A lot of that comes from years spent outdoor rock climbing: time on rock faces and in wild landscapes gave me a deep appreciation for natural texture, form and the kind of imperfect beauty you only find
outdoors, and it still shapes the way I work with concrete today.

Before Mayde, I spent years in finance, working a desk job in the US that never quite felt like mine. I travelled for a few years, mostly through Latin America, and eventually landed in Torquay. That’s where
I met my partner Nick, who owns Form Concrete Studios, and started working alongside him, first on things like benchtops and fireplaces. It was the first time in my life I’d loved making something with my hands, and I got completely hooked. Six years ago I didn’t even know the difference between a drill and a driver. Now I’m building things and using my own tools, and some of my childhood friends still find that pretty funny. So do I. Life can be full of surprises.

From there, I started experimenting with my own concrete colours and basins, and that’s where Mayde began. I loved that concrete could be shaped, coloured and finished in so many ways, that every piece could have its own character. In 2019 I started making pieces of my own out of a basic workspace, using everything I’d picked up from Nick.

My first range was Aarde: a raw, handpacked finish I hadn’t seen many others offering at the time. It took a lot of trial and error to get right, but it’s still the range I’m proudest of, and the one our customers love most, years on.

Every basin is poured and finished by hand in small batches, sanded, grouted, sealed in stages, until it’s smooth and considered but still unmistakably concrete. I love the contrast in that: taking something strong and industrial and turning it into something soft and sculptural. I don’t try to hide the small variations that come from making something by hand, a shift in colour, a bit of texture, a piece that’s just slightly different from the last. That’s not a flaw to me, it’s part of what makes each one genuinely one of a kind. Perfectly imperfect, as I like to say.

I never came from a manufacturing or construction background. Everything I know, I taught myself, one failed attempt at a time. Living on the Surf Coast, surrounded by natural, earthy materials, feeds directly into what I make. I’m still the one who answers the phone, packs your order, and often delivers it to your door myself.

What I’m most proud of isn’t just the product, it’s how much I’ve learned to get here, and that it’s still genuinely handmade, even as Mayde has grown into supplying showrooms and customers across Australia.

At its heart, Mayde is about creating pieces you can touch, use and live with every day, made by someone who chose the colours and shapes with you in mind, not off a production line. I want a Mayde piece to feel like it’s yours, and to make you smile a little every time you walk into the bathroom. However big this gets, I want there to always be a real person behind every piece.

Designed and handmade by me, May, on the Surf Coast of Victoria.