Louann Redard’s passion is set in stone.
The Delhi resident, 45, launched the Concrete Creative about five years ago, offering handmade gifts and household objects made using concrete.
“I started going down the road of concrete art five years ago,” she said. “I really love plants and the outdoors and I wanted to create a planter. That snowballed into creating so many other things and my friends saw these planters I was making and everyone wanted one, so I made a few different styles, then got into vases and, after a few years, into jewelry.
“It was definitely a side thing,” Redard added. “I have always been creative. My entire life, I worked in the hospitality industry and I’ve run restaurants and built many restaurants over the course of my career, and I worked closely with design teams and then outfitted (the restaurants) with decor, so that was my creative outlet. Living in New York City for 10 years, I did not have any space to have my own creative space, so, moving back upstate eight years ago, that gave me my own space to figure out what I wanted to do.”
The Concrete Creative evolved into a retail shop at 35813 state Highway 10 in Hamden, which opened in May.
“I’m in the process of changing the name of the store,” she said. “The name is going to become Made and Found. It’s all things made and found – all handmade or found vintage, and I largely focus on local, and it’s mostly U.S.-made. There are a few specialty items, which come from Japan and the Netherlands, because those areas are known for that particular craft.”
Redard said Concrete Creative pieces are featured in Made and Found and draw inspiration from nature.
“Concrete comes in many different textures and forms, and I’ve been able to find and create my own mixtures that work for whatever I’m using it for,” she said. “The concrete you see on sidewalks is very rough aggregate concrete. The mix of the powder is rough and they will often add other items, like rebar, to keep it stable, but I’m using an artisan mixture, which is very fine aggregate, for jewelry.
“All the colors I use in my palette are colors I find in nature,” Redard continued. “Natural concrete looks very much like stone. I have a bluestone color and a terra cotta, which reminds me of the Grand Canyon, moss, sand, blue sky, and those are the colors I work with when I’m creating the jewelry. I’m trying to create something that would look like a gem, but it’s not, it’s concrete. I have a turquoise and I’ve been able to figure out how to mimic the stone turquoise … but it’s a third of the price or less of turquoise. I hand-mix and hand-pigment and -pour everything and it takes 48 hours to cure, then I use different practices to sand and finish.”
Customers, Redard said, favor her jewelry.
“Those are my most purchased items,” she said. “But (the demographic) is really spread out. My shop has something for everyone. Many shops in the area gear themselves toward the second homeowners or the downstate crop, but I really wanted to create a shop for the locals and something where someone can come in and treat themselves to a piece of jewelry. My average jewelry price is $25 a piece. There are some items that are less and some that are more, but that’s my average. I get really amazing feedback and there’s rarely a time when people come into the shop and don’t purchase something, even if it’s a $3 brass spoon. There’s always something that someone can take away from the shop. I wanted to be able to open a shop where, if someone needed a gift, they could come find something well thought out and intentional and special.”
Redard said that she also regularly vends at area makers’ events. The Concrete Creative is slated to be at the Delhi Harvest Festival on Saturday, Sept. 21 and the Stamford Scarecrow Festival on Oct. 6. She also is planning seasonal collections and, eventually, to teach her craft.
“I’m about to launch the fall collection, which will be pumpkins, ghosts and some really fun stuff,” she said, “and early November, I will launch my holiday collection, which always includes Christmas trees and Santas and gnomes. I will have a few new items, like snowmen and nutcrackers this year, but I also include menorahs and the Star of David ornaments.
Workshops for children also are in the works.
“My daughter, who will be 11, has been working with me for three years and has her own line and her own color scheme and has a shelf in my shop with her own display,” Redard said. “She does her own events, so it’s a really big part of what drove me to do the brick-and-mortar and leave hospitality. I would love to do workshops for children and teach them the art of concrete. That’s my future.”
Redard’s shop is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, email Redard at hello@theconcreative.com, find “The Concrete Creative” on Facebook or follow @the_concrete_creative on Instagram.