Another Custom Production Project

Here are some images of two custom corbels we CNC machined for a client. They are made from laminated (glued together) strips of solid black walnut. The pieces were finish sanded, but left raw for the client to incorporate into a large kitchen island in someone's home.

Natural beauty and a little bit of bling!

We recently completed an interesting and unique project - custom jewelry boxes in solid walnut. 

One of the prototypes gets a test-drive with 
a diamond engagement ring.

The intriguing containers were designed by award-winning design firm Johnson Chou Design, for !Xam Diamonds. This Toronto boutique creates beautiful jewelry with ethically sourced South African diamonds, including intriguing rough stones. You can see images of their custom designs on their Facebook page. 

The unique designs definitely deserve a unique jewelry box to house them and we were happy to assist in their production. Here are some images of the process involved.

The boxes are produced in multiples on our CNC router 
to maximize production efficiency.

Stacks of the milled boxes awaiting separation 
and finish sanding.

Another view of the milled boxes. There were 500 in total.

One of the prototypes with its natural hand-rubbed oil finish. 
You can see the leather hinge and magnets that are used to keep 
the two halves closed securely. In the end, the leather hinge 
was chosen over the metal hinge for its more 
natural organic aesthetic.

Bruce gives each box a final buffing before shipping.

The finished box, open.

The finished box, closed.

The boxes had the !Xam logo embossed on the wood in silver foil. This tricky task was expertly done by Toronto printing house The Press Connection.

Sheridan students come for a visit

We are happy to partner with Sheridan College, which has a great Furniture program in their Craft and Design Faculty. This is our second year setting a project with the Year 2 Commercial Furniture Class, taught by industrial designer Kirsten White. The course focuses on furniture design for production and introduces students to the concepts of designing product for a client, producing designs in multiples, designing for efficiency in production, cost considerations, etc.

We particularly enjoy the partnership because it gives us a chance to interact with the students and re-connect with the energy of student minds. We also offer the students the possibility of producing and adding their designs to our collection if they create a particularly successful project.

Having been design students ourselves, we remember the incredible importance of industry exposure and the valuable critiques of design professionals that helped to hone our design skills. We hope to pass on a bit of our experience and knowledge of the industry. In the end, everyone benefits.

The students recently joined us for a "grand tour" of the workshop.  

The students watch as Chad demonstrates machining on the CNC router.

Here Chad demonstrates our edgebander. 

For anyone who has edge-banded panels by hand (a time-consuming process), an edge-bander holds a certain special appeal!

The students join us in our office for a question and answer session after the tour of the workshop.

Happy Birthday to Us!

January 2012 marks Speke Klein's 13th birthday! 

We have weathered some pretty serious storms (literally) and are happy to reach this milestone.

Thank you to all our customers, colleagues, friends and family who have helped us throughout the past 13 years. We could not have done it without you!

With best wishes for the year ahead,

Robin & Thomas
Speke Klein

Happy Holidays!

Putting the Mo in Movember

So all of our employees did their part for Movember, sporting a little facial hair for a good cause. Here are a couple of pics to prove it.

A Shout Out for MimiTENS (and a visual plug for Speke Klein)

Lovely entrepreneurial mom, Anna-Marie of MimiTENS, got a huge boost to her business when celebrity style guru Gwyneth Paltrow raved about the fabulous children's mittens in her popular lifestyle newsletter GOOP. 

Here, Anna-Maria is interviewed about the brush with celebrity. Why is Speke Klein interested? Not only do we like MimiTENS, but the walnut table she displays her wares on is one of our Quinn tables! Check it out!