Our story and crafting community

We started with a cracked birdbath

Here is a small confession: the first concrete birdbath we ever made cracked in half before it even dried. The mix ratio was wrong, the mold was improvised from a salad bowl, and the curing time was, generously speaking, optimistic. That failure was, in retrospect, the founding moment of this community. We did not set out to build a website. We set out to understand why concrete behaves the way it does when you are working in a shed in the Australian summer heat, and whether anyone else had figured out a better approach. It turns out many people had. Garden makers, patio tinkerers, weekend sculptors — a quiet, scattered group of hobbyists who had each independently discovered that mixing Portland cement with fine aggregate and a little patience produces something genuinely satisfying. We began documenting what we learned, and what they shared. The techniques section grew from a single page of handwritten notes into a structured reference covering water-to-cement ratios, pigment behaviour, and the particular challenges of casting stepping stones in humid conditions. The projects section followed — real ornaments made by real people in real backyards, not studio photographs of perfect spheres. We are transparent about what this site cannot do. We cannot guarantee your first mold will release cleanly. We cannot promise your hypertufa planter will survive a Sydney frost without testing. What we can offer is an honest record of what has worked, what has failed, and what the concrete crafting community has collectively learned over time. That, we think, is worth more than a polished promise.

See our projects

Three core: Material techniques covered
Portland cement, hypertufa, and fibre-reinforced mixes explained
Growing library: Step-by-step project guides
From simple stepping stones to detailed figurative garden ornaments
Active community: Hobbyist contributors sharing work
Real makers submitting photos, tips, and honest failure reports
Regular updates: Technique articles reviewed annually
Content revisited as materials and methods evolve over time

How we think

Concrete is honest material — so are we

We believe crafting with concrete should be approachable, repeatable, and free of mystification. If a technique works, we explain why. If it fails predictably, we say that too.

Explore techniques

Core conviction

Failure is data, not defeat

Every cracked mold or blotchy pigment result tells you something specific about mix ratios, humidity, or timing. We treat those outcomes as useful information rather than embarrassments to hide.

The Traetnuemcuimbo approach Founding editorial principle

Community observation

Beginners overthink the mix

Most first-time concrete crafters spend weeks researching before ever touching cement. A simple starting ratio and one practice mold teaches more than any amount of reading.

Mix ratios Beginner technique Practice casting Curing basics

From community feedback Start making

Explain the why behind every technique
Acknowledge when outcomes vary significantly
Prioritise repeatable results over impressive ones
Share failures as readily as successes

What this community actually stands for

We checked ourselves against these four principles before writing a single guide. They are not aspirational posters on a wall — they are the criteria we use to decide what gets published and what gets sent back for revision.

Radical honesty about materials

Concrete is not a forgiving medium. It has specific requirements around water content, temperature, and curing time, and it will not pretend otherwise. We apply the same standard to our content: if a technique has known failure modes, we document them. If a project requires tools most hobbyists do not own, we say so upfront rather than burying that detail in step nine.

Accessibility over aesthetics

The most beautifully photographed tutorial is useless if it assumes you have a professional mold-making setup. We write for people working on a backyard workbench with hardware-store materials. That means specifying affordable alternatives, explaining metric and imperial measurements, and testing methods in ordinary Australian conditions rather than controlled studio environments.

Sustainability as a practical concern

Cement production has a measurable environmental footprint, and we think hobbyists deserve to know that without being lectured. We include notes on material quantities — because using less and wasting less is both economically sensible and environmentally responsible. We also highlight hypertufa and recycled-aggregate approaches where they genuinely perform well.

Knowledge shared without gatekeeping

Every technique on this site is documented in enough detail to replicate without purchasing anything from us. There is no premium tier, no locked content, no community membership required. We think the concrete crafting knowledge base improves when it circulates freely, and we are sceptical of any crafting resource that withholds the useful part until you subscribe.

The people who actually make this site work

Margaret Osei-Bonsu, Lead Content Curator and Concrete Specialist

Lead content curator and concrete mix specialist

Margaret spent several years testing mix ratios in her Brisbane backyard before concluding that most online concrete guides skip the step that actually matters: the water content. She now writes and reviews all technique articles, with a particular focus on mold release methods and pigment stability in Queensland's subtropical climate. She is the first to admit when a method she recommended did not hold up under testing.

Want to share your own story?

We are not looking for perfect results. We are looking for honest ones. If you have made a concrete garden ornament — a stepping stone that cracked, a birdbath that turned out better than expected, a planter mold you improvised from a colander — we would like to hear about it. The community grows when people share the actual process rather than only the finished photograph. We review every submission and ask follow-up questions when we need more detail to make a technique reproducible. We are also interested in hearing from people who tried something documented on this site and found it did not work as described. That kind of feedback is, in our experience, the most useful kind. It is how we keep the content honest and how we catch the assumptions we did not realise we were making. So if you have something to contribute — a method, a failure, a workaround, a question — reach out. There is no submission format to follow and no standard of finish required. Just a genuine account of what you made, how you made it, and what surprised you along the way.

Get in touch

Concrete is honest material — so are we

What this community actually stands for

Radical honesty about materials

Accessibility over aesthetics

Sustainability as a practical concern

Knowledge shared without gatekeeping

The people who actually make this site work

Margaret Osei-Bonsu, Lead Content Curator and Concrete Specialist

Tom Ravenscroft, Garden Design Contributor and Project Reviewer

Sunita Krishnamurthy, Community Manager and Hobbyist Liaison

Dean Papadimitriou, Technical Researcher and Materials Analyst

Priya Nambiar, Photography and Visual Documentation Lead

Callum Westbrook, Getting Started Section Author and Beginner Advocate

Want to share your own story?

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