Concrete & Wax
Alex Sommer (Mr Concrete) and Laura Keller (Mrs Was) are a married design duo. They live in a sixteenth century cottage in rural Suffolk with their beautiful daughter Marley now aged 7 and slipper-snapper puppy Vesper whom have all visited Finchingfield and the gallery and had a great day out by all accounts. Marley went home with “Dillion” a ceramic dog from the gallery (by Flora Olney) purchased with her pocket money, it was super cute, Marley counting out her pocket money for her purchase.
The couple have worked for over two decades in the fashion industry, and the last 15 of which through their creative consultancy 2Som Studio, designing and providing trend forecasts to many global casual and sportswear brands.
In 2018 the couple decided to combine there creativity with a new focus and, after many months of development, launched Concrete & Wax, a collection of modular and stackable concrete holders and natural wax pillar candles. All are hand poured in their lovely Suffolk workshop. When speaking with the couple their motivation was not to bring another candle company into an already saturated marketplace, but instead to deliver interesting and unique products that are built to last. The fact that all the holders are designed to fit any standard tealight as well as their own demonstrates the attention to detail that that this couple care so much about. They are always thinking about the customer, this is what I love about this product so much. You would think that you would have to continue to buy your candles from Concrete & Wax, no that’s not the case as you pop in any standard tealight. If you think about it concrete will always outlast the candle.
Where did it all start?
After Marley was born the couple knew they needed to adjust their career and travel less. They batted with a few ideas over the years but never felt the idea was the right one. Alex started tinkering around with concrete in the garage – pouring interesting concrete creations into anything and everything he could find from recycled butter and fruit containers to a mixing bowls, I recall Laura telling me at our first meeting over the phone that she would go looking for a bowl in the kitchen and it would be gone and when she looked for it, it was in the garage. From Alex’s tinkering about inspired Laura to experiment with wax and that’s where they believed that the two contrasting material would work together. Laura’s trails where again in recycled Pringles and Twiglet containers. After trial and error, but constantly learning and evolving suddenly Alex became Mr Concrete and Laura became Mrs Wax!
Alex’s love for modular, intelligent design in clothing transferred easily into the stackable, interchangeable collection of holders and candles that the couple have developed today. As the customer you can then put together a different arrangement to suit the interior of your home in the same way you put together an outfit to go to a special event. However, as the concrete will always outlast the candle you have a stable interior in your home, but you can change the scene to suit your mood! You are not going to find anything like this in the market so go check it out on our website you are in for a real treat…
“Every piece of concrete has unique surface characteristics because of the drying process where tiny air bubbles can form, meaning there will always be slight imperfections. We embrace this, it is part of the design and makes each piece unique. Each piece has a hand-stamped branded cork foot applied to its base. A soft cloth is used to apply a natural oil coating to the concrete surface to protect from any wax marks or drips.”
Some of Concrete & Wax's products are stocked in our gallery in Finchingfield and a selection can also be bought online below.