Stone Archives - UK Memorials

When it comes to choosing materials for memorials, there’s an impressive variety available, ranging from metals to plastics and wood. However, stone stands out as one of the best choices. Why? Its very versatile, it can include a wide variety of looks and styles and its exceptionally long lasting. In this blog, we’ll explore why stone memorials are a top contender and highlight the specific types of stone we recommend for memorials.

Slate Memorials

Slate is a timeless, understated material that brings elegance and character to any memorial. Each piece of slate is unique, featuring natural markings that make every memorial truly one-of-a-kind. We offer slate in several thicknesses, including 12mm, 20mm, 30mm, 50mm, and 75mm, along with popular slate wedges. It has a beautiful honed finish that’s not shiny, offering a subtle yet sophisticated look. You can choose between leaving the slate natural or having it oiled for a deeper, darker hue.

Some natural burial sites and churchyards accept slate, but we always recommend confirming with the burial ground first. We can help with any necessary paperwork to ensure a smooth process.

Slate is perfect for deep engraving, with the option of paint filling in any of our stock colours such as Memorial Gold, Silver, Black, White, and Purbeck. Our Memorial Gold and Silver paints even contain real gold leaf for a luxurious touch. Simple images can also be engraved and painted, while more intricate designs can be laser engraved, providing a stunning surface-level finish. For the ultimate personalized memorial, we can combine deep engraving with laser engraving for a detailed and unique effect.

If you’re seeking a vibrant, full-colour memorial, we also offer tough print plaques that can be inset into the slate for lasting colour. For smaller slate plaques, we can drill holes for wall mounting, or you can choose from our range of wrought iron plaque holders to display the memorial. For slate memorials placed on the ground, we recommend using slate risers to gently slope the plaque, preventing water from pooling in the engravings and prolonging the life of the paint.

Granite Memorials

Granite is another popular choice for memorials and shares many similarities with slate, such as a range of thicknesses and wedge-shaped options. It comes in a stunning array of colours, allowing for creative and meaningful combinations. Some of our favourite granite and lettering colour pairings include:

Black Granite with white or gold text
Celtic Granite with black or white text
Dark Grey Granite with gold or Purbeck stone letters
Green Granite with gold or white letters

Like slate, granite can also accommodate simple images, full-colour photo memorial plaques, and mounting options such as holes, stakes, or risers.

What sets granite apart from slate, however, is its ability to feature impact-engraved images. This process creates high-quality, detailed images that are surface engraved onto the stone, perfect for including photographs on the memorial. Additionally, granite can be honed to meet churchyard regulations that restrict polished surfaces, although this is not typically our preferred option.

Conclusion

Whether you choose slate or granite, stone is a durable, beautiful, and customisable material for memorials. Both materials offer a range of options to suit your preferences and can be personalised with engravings, colours, and images. With proper care, stone memorials provide lasting tributes to your loved ones.

Stone Wedge Memorials continue to be a popular choice here at UK Memorials but it can feel challenging to select the right material and design for the memorial you have in mind. Because

of this, we wanted to create a quick and easy guide to our most popular stone wedge memorials, slate and granite.

Generally speaking, memorial wedges are popular because they can be designed using long-lasting, hard-wearing stone which is ideal for outside usage. Unlike other memorials, you do not have to concern yourself with fixtures or fittings because they can simply be placed on the ground – their weightiness should keep them from moving about too much.

The memorial wedges can be designed in several ways. From direct engraving to a laser-etched inlay, impact engraving, and even the option to include a full-colour plaque, there should be a way to design a memorial wedge that fits your vision here at UK Memorials.

Slate Wedge Memorials

Slate has always been a popular choice for wedge memorials. Slate’s overall appearance is understated yet elegant, the engraving is clear to read and the simplicity feels appropriate for memorial pieces. Some prefer the fact that slate has a less glossy finish than other stones like granite. We appreciate that everybody will have a different preference when it comes to memorials, but we think these slate memorial wedges are rather special.

High-quality, bespoke slate memorials crafted at UK Memorials.

The timeless slate memorial wedges come in a small range of shapes, sizes and thicknesses so that you can select or design one that is right for you. Typically the lettering is sandblasted into the slate and left as it is, however, here at UK Memorials, we can also fill the lettering in with paint. The black paint looks particularly effective although we can also use white, light grey, light green, gold or silver – all of which would allow the lettering to stand out.

Granite Wedge Memorials

Granite is a material known for its glossy finish and quality feel. It is a popular choice for memorial wedges because it creates stand-out pieces that honour a loved one beautifully. Granite lasts well and maintains its fine appearance throughout its lifespan. The granite can be honed if required by the burial ground.

At UK Memorials, we stock three different colours of granite for our wedges which is black, light grey and dark grey. Using a sandblasting technique, the letting is engraved in the wedges directly before being filled in with paint in one of several colours. The colours include black, grey, cream, white, silver, gold and dark blue. Plus many more.

Beautiful granite wedge memorials that ooze quality.

We can also include simple images on these pieces which is a lovely personalised touch for a memorial. We have a range of standard images but you could also choose to submit one of your own.

Memorial Wedges with Inserted Plaque

Some individuals like to have more detail on their wedge, In this instance, opting for a memorial wedge with a plaque may be the best option for you. The most popular material for these plaques is our stone-like-Corian which comes in a range of colours. Another popular choice is cast bronze memorials.

This can be a good choice for those wanting longer text tributes, poems or small illustrations and images. We can laser etch the details into the plaque which we cannot do in the same way directly onto the stone. This broadens your options and enables you to design a memorial that fits with everything that you are looking for.

Stone memorial wedges with detailed plaques mounted on top.

Photo Plaques

Adding a photo or image to a stone memorial wedge can be a beautiful addition to the memorial plaque. On the Slate wedges or on a plaque such as Corian that is mounted onto a wedge you can have a simple engraved image that is painted.

If you were to opt for a black granite wedge then you have the choice to add an impact engraved image. This works best on black granite as it has the most contrast, the photos that come out are quite extraordinary.

Impact engraved black granite memorials.

Full colour memorial plaques are also a popular choice here at UK Memorials. These plaques can be made from porcelain or anodised aluminium, the plaques are then slightly inset into the stone. Visit our main website to learn more

Full-colour photo memorial plaques inset into stone.

Overall, the stone wedges are a great choice for a memorial. Their bold appearance and practicality make for a great combination. These pieces make a statement while also being a wonderful way to reflect on a loved one that you have lost. Slate’s elegant appearance is hugely popular and granite’s classic appearance is timelessly sophisticated.

At UK Memorials, we pride ourselves on being able to design in line with your specifications so if you have any questions or queries, do not hesitate to contact us directly.

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Tag: Stone

Why Stone is an Excellent Material for Memorials