Slashpile Designs Blog

Blythe & JP's Country Chic Wedding July 11 2014, 0 Comments

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.

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Barbara & Duncan married each other all over again --with special custom rings we made for them! July 08 2014, 0 Comments

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!


Fall Fun! September 30 2011, 0 Comments

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! Here are some photos of the finished ring!

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