or impossible to cast with typical mold making process. This process was previously claimed by another individual (Stuart Uram) in a US patent filing in 2013, which was later abandoned, making the process part of the public domain in the US.\

Acknowledgements

I want to acknowledge that the first to come up with the idea of using 3D printed forms to cast ceramic concrete was an inventor by the name of Stuart Uram, who applied for a US patent for the process in 2013. That patent was later abandoned, meaning that the process then became part of the public domain. I encourage anyone interested in the research presented on this site to look at Stuart’s patent application, which includes a broad range of possible variations worth considering.

Surely there are many who have explored the artistic potential of ceramic concrete in the past, however I have had difficulty finding documentation of such work (if anyone reading this can help guide me, I hope you will reach out via email). The one exception is the Danish artist/architect Anja Margarethe Bache who has been generous in sharing her extensive research into what she calls “Specific Ceramic Glazed Concrete”, a stoneware-like fired cement for which she has adapted special glazes. In 2014 she wrote a book about her research, which she shares freely in the form of a PDF, and here is a link: Questioning Material Design”.