Frequently Asked Questions

A soft, dry cloth for dust, and a slightly damp one for anything more stubborn. Dry it afterwards rather than leaving it to air dry, which can leave water spots on steel.

For fingerprints, put a little glass cleaner on the cloth, never straight onto the steel, and wipe with the grain rather than in circles. If you would like more of a shine, a non-abrasive stainless steel polish works well, applied sparingly to the cloth in the same way.

What to avoid: scouring pads, cream cleaners, bleach, and anything described as a scrub or a scourer. The engraved image sits in the surface of the metal, so an abrasive will dull it. Handling it by the edges where you can will keep the face clean for far longer than any amount of cleaning will.

Almost certainly nothing. This is usually about where the piece is sitting rather than the piece itself.

Steel is reflective, so an engraving behaves a little like a photograph behind glass. What it faces changes what you see. Sit it facing a bright window and the light bounces straight back at you, flattening the picture. Give it a darker part of the room to look at, and the contrast returns, and the detail comes back with it.

So if yours looks washed out where it is, do try it somewhere else before you worry.

Where it looks its best

• Facing something darker, a wall in shadow or a bookcase, rather than a window.
• Lit from the side or above, so light rakes across the surface rather than bouncing back at you.
• Leaning back slightly, which is what the stand is for.
• At arm's length or further. Up close you can see the texture of the engraving itself, and from a step back it settles into the photograph.

Where it will struggle

• Directly facing a bright window or a patio door, particularly with the sun on it.
• Flat on a table, where it can only reflect the ceiling.
• Under a downlight pointed straight at it.

It is worth trying a few spots before you settle, and moving your own head as well. Unlike a print, the image shifts as you move, and finding the angle where it comes alive is part of how the object works.

The engraving is done by laser, which is what gives the detail its accuracy. The plate is then cut, the edges worked back, the surface cleaned and the piece checked under a light before it is boxed, all by hand.

So each one carries small traces of being made individually: a faint variation in the brushed grain, an edge worked a little differently, a slight difference in tone between two pieces. Steel varies from sheet to sheet too. These are characteristics of the process rather than faults.

What we would never send you is a scratch across the image, a mark you can catch a fingernail on, a sharp edge, or an engraving that has not come out cleanly. If yours arrives and something is not right, tell us and we will put it right.

Left as the natural steel finish, with nothing added. No felt, no backing board and no printed panel, just the reverse of the same solid sheet the front is engraved into.

It reaches you finished, so there is nothing to peel off or unwrap before you stand it up.

The image will not fade. It is not ink, toner or a printed coating on top of the metal, it is the surface of the metal itself, so there is nothing there to bleach out in sunlight, peel, bubble or yellow with age.

Stainless steel resists corrosion very well, but nothing is completely immune. Prolonged damp, salt air or standing water can eventually mark any stainless. Keep it indoors, keep it dry, and it will comfortably outlive the photograph it came from.

Yes, and framed pieces look wonderful. Your keepsake is supplied flat, at standard photo sizes, so it drops straight into an off-the-shelf frame. A mount around it suits the larger sizes particularly well.

Two things worth knowing. Solid 2mm steel is heavier than a print, so use a frame that can carry the weight and a proper wall fixing rather than adhesive strips. And a piece flat against a wall reflects whatever is opposite it, so pick a wall that faces the room rather than a window, and it will read beautifully.

A picture ledge is the other lovely option, and it keeps the gentle lean that shows the engraving off. Whatever you have in mind, just ask and we will help you get it right.

Sharp focus, even light and clear separation between the subject and the background. The original file straight from a camera or phone is always better than a copy that has been sent through a messaging app, saved from social media or screenshotted, because every one of those steps throws away detail.

Upload it in the Preview Studio and we check the resolution as you go, tell you where it sits, and show you the piece in 3D before you commit to anything. The full photo guide has the recommended minimums for each size.

Very often, yes. Every engraving is rendered in monochrome anyway, so a black and white original loses nothing at all in translation.

What matters far more than age is contrast. An old photograph with real tonal range engraves beautifully. One that has faded to a flat, even grey has less for the laser to work with, and the result will be softer. If yours is a photograph of a photograph, take it in good, even daylight, straight on rather than at an angle, and avoid flash, which bounces off the print surface.

Upload it and see. The quality check gives you a straight answer before you spend anything, and if we have concerns once your order is in we will email you rather than press on regardless.

You are told before you buy, not after. The studio rates your file for the size you have chosen, and if it falls below what we would recommend you will see that plainly, along with a suggestion of a smaller size where that would help.

We do not block it. It is your photograph, and sometimes the only surviving copy of an irreplaceable moment is a low resolution one that is still absolutely worth making into something. In that case you tick a box to confirm you understand it will look soft, and we go ahead. Every order is also looked over by a person before engraving, and we will email you if something has been missed.

You set the crop yourself in the studio by dragging and zooming, and what you compose there is exactly what we engrave, so nothing is decided for you behind the scenes.

Beyond that we make only the small tonal adjustments needed to translate a photograph onto steel well. We do not retouch, remove backgrounds, combine images or edit people in or out. If your photograph needs that kind of work, have it done first and upload the finished version, or ask us and we will tell you whether what you want is possible.

No. Every piece is monochrome, and that is a deliberate choice rather than a limitation we are working around. Colour photographs are converted for engraving, and the result has a stillness to it that suits a wedding portrait and a memorial equally well.

The 5×7 suits a desk, a bedside table or a crowded shelf. The 8×8 square is well suited to couples, pets and close-up portraits. The 8×10 has genuine presence and is the one to choose if it is going to be the thing you notice when you walk into the room.

Two practical points. Your photograph's shape matters as much as its size: a tall portrait will need cropping to fit a square, and you decide what stays in frame. And a larger piece asks more of your file, so if your photograph is a modest resolution the smaller size will give the better result. The studio shows you both of these before you buy.

Yes. Upload your photograph in the Preview Studio and you will see it engraved on steel in 3D, turning under studio lighting, with your own crop applied.

It is a preview rather than a promise. Final tone, contrast and fine detail vary with each photograph and with the steel itself, so the real piece will not be pixel for pixel what you saw on screen. It will give you a very good sense of it.

Not through the website at the moment. What you upload is what gets engraved. If added text matters to you, get in touch before ordering and tell us what you have in mind, and we will let you know honestly whether we can do it and what it would involve.

Then do not choose it. Some photographs are too personal for anyone else to pick, which is exactly why we sell gift cards. They arrive by email within minutes, they never expire, and the person receiving one chooses their own image and their own crop.

One is included free if you want it. There is a tick box in the Preview Studio when you design your keepsake, ticked by default, and you can untick it if you already know where your piece is going.

White acrylic, with the logo cut into the back panel and the wordmark along the base. Your keepsake sits into the channel at the front and leans back against the easel behind it. It carries our mark and then stays out of the way, so the steel remains the thing you look at. More about the stand, with photographs.

Yes, spares and replacements are available separately. Useful if a keepsake has moved room, if you have a piece you would like to stand somewhere new, or if the original has picked up scratches over the years.

Acrylic scratches more easily than steel does, so a soft dry cloth is all it wants. Avoid abrasives, and avoid solvent-based cleaners, which can cloud the surface and lift the printed branding.

Five to eight working days from order to dispatch. Every piece is made individually once you order it, and that window covers checking your photograph, engraving and hand-finishing. Tracked delivery is on top of that, usually a couple of days.

We would rather quote honestly and deliver early than the other way around. Full detail is in our shipping policy.

Please get in touch before you order and tell us the date. We will tell you plainly whether it is achievable, and if it is not we will say so rather than take the order and hope.

If time is very short, a smaller size is quicker to make and finish, and that is often the difference between yes and no.

UK delivery is free on every keepsake, sent tracked once your piece is ready. That is permanent, not an introductory offer. We do not currently ship outside the UK, so if you are ordering from elsewhere please ask first.

Every keepsake is made to order from your own photograph, so it is personalised goods, and personalised items are generally outside the usual right to cancel an online order. In practice this means we cannot simply resell a piece that carries somebody else's photograph on it.

That does not affect your rights if something is wrong. If your keepsake arrives damaged, faulty or not as described, you are covered, and we will replace it or refund you. If we have made a mistake, or the engraving quality falls short of what it should be, we reprint free.

The returns and refunds policy is the authoritative version, and if you are unsure where you stand, just ask us.

Email us with your order number and a photograph of the damage, including the packaging if you still have it. We will sort it out. You do not need to argue the case with us first.

It is used to make your keepsake and nothing else. It is not sold, not shared and not used in our marketing unless you have specifically told us we may. Uploaded photographs are deleted ninety days after your order is completed, which leaves enough time to remake a piece if something goes wrong, and no longer.

Order records themselves are kept for six years, as UK accounting rules require. The privacy policy sets out the detail.

Not without asking you first, every time. We would sooner have an emptier feed than post somebody's family without permission.

Yes, and we would like to work with more. There is a partner scheme with a referral commission and a discount for the customer, and we are happy to send a physical sample so you can judge the quality for yourself rather than take our word for it.

Business enquiries go here.