Slashpile Designs Blog
Blythe & JP's Country Chic Wedding July 11 2014
Wedding season is in full swing, which means we're just about wrapping up our bridal projects for this summer--but there are still a few more to reveal to you later on...;)
We had the absolute pleasure and honour of making wedding bands for our good friends, Blythe and JP who live in Montreal. Since we live in different cities, the process of making the rings was pretty unique! We had a Skype meeting to discuss design directions and go over sketches and they didn't get to actually see their rings in person until the night before their wedding! Lucky for all us, they fit perfectly!
Blythe's ring features 15 pavé diamonds across the top half of a 1.5mm thick half round band. JP's ring is a simple 3mm wide band ring. Both rings are 14 karat white gold and their fingerprints are engraved on the inside of each other's ring.
Barbara & Duncan married each other all over again --with special custom rings we made for them! July 08 2014
Barbara & Duncan celebrated their tenth anniversary of their first date by marrying each other all over again with a lovely and romantic ceremony in Big Sur! Following the ceremony, they hiked 12 miles up the local mountains. We made these 18 karat white gold viking style bands for their special day. To read the full story of their second wedding, check out Duncan's blog here!
These pieces were super interesting to work on because they really used such a perfect combination of new technology and traditional jewellery techniques. We first modeled the rings in CAD, without the texture. In this step, we create a file for each ring that is sized to the customer. Each file is 3-D printed in wax and then cast in the metal of choice (18 karat white gold in this case!)
The casting comes back covered in plaster and with a sprue attached, so they require a fair amount of clean up. This is done with very simple hand tools, such as files and sandpaper. We gradually improve the finish, step by step, until we get to 600 grit sandpaper. It gets tumbled to make it shinier and then Tara then applies the texture by hand, using our flex shaft (dremel) with a round bur (like a drill bit with a round top). Each ring is then polished up to perfection!
Here are some process shots!