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Frank Lewis' Decorative Concrete Series recently teamed with FossilCrete to provide a three-day training course that redesigned parts of the Orange County Zoo in California into a natural-looking habitat through the use of vertical concrete stamping and several other decorative concrete techniques. The seminar examples were left in place for the enjoyment of future zoo visitors.

Students turned a utility pole into an oak tree, and a cedar shingle wall into a desert rock wall. Students also learned boulder replication, framing and structure techniques, and realistic coloring methods. "Students had to match projects to the zoo's themes and meet zoo specifications, choose colors that fit with the surroundings, and clean up after the process - it was like a real job," Lewis explains.

Lewis' idea for the training session came to him because he always felt bad that after previous training sessions no one was able to appreciate the beautiful work that came out of teaching process. The zoo was happy to oblige Lewis' offer, and the students enjoyed it too. "The students liked that they were working on a live project, and because zoos are always hard up for money when it comes to projects like this, the students felt like they were part of something good as well," Lewis says.

Lewis is planning four more classes at the Orange County Zoo this fall that will focus on vertical stamping, stamped overlays, stains and countertops. Keep an eye on his website, www.dctrainingseries.com, for further details.