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Kitchin and the client desired a slight waviness in the finished project, so PRETTYHARD did something a little unique. Kitchin explains that normally when working with glass in a concrete slab, you start grinding after the concrete has substantially cured so that you don't grind the concrete faster than the glass. In order to achieve the variation desired in this piece, Kitchin bent this rule. "We did an early grind, which ate up a little more of the concrete than usual," Kitchin says. "Then we stopped the grinding process and waited for the concrete to cure closer to the hardness of the glass and then finished grinding. It was a very carefully timed process to get the subtle waviness."

PRETTYHARD did a wet grind on the hearth up to a 3,500 grit using a series of diamond-impregnated resin pads before applying a heat-resistant sealer. Kitchin notes that during the grinding process on glass-embedded concrete, the rougher grits scratch the glass and give it a frosted look, but as you move up to finer grits the glass clears up again.

THE CONCRETE IMPRESSIONIST
Brooklyn, N.Y.
www.concreteimpressionist.com

In business since 1982, Dominick Cardone of The Concrete Impressionist in Brooklyn, N.Y., has been working with concrete countertops, bar tops, sink tops and the like since 2002, when the trend was starting to take off in New York. For more than three years he has offered a unique twist on concrete countertops with the incorporation of fiber optics.

A bar top he created for Ovelia in Astoria, N.Y., is 26 ft. long cast in five sections with a 1.5-in. thickness, 4-in. drop sides and an integrated drink slide on the back. It has 1,250 fiber optic points powered by two 39-watt metal halide bulb illuminators that do not require cooling. The custom-made illuminators allow the owner to change the color wheels or program them to a variety of patterns, such as a wave or twinkle effect.