Company Profile

Creative Edge Master Shop: exterior view

Abrasive Assembly Area

Jim Belilove and Harri Aalto

Visitors to Creative Edge see waterjet in action

Waterjet machine cutting steel

Some waterjet projects contain thousands of pieces

Terrazzo frames

Aalto Design team

Introduction

Creative Edge Master Shop, Inc. is the largest and most experienced independent waterjet fabrication and design company in the United States. The company designs and fabricates a variety of architectural and industrial products using its high technology computer-controlled waterjet cutting process. This technology emerged in the mid 1980’s as an affordable alternative cutting technique for stone with significant competitive advantages over traditional cutting methods.

Creative Edge Master Shop is a pioneer and leader in this industry with a national reputation. The advantages of the waterjet process extend beyond its cost competitiveness with other cutting techniques. Waterjet allows for the fabrication of many materials for which there are no effective alternative methods. Waterjet also offers advantages for cutting complex shapes and intricate designs, not otherwise economically achievable. Waterjet can be used to cut an almost unlimited number of materials from solid metals to resilient flooring.

Creative Edge Master Shop has established a prominent position in the U.S. waterjet fabrication market. In the architectural field, the company offers complete design and project management capabilities, from conceptual design through installation. The company is an industry leader with a strong base of world class customers and a portfolio of prominent, innovative national projects.
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Management:

Jim Belilove: President

Jim Belilove guides Creative Edge Master Shop’s strategy and finance operations. Jim has many years of experience in business strategy, machine technology, sales, marketing, and factory operations. Jim is also a real estate developer of the SunnyBrook chain of Assisted Living homes in Iowa. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School.

Harri Aalto: Partner / Creative Director

Harri Aalto is a co-founder of Creative Edge Master Shop. Born in Finland, he later moved to Toronto where he graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1968. For a number of years he was commissioned to do artwork in various countries around the world in the fine arts and public arts fields as a sculptor and designer. During the early to mid 1980’s he had a design studio in Switzerland where he began working with marble, granite and ceramic tile. It was during this time that he was introduced to waterjet cutting technology and realized its unlimited design capabilities. As Creative Director for Creative Edge Master Shop, he has established a national reputation for design excellence. He has successfully established Creative Edge Master Shop as a leader and pioneer in the architectural and design community. The value added design capability provided under his leadership has distinguished Creative Edge Master Shop from other waterjet fabricators.
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Customers and Projects

Creative Edge Master Shop has established an excellent base of well-known and highly regarded customers. The company has contributed to a number of landmark architectural projects such as O’Hare International Airport, Monsanto Headquarters, World of Coca Cola in Las Vegas, the Astronauts’ Memorial at Kennedy Space Center, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, the Meadowlands Sports Complex, the Federal Reserve Bank in Minnesota, shopping centers, airports, hotels, casinos, convention centers and prestigious residences throughout the U.S.A. have Creative Edge signature projects.
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Full Service for Architectural Finishes

Creative Edge Master Shop is a full service integrated company serving architects, interior designers, landscape architects, contractors, developers, project managers, and residential owners around the globe.

• Fine art
• Creative design
• Architectural specifications and approvals
• Material sourcing
• Metals, glass, slabs, stone tile, ceramics, VCT, sheet linoleum
• Fabrication
• Assembly, detailing, grouting
• Polishing, welding, bending, etching
• Installation specifications
• Installation supervision
• Export shipping

After 22 years, Creative Edge Master Shop remains the largest shop of its kind, 125,000 SF with twelve waterjet systems producing 50-100 projects every month. Creative Edge Master Shop has unparalleled experience with every type of material and a huge array of applications.
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Design Team:

Creative Edge's Design Team, Aalto Design, is headed by Finnish-born, European-trained, Harri Aalto, who is known world-wide for his long and varied carreer in the visual arts, designing for international heads-of-state and other dignitaries, and for luxury homeowners in the USA, Europe and Asia. For more than twenty years, Harri has been designing in precious materials and stone. Harri’s work integrates the harmony characteristic of classical design elements with a contemporary flare, creating designs that are fitting to the current look of interior spaces.

Aalto Design Inc. is a family design firm that also includes Harri’s wife, Catherine, and daughters, Annie, and Maria.

Annie grew up in the decorative flooring industry and earned a BFA (with emphasis on metals and jewelry) from Savanna College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2002. Since this time, she has worked with Creative Edge Master Shop and has become an expert in all phases of the design and manufacturing process. She has developed her own design style that is received with enthusiam by home and hotel owners world-wide.

Catherine is an expert illustrator and is the creative force behind the murals and many of the fine art pieces that have been produced at Creative Edge Master Shop.

Maria is an artist in her own right, and is currently attending the prestigious Parsons, The New School of Design. She has become expert in many of the software programs required by the business.
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