Painting Sono-Tubes


Painting today has had it's adventures. I am working on Sono Tubes, these are the tubes that they pour concrete into. They are made of super heavy cardboard and can be primed and used as Faux columns for a variety of fun painting and theatrical type effects. However if you have never seen (I hadn't) them they come with a surprise: A spiral design that is part of the function (they are waxed inside, after the concrete is poured you peel the tube off) This can make the tube look exactly like a giant empty paper towel roll. A difficult thing to disguise with paint alone.

The answer? Drywall topping. I donned a pair of latex gloves and dug right in and smeared the paste onto the tube to resemble stucco or rough stone. I built it up more on the grooved area. Let it cure over night and began the paint job today. I rolled a light grey color over the tube let it dry about an hour and then smear great gobbs of darker grey and white here and there and streaked and pounced it with a plastic grocery sack. (turn the sack inside out or the writing comes off)

It looks pretty cool! So much of design or pay types of jobs are part knowledge and skill and part screw-ups and what you do with them!