Slashpile Designs Blog
Slashpile Designs Virtual Shopping Tour - Flock Boutique November 04 2013
Uncommon goods for birds of a different feather. Read through to the bottom of the post to learn how you can win $25 to spend at Flock! We're going to go a little further for this week's stop in our virtual tour--we're heading to Ottawa! Located in the former House of Staples at 1275 Wellington St. West, Flock Boutique is the big sister to Workshop Boutique, a fashion staple in Ottawa’s Byward Market. You can check out their website at https://flockboutique.ca. Flock Boutique loves Canadian handmade - which is why they carry the work of over 160 of Canada's loveliest and most unique designers! They carry dresses & accessories, jewellery (of course!) scarves, mitts, finger puppets & the cutest little alternative baby section you have ever seen. The shop is fresh and fun and the vibe is grown up, work wearable, and ethically made The ladies of Flock also offer classes in sewing, knitting, jewellery-making, and various other crafty pastimes. Christina & Bridget, the duo behind Flock, met 9 years ago around 3am outside in the Byward Market building while they were waiting in a line up to sell their goodies on Canada Day. When the skies darkened and the winds started to pick up, they tied their tents together, thinking the weight would help them out. Instead, they had created a giant sail that had the pair gripping on for dear life while being pelted with hail and watching their handmade goodies slowly making their way into the storm drain! Christina and Bridget decided to open Workshop Boutique (their first store) 6 months later and Flock Boutique 5 years after that. They must be crazy, but they've done a wonderful job on both stores! Always a pleasure to stop by and spend some time looking around whenever we are in Ottawa!! :) Both Flock and Workshop Boutiques carry a wide selection of Slashpile Designs jewellery, so make sure you check them out when you're in town! [gallery ids="2405,2404,2403,2402,2401,2400"]The Slashpile Story June 26 2013
In 2006, we went treeplanting for the first time. Treeplanting is known to be an extremely difficult summer job. When we first arrived in the bush camp, people looked at us and thought there was no way we would last more than a week. But we did—we stayed the entire season, and were even top planters at our camp.
When you decide to do treeplanting, you commit to living in the bush for 4 months of the summer, living in a tent in very isolated camps in northern Canada (we planted mostly in Alberta). Everyday, you wake up super early to start planting trees, which you carry around with you all day over rough terrain, planting between 2000 and 4000 trees per day. You get paid per tree, so you have to work hard to make it worthwhile. There are bugs, swamps, extreme weather conditions, bears and many other challenges. That's not to say we didn't enjoy it--on the contrary! We had an amazing time and met such incredible people. We even went on to do more seasons, Tara as a tree checker (she had to have surgery on her shoulder after a year of planting) and I did 4 more seasons as a planter.
So back to the story--
In the clearcuts, there are these giant piles of sticks and logs, called Slashpiles. During the season, they kind of get in the way of planting, but at the end of our first season, we climbed them to photograph our ‘victory pose’ (see above, photo courtesy of Fabienne Good). After the season, we created a silver jewellery piece based on the slashpile, that was designed to be a medal for finishing the full season. This piece gave us the foundation of our branding for Slashpile Designs—every one of our pieces reflects a story, concept or achievement. And this piece is a prime example of how we do that.
We create jewellery, mainly in sterling silver. Unlike most jewellery, which is purely aesthetic, every piece has a story or concept behind it. Our products are designed to be personally significant to individuals, while at the same time, understood by a large audience. We get the inspiration for our pieces from our own lives, which we like to pack full of various activities, such as karate, snowboarding, roller derby…the list goes on. We are driven to create pieces that are both meaningful to the wearer and pleasing to the eye.
I hope this gives you a clearer insight into who we are and why we do what we do! If you take a look through our collections, hopefully you can even relate to some of our products with your own stories. We are constantly working to come up with new and exciting products that our customers can relate to with their own stories.
And now, a couple more treeplanting photos....