A custom headstone is something that can only be built and developed for someone who lived a full life with an equally amazing story to tell. The physical custom headstone can be composed of many granite types, shapes, and polishes.
The granite we use to design your custom headstone is of the highest quality and will be sourced from quarries all over the world. With such an exotic granite selection, we can achieve some really awe-inspiring shapes and memorial designs.
Being a natural product, and one that was literally carved from this earth means that each piece of granite we design for you will have its own unique spots and grain. This only adds to the uniqueness of each piece and the overall memorial.
At Santa Barbara Monumental, we pride ourselves on delivering a one-of-a-kind custom gravestone that you will be able to look upon with fond memories of your loved one.
In this article, we are going to cover how each piece of granite that comes through our shop is one of a kind. How the shape can tell as much of the story as the letters, and finally, what mix and matching granite colors can do for the overall design.
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The shape of a memorial can be uniform, like many of the common headstones you might see at the cemetery. Strong square edges and a big bold font to etch your loved one’s name with. It is only in looking at the most custom of headstones that we begin to see custom shapes carved in, or even carved out as you can see in the tree upright memorial for Mr. Kessler here.
Each one of those leaves is hand-carved by our artisan memorialists, all from the original vision of the initial design drawing. In Mr. Kessler’s case, he was very fond of resting beneath the mighty coastal redwoods in the Big Sur area just north of our studio here in Santa Barbara, thus his name and story also rest beneath the overhanging foliage.
Another way to aid in customizing using shaping is to go completely different than the memorials around your plot and incorporate a way for viewers of the memorial to sit, and also rest near their loved ones.
Here you can see how the Eiler Family decided to honor their very supportive parents with a long granite memorial bench. The rocky supports are meant to symbolize the “rock-solid support” that those memorialized gave to the rest of their family.
Overall, a touching tribute for those lost, but never forgotten for their hard work and loyalty to the Eiler Family.
Mixing and Matching Granite colors can really aide in memorializing 2 or more people with very different backgrounds or tastes.
For the Parisi Family (pictured) they wanted to encompass Nick’s love of clean polished lines and order, and Landa’s love of roses and the color red.
The memorial also features their respective photos of them living their best lives. Using red, black, and “white” or gray granites allowed the Parisi Family to design the perfect memorial.
Using different granite colors and shapes also allows your loved one’s memorial to stand out above all else. As seen here with the Tran Family Memorial, the high arching pagoda top is the link between all of the family members memorialized below.
The true beauty of this design is the fact that although connected by the family name of Tran, each family member has their own story to tell and thus their own pillar.
Now that you have reviewed your color options, design ideas, and even the price range of your loved one’s slanted headstone, it’s time to set an appointment with our Artisan Memorialist Jed Hendrickson. He and his Santa Barbara Monumental Team will engrave your loved one’s story and make that engraving last for generations to come.
