Designing a memorial piece: what we ask before we start

Memorial commissions are a different kind of work. The brief is rarely about what the piece should look like — it's about who it's for. So we start with conversation, not sketches.

The questions we ask

We'll ask about the person. Not their dates — their colours. Did they have a garden? A coat they always wore? A stretch of coast they kept going back to? One recent piece was built entirely around the exact blue-green of the North Sea at Portobello on an overcast day, because that's where the family had walked every Sunday for thirty years. We spent longer matching that colour than firing the piece.

We'll also ask where the piece will live. A panel that hangs in a window works with daylight and reads differently at every hour, which many families find comforting — the piece keeps changing, keeps being noticed. A freestanding piece for a shelf or hearth is more constant, more private. Neither is better; they just remember differently.

What we won't do

We won't rush one. Grief has its own timetable and so does glass — a memorial piece typically takes four to six weeks, with a pause built in after the design stage. Almost every family changes something after living with the drawings for a fortnight, and the piece is always better for it.

We also won't push for more than is needed. Sometimes the right piece is small: a single fused tile in the right colours, made to be held. Some of the most important work that has left this studio would fit in a coat pocket.

Starting the conversation

There's no obligation and no fee for the first conversation. Tell us as much or as little as you like through the contact page, and we'll go from there — at whatever pace suits.