In collaboration with decorative-concrete expert Fu-Tung Cheng, Charlotte, N.C.-based Sakrete of North America LLC has announced a dry mix affording artisans and do-it-yourself homeowners a concrete that can be poured, rolled, pushed or molded into an infinite variety of designs and effects. Packaged in 20-lb. pails and formulated for a 30- to 60-minute work time, ShapeCrete is sold through arts & craft, hardware and home improvement retailers.
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| Using concrete as his signature medium, Fu-Tung Cheng has pioneered architectural designs and forms for a variety of interior and exterior applications spanning concrete water features, sculptural countertops and complete, custom homes. He and Sakrete have now teamed a mutual vision to inspire the maker community—concrete artisans and crafters, to artists and DIY homeowners—to change the way they think about and work with concrete. The result is ShapeCrete, which Sakrete plans to package enterprise-wide and distribute through established retail channels, plus arts & crafts shops. |
“You don’t have to have a shop or garage to play with ShapeCrete; you can even work off of your kitchen table depending on project size,” notes Cheng, who through his Berkeley, Calif., studio has parlayed a brand synonymous with decorative interior and exterior concrete. “The grand reveal of what you’re able to create after about a day or so has a rock-hard quality and almost porcelain finish.”
Cheng explains, “Concrete responds to any form you pour it into, but we wanted to create a material that can do that and respond to how you shape it with your hands, tooling or even found objects. You can go thick or as thin as 1/8-inch and get professional results without professional equipment. With ShapeCrete, your prep and form time is cut way down, and your imagination and project success rate goes way up.”
As a durable, professional-grade concrete product, ShapeCrete allows users to stretch the limits of their creative potential through concrete designs that require no oven-baking or kiln-firing. Since the material is designed for simple workability in both thick and thin applications, users can simply add water, mix and sculpt the clay-like substance into limitless shapes or forms—custom planters, vases, bowls, address tiles, garden sculptures and furniture items among them. ShapeCrete can be colored at mixing stage, or painted after 24 hours. The product also suits small, routine flatwork repairs.
“ShapeCrete embodies the continued dedication of two industry-leading brands to developing quality, creative products made readily available for experienced and novice crafters and professionals alike interested in playing with the endless possibilities of concrete,” says Sakrete of North America President Eric Peterson, adding that the product’s World of Concrete 2015 launch builds on a partnership in which Sakrete 5000-Plus has been the core bagged concrete used with Cheng Countertop Pro-Formula and Outdoor Pro-Formula admixtures for more than a decade. — www.sakrete.com; www.chengdesign.com