Jean Amado sculptor
1922-1995

After a phase devoted to ceramics, he researched in this second period (1958-1974) a new material named of Cerastone. The process consists of manufacturing a low-temperature refractory (1000°) whose resistance to crushing can reach 480 k per cm3.

 

It is a combination of the micro-concrete technique (loaded with silica sand) and ceramic firing.

 

An excerpt found in the Encyclopedia Universalis: "In 1954, the architect Fernand Pouillon orders them, for the facade of one of the towers he raises on the heights of Algiers, a huge decoration: 40 meters high, 6 meters wide. This Totem, as the local inhabitants called it, was installed two years later. But in these warm climates, where they are exposed to the elements, works of such magnitude require a more resistant material than terracotta. In 1957, Jean Amado created what he called Cerastone, a mixture of basalt sand and molten cement. Baked in an oven at around 1,000°C. It is simply left to harden in the open air. This concrete takes on an ochre tone; through the use of oxides, it can offer the eye a wider range of colorations.

 

Interview IN FRENCH of the artist on the Cerastone technique, by the Journal Montréal Canada October 1976