By Tara,on September 30th,2011% Wow,it’s been a long time since we have posted! We have been super busy getting ready for Fall and winter holiday festivities. We have decided to do a couple of shows this season (one being the Rosedale Fall Festival at a church in Rosedale on the weekend of Oct 21) and have been busy getting all our stock ready for the busy season in stores. We have also been working on some cool projects. We now in a production crunch for race medals that we have been working on since the summer. The medals are for a 5/10km run to cure Parkinson’s that takes place in Port Credit on October 14 (signe up here:https://www.livelifeoutdoors.ca/Race.html). It’s exciting for us to be able to support a great cause and work with an organization that seems to fit very well with our philosophy and visual style. We aren’t unveiling the medals until after race day,but I will give some hints:the tagline “Live Life Outdoors”and Jack Pine Tree logo fit in very nicely with some of our other jewellery lines. We are also starting to work a bit more with gold and try out some wax carving techniques for casting. We’ll be finishing up a custom white gold wedding band today,and I’m so excited to see the final product being worn and enjoyed! Photos coming soon! By Courtney,on July 30th,2011% Wow,has it ever been hot! Since our trip we’ve been spending a lot of time in the studio,replenishing stock and sending more pieces to our new stockists from our big trip (yay!) The lines we’ve been spending the most time working on would be our Plant a Tree series and our Lost and Found Rings. Here are some photos: The first two photos are of our soon-to-be-released Plant a Tree pieces,featuring deciduous trees! The tree pieces are not yet finished…there is still some clean-up to be done. When finished,these will be necklaces and rings. The last two photos feature our most recent collection of rings (to be sent off to Glitz Gallery in Winnipeg and to another store in Vancouver). By Tara,on July 6th,2011% We got home at 3:00am this morning,so I am just posting this now. We got up at 7:00 am yesterday (impressive considering we went to bed after 2:00am),and started out on the last leg of our journey. We didn’t get as far as we had planned the day before,so we had about a 15 hour drive planned for yesterday. Our first stop was at a huge waterfall (I can’t remember the name of it). We made smoothies at the lookout point and then continued on our way. We had lunch in White River,which is where the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh is from. The original was a female bear cub named Winnipeg (Winnie for short),and was bought and smuggled to the London Zoo (London,England),where the author A. A. Milne was inspired to write the story of Christopher Robin (his son) and Winnie the Pooh. We sat on a patio and enjoyed sandwiches in the beautiful,hot sun. I had to show Sarah and Dustin Katherine’s Cove (where I stopped with Court on the way out). Sarah and I took a little dip in Lake Superior,but Dustin opted to stay on the beach where it was warm. We had bought a big pickle to snack on in Wawa,but it was not very tasty so we played catch with it instead. We weren’t planning to make any more stops,but when we passed a sign for ancient pictographs,we couldn’t resist. I’m so glad we checked it out! There was a beautiful but short trail down through a rocky gorge towards Lake Superior. Along the water is a giant wall of rock where the ancient Ojibway people had painted mythical creatures using ink made from crushed hematite mixed with either fish oil or animal fat. The paintings are thought to be between 150 -400 years old,and their meaning is not known for sure. The view of the lake and shoreline was pretty spectacular. The trail was more challenging than it looks in photos,and we were lucky that the water was so calm-there were signs all along the water warning of the risk of serious injury/death in rougher weather. We pretty much drove straight on through the night after that,enjoying our last 6 hours or so of car sing-alongs. Distance today:1437 km Total distance:12441 km - Waterfall!
- White River,where it all began
- Dustin being crushed by the pickle
- Taking a dip in Lake Superior
- Trail to the pictographs
- Trail to the pictographs
- paintings of mythical creatures
- Sunset on the way home
- Getting close to home!
By Tara,on July 5th,2011% We had a bit of a late start this morning. We slept in,then cooked all the food left in the car (pasta),and headed towards Thunder Bay. Our most important stop was when our car reached 100 000 km. We took a video and had a celebratory picnic in a planted clearcut just off the Trans-Canada Highway. Knowing that tonight was our last night of the trip,we wanted to make the most of it. We decided to stop early to experience Canadiana in Thunder Bay. We watched the sun set over Lake Superior from a local bar “On Deck”,while drinking Molson Canadian. We also got to pick 21 songs on the jukebox. As we listened to the heavenly sounds of Meatloaf and Billy Joel,we were all grateful for what we’ve learned about about our beautiful country and the people and places in it. We look forward to our comfortable beds and clean laundry,but wouldn’t trade a second of this adventure. Distance today:523 km Total distance:11004 km - Our little cabin in Kenora
- Strawberries and champagne to celebrate 100 000 km!
- Picnic
- It kind of felt like a cache break from treeplanting…kind of
- Final time zone crossing-it turns out we only crossed one time zone yesterday
- Patio beers with a view of Lake Superior
By Tara,on July 4th,2011% It is currently 3:00am in Kenora,Ontario,where we’re staying in a cabin just outside the city. We had a great breakfast with Lisa’s family in Regina and then headed to the RCMP Heritage museum,where we got a free tour of the training grounds. It wasn’t a very exciting tour,but it was kind of cool to see the training centre for all the mounties in Canada. We got some groceries and started driving towards Winnipeg. It was so beautiful and hot out today,and we had a very smooth drive. We stopped in at the Forks in Winnipeg for dinner and ended up hanging around for over an hour because there was live salsa music,drummers,and people doing tricks with fire. About an hour out of the city,we started seeing some crazy lightning (so naturally,we put on some classical music that matched the timing of the flashing clouds),and the it started to get pretty foggy and rainy so we started to look for accommodations. It took a while,but we made it to Kenora by about 2:00 am (or 12:00 prairie time,so not as late as it sounds). We have a kitchenette,so we will take advantage of that for breakfast. Distance today:831 km Total distance:10471 km - Mountie Church
- Putting our manual smoothie maker to use at the Manitoba border
- It was really refreshing
- Driving
- Fire spinners in Winnipeg
- Sarah likes to jump off things
By Tara,on July 2nd,2011% Yesterday morning we had breakfast at the lodge,and then went into a store in jasper that we visited on our previous visit. They now carry our lost and found stacking rings! There were lots of festivities in town for canada day so that was exciting. We were going to take the tram up to Whistler’s to see the beautiful view,but when we found out that it was $30 per person,we decided instead to take our time Driving through park on our way to Calgary. We stopped at lots of scenic spots along the way (it was hard to find a spot that wasn’t scenic) and we climbed a small trail next to a big waterfall. It was pretty cold out,but we had a great time. We got to Calgary around 7:00,just in time for a barbeque at the house we were staying at. We stayed with Steve (a friend from Toronto) and his cousin’s family. We went downtown for a drink to celebrate Canada Day,but we probably left a little too late,and didn’t have much time before the last lrt train left to take us back home. We ended up missing the last train and taking a cab. Today we had breakfast in Calgary,then headed out on the road through the prairies! We stopped for a snack/drink on a patio in Medicine Hat,Alberta,and then drove straight to The Keg in regina,where my friend,Lisa was serving. After dinner,we walked around downtown and then headed back to Lisa’s to go to bed at a decent hour. Distance July 1:537 km Distance July 2:839 km Total Distance:9640 km - Canada Day festivities in Jasper
- Goats!
- pretty waterfall
- It’s so pretty there!
- blue lake
- Calgary LRT with Steve
- Canola is such a pretty colour!
- At the Local in Medicine Hat
- Saskatchewan Naturally
By Tara,on June 30th,2011% We got up and had breakfast on the road. The first place we stopped was in Radium hot springs to check out the hot springs. We were expecting a natural-looking spring,so we paid the $6 entrance fee,and went in. It was kind of funny-it turns out that the ‘hot spring’is actually just a heated,chlorinated swimming pool. When we asked for our money back (because we didn’t really want to swim in a pool),the guy told us that it was the water that was natural (as opposed to…? haha) We stopped next at Lake Louise for a late lunch and to check out the lake. It was really cold there,but so,so beautiful. It rained,snowed,and hailed on us (and it was sunny sometimes in between). We took our time through the parks,making our way up to Jasper. We picked up some beer in town,and headed to the Palisades Center,where Jessie and Ramsey had cooked us a delicious meal (yummy pizzas,salads and carrot cake). We ate together in the dining hall,and then played games all evening in the lodge building. It was so much fun!
- Lake Louise!
- Banff National Park
- We saw a bear walking alongside the road,so we got out to take pictures
- We were standing in front of Bridal Veil Falls
- on the Athabasca Glacier
- Playing Shuffle board
- Jessie log-balancing
- Playing Taboo
By Tara,on June 29th,2011% We slept in a bit this morning until about 9:30,which was nice. Then we had an short drive through the mountains to Nelson. The weather was beautiful,sunny and hot! We couldn’t get ahold of Sarah’s brother,who we were going to visit there,so went downtown and got some lunch at the co-op grocery store and ate outside. Sarah had some work to do,so she and Dustin went to a cafe,and I went into all the jewellery stores. Most of the shop owners were in,and were happy to look at my samples right away. A lot of the shops were full for stock,but seemed to really like our work. I got on the waiting list at an awesome shop full of handmade jewellery and accessories called Tara Davis Studio Boutique. In the evening,we still hadn’t heard from the people in Nelson,so we headed up to Rossland,where I have a good friend from first year treeplanting (well,two friends if you include his dog,who is sitting with me while I write this post). We went for dinner at the local bar,called the Flying Steam Shovel,and then had a campfire in the backyard. So nice and relaxing! Distance driven today:262 km Total distance:7304 km - The Kootenays
- By the lake in Nelson
- Mike tending to the fire
By Tara,on June 29th,2011% We had another great day in the Kootenays today. I got our water molecule jewellery into a store in Rossland this morning! It’s a nice gallery/boutique in town called Main Stage Gallery. In the afternoon Mike and his friend Ryan took us to see an abandoned mine near Salmo and we went exploring. From the outside it just looked like a little hole in a rock,but inside it’s huge! It looked like something out of the Lord of the Rings and it was freezing in there! It was also about 5 minutes from the U.S border. I was especially excited,because when I was little I used to play a computer game called Spelunx. I don’t think I ever really understood the game,but I’ve always wanted to go spelunking for real! Then we drove to Nelson to visit Aaron and Monica,and their toddler,Aidan. We had a lovely dinner with them and then headed on the road (pretty late to start driving…I think we left around 7:30pm). We drove over the Kootenay pass and saw a family of mountain goats. It was really cold at the top,and there was lots of snow on the ground-crazy! At around 10:00 it got dark,and at 10:30 it started to rain really hard. We saw lots of deer on the road and driving was a little scary,so we pulled over at a motel in Cranbrook for the night. Can’t wait to go back through Jasper tomorrow! Distance today:405 km Total distance:7709 km - We bought a manual blender at a thrift store for making smoothies on the road
- Main Stage Gallery
- in the mine!
- Mine tunnel
- are we too late on this trend? (Planking at the US border)
- Sarah and Aaron
- Pretty!
- All my photos of the whole family came out blurry!
- Pretending to be Caribou on the Kootenay Pass
By Tara,on June 28th,2011% This has to kind of quick,because we just got in to a motel and want to see if there is a local saloon we can check out. We didn’t make it to our destination (Nelson) because we had the first car troubles of the whole trip. Nothing major went wrong. We got an oil change before leaving Vancouver,and then the car had trouble starting. When we stopped for gas in Chilliwack,it was even worse,so we went to the Canadian Tire across the street and it turns out that we needed a new battery. Distance today (+ driving in Vancouver all weekend):655 km Total distance driven:7042 km - Berries in Stanley Park that we tasted
- Climbing on the laughing man statue outside our hotel
- On the road again!
- Fresh Okanagen Fruit!
- We passed by the store that we are selling at in Osoyoos (We’d only been to the Calgary location)
- View of Osoyoos
- Group shot!
- We made some friends at the bar in Grand Forks
- Mounties
| About Slashpile DesignsTwin designers Tara and Courtney Neray have been creating jewellery since the age of two and a half. (Seriously!) Now with Slashpile Designs,they combine the product-oriented discipline of industrial design with the artistic quality of fine craft. Tara and Courtney are driven to create work of personal significance to the wearer. Drawing from an eclectic mix of experiences and interests,fused with a sense of humour and perceptive insight into human behaviour,they create pieces that are both meaningful to the wearer and pleasing to the eye. www.SlashpileDesigns.com |