Author Archives: HiOctane

My ultra-hip cousin and her fiance are getting married this summer up on a grassy bluff overlooking Puget Sound at Fort Worden Sate Park in Washington state.  I have had the pleasure of gathering ideas, sharing ideas and enjoying the wedding planning process with her.  My cousin Lace works for Washington Trails Association.  So I would say she is in touch with nature.  She does things like rock climb, biking and mountain trekking.  She travels to far away places like the Palawan in the Philippines and Central Mexico.  She is much more well traveled than I.  Her fiance looks through lens all day at amazing architecture and captures it just right. I am pretty sure they are on their way to sweet-ful bliss.

Brad and I got the opportunity to create wedding bands for this wonderful couple.  I thought with these two people who are out playing in nature and really are a clear example of outdoors-man and woman.  Their ring should capture that spirit.  So I took off away from my computer to find nature.  Tree bark was on my mind.  Well, in coastal southern California land of a thousand palm trees my hunt for a tree with some cool bark brought me to a place I like to take small hikes around with my kids.  It is called Hospital Grove Park it is Carlsbad, CA.  It has a bluff that overlooks Buena Vista Lagoon, which is Spanish for “good view,” the Buena Vista Lagoon lives up to its name with scenic views of the ocean and notoriously good bird watching.  It has tons of Eucalyptus trees which have many pieces of bark literally falling all over the place.

I rounded up a few pieces with texture and different degrees of texture.

I sent Lace a few pics of the bark to get her thoughts.  She said she always gravitates toward simple bands. So I decided. We should not get to crazy here with bark, maybe keep most of the band smooth but with a touch of bark.

If you are wondering how we go from bark to wax.  We actually seal the bark slightly and then create mold around it of RTV molding compound. The RTV mold picks up the details of the bark incredibly well.  We then pour wax into the mold and pull out wax bark.  We then create sized wax ring shanks and apply the wax bark to them.  Here the rings are, ready for casting.  We will then invest them and cast them.

When they are complete I will post more photos.