The concrete craftsman proved the beauty of acid-colored concrete

Over the course of her 22-year career, Victoria Simpson Collins' talent for acid coloring has created a business opportunity that she hopes to dominate for the long term.

"It's hard for people to understand why a 'girl' would be interested in concrete work," she said."But once they see the effect of the floor, they see that the concrete has a 'wide range of colours'.You can create floors that are just yours, because no two floors are the same."

Simpson -- known to some customers as Simpson, to others as Collins -- has followed a circuitous career path.

"I have a degree in paralegal and music performance.About 12 years ago, I was a corporate investment planner for Michelin Tire, "she says.

Next, Simpson decided to run a bookkeeping business from his home.One of her clients is a distributor of concrete decoration products."I started keeping books and learning about the product from a bookkeeping perspective."

When the distributor decided to get into the installation business, it hired staff.But it's hard to keep them."For about six years, every time someone quit, I took on more business," Simpson explains."The salesperson quit and I became a salesperson.If someone doesn't show up, I'll fill in for the construction.Then the builders quit, which meant I was seeing concrete trucks in the morning and doing a lot of moulded concrete work.They were my own pair of yellow boots, and I poured concrete every day.

"I did it for about six years and I was doing all the work and they were making money.So I contacted them about profit-sharing or some way to make it worth my time."

The company turned her down and she decided to go back to the books."But I can't get away from the fact that I just love it," Simpson says."So after about six months, I decided to start my own company."

Good command of acid colorants

Simpson experimented with concrete when he founded the South Carolina-based Capitol Decorating Concrete Company in the early 1990s."Back then, no one knew what decorative concrete was," she says."You go to a family show and someone will think it's the landscape tiles you laid on top of the bark cover.They don't get it.

But over the past seven or eight years, her attention has shifted to the acid coloring of existing concrete."I love that market," she said.

One of Simpson's signature techniques is the use of acrylic paint to increase the range of acid colorants."In acid colorants, you can't get a solid color," she explains."I made a logo for the Copper River BBQ chain in their lobby, and it was a color you couldn't get with acid coloring.I came up with a technique that uses acrylic paint, like apple barrel craft paint.I dilute the acid with water.My acid isn't as deep as my acid colorant, but I get enough adhesion from that little extra burn.Then seal with 30% solid solvent.These Copper River BBQs, they have thousands of people coming through the lobby every year, and I only resealed it every two or three years.So they're always there."

She also likes to spray large amounts of multi-colored acidic colorants, making them flow together to create what she calls a "cosmic effect," like an image of a colorful galaxy.The characteristics of the floor -- a low here, a crevasse there -- create a unique appearance for each job.

In her acid coloring work, Simpson draws on some of the informal artistic training she received as a young woman, and she even credits her musical background for inspiration.She painted a bunch of grapes in the vineyard hall of one of his churches in Greer, South Carolina, and a compass 33 feet in diameter in the courtyard of the Children's Museum in Greenville, South Carolina.One of her challenging projects was her map of Charleston Harbor and Marina on the 3,300-square-foot floor of the Charleston Harbor Resort Wharf Store.Staff at the store created an introduction that kept the children busy looking for all the sunken ships on the map while their parents shopped.

Her expertise is recognized.Earlier this year, manufacturer Schofield gave her a residential patio award in the Art in Concrete category at the company's Decorative Concrete Awards.

To complete the task

Simpson often works alone."I do too much art," she says. "You can't pass it on to other people and ask them to take responsibility."."In the acid coloring market, there are so many residential or small commercial projects under 5,000 square feet that I can almost do it myself.

"I usually have a full-time person with me, and I can call three to five more.I have two or three professionals that I've trained -- people I've known over the years who have gone to work with me and learned this skill.

"Also, my older son is an architect and my younger son is a construction worker. They have been here for 22 years.They have been trained all their lives.So, if I have a big project on the weekend, I'll pull my kids in and say, 'Come on, we have something to do.'"

Although Simpson attributes most of her business to referrals from existing clients, she sends one or two postcards a year to members of the building society, architects and decorators."I'm trying to do more quick-learning types of things for architects and decorators because a lot of people out there don't know what acid coloring is.Over the years, there's been so much concrete paint that it won't hold up, and clients are a little worried about putting their existing concrete into something like this, even though she's been in business for 22 years, Simpson, 57, is just applying for Women's Business Enterprise certification."I never wanted anyone to hire me just because I was a woman," Simpson said."I want them to hire me because I'm good at what I do."

Simpson currently has a steady stream of work, traveling from Kentucky to Florida.Retirement was not part of her plans."I would love to commission art concrete to allow me to travel, even internationally," she said..

I feel like I've made a little mark on the world that will be here for a long time after I'm gone.Being able to build a reputation for something good is worth a lot more than getting a paycheck at the end.I never hated going to work, even if it was ten hours a day.

"When I worked at Michelin, at the end of the day, my inbox looked exactly like when I started that day.I can work all day, do my job as well as I can, and come back in the morning -- and no one will know I've been there."

Decorative concrete provides more satisfaction."When I look back at what I've done at the end of the day, I think 'I did it, this is something I'm really proud of' and it says something about what I love.That's why I'm staying with him for so long, and that's why I'm going to stay with him until I die."

The concrete craftsman proved the beauty of acid-colored concrete

The concrete craftsman proved the beauty of acid-colored concrete

The concrete craftsman proved the beauty of acid-colored concrete

The concrete craftsman proved the beauty of acid-colored concrete

The concrete craftsman proved the beauty of acid-colored concrete

The concrete craftsman proved the beauty of acid-colored concrete

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