Photos from customers

In the wild.
Where the work ended up.

Most of what leaves this shop we never see again. These are the jobs that came back to us as photos — bolted to a bench, hung over a cabin door, screwed to a break-room wall, worn across a stage.

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Grace Theological Seminary · Winona Lake, Indiana

Medallions that crossed a stage

Two designs in one run. The seminary crest — shield, menorah, open book, est. 1937 — and the Akademia master's medallion, engraved onto brushed discs with a drilled tab for the ribbon.

Nothing about a graduation medallion is forgiving. Every piece has to match the one beside it, the crest has to stay readable at the size of a coin, and there is exactly one date it cannot be late for.

Then the photos came back. That part you don't get to see from the shop.

Piece: Graduation medallions, drilled for ribbon
Designs: Seminary crest, and the Akademia master's
Finish: Brushed metal, engraved
Seen at: Commencement, Winona Lake

In the shop

Three matching metal discs side by side — the engraved crest, a polished blank, and a rough one. — The finished piece, a polished blank, and a rough one. Every medallion goes through all three stages.

Ten identical medallions engraved AKADEMIA · MASTER OF ARTS around a shield bearing a capital A. — The Akademia design, part-way through the run. Every one has to match.

A round brushed-metal medallion engraved with the Grace Theological Seminary crest and the words EST. 1937. — The crest side — shield, menorah, open book, *est. 1937*.

Commencement day

Five graduates in caps and gowns outdoors, wearing the medallions on ribbons. — Worn over the gown, diploma still in hand.

Four graduates holding diploma folders, each wearing an engraved medallion on a ribbon. — Out front afterwards. The medallion is the bit that goes home.

Graduates and faculty in robes posed outside the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center. — The whole group, outside the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center.

A memorial bench

“I hope you had the time of your life”

A small plate, black on top and engraved through to the bright metal underneath, carrying a line worth sitting down for.

Engraved lettering doesn't fade and it doesn't lift, which is the whole argument against a printed or vinyl label on something that will live outdoors. Four corner holes, sitting flat on the rail.

The second photo is the one that counts.

Piece: Memorial bench plaque
Finish: Black plate, engraved to bright metal
Fixing: Four drilled corner holes
Now: On the back rail of the bench

Shop, then bench

A black plaque engraved in bright serif lettering with a memorial line and a name. — On the bench in the shop. Cut into the plate, not printed on it.

A wooden garden bench with the black memorial plaque fixed to the centre of its top rail. — And where it lives now, centred on the top rail.

Norm's place · a cabin door

Engraved into a board that already had a life

This one turned up as a length of grey, weathered barn board — split grain, saw marks, the lot. Not a blank.

Boards like this are the good jobs and the nervous ones at the same time. There's no second copy, the surface is uneven, and every pass has to be deep enough to read against the grey without sanding the character off the face of it.

It's over the cabin door now, which is exactly where it belongs.

Piece: Cabin sign
Material: Reclaimed weathered board, customer supplied
Process: Laser engraved, left unfinished
Now: Above the door

Shop, then door

A weathered grey barn board on a workbench, engraved in large serif letters reading Norms place. — Straight off the laser. One board, no second copy.

The engraved board mounted on dark siding above a white-framed cabin door. — Hung over the door, against the dark siding.

WM · Warsaw Hauling

A board that gets a new name every month

Employee of the Month plaques are the definition of repeat work. The header plate is done once; the name plates come through in ones and twos, month after month, and each one has to sit beside the last as if they were all cut on the same day.

Black plates engraved through to gold, bevelled edge left bright. Same typeface, same layout, same plate size — whether it's plate one or plate ten.

Standing orders like this are some of our favourite work. We keep the file, so next month is a phone call and a name.

Piece: Employee-of-the-Month plaque and plates
Finish: Black plate engraved to gold, bevelled edge
Run: A plate or two a month, ongoing
Now: On the wall at Warsaw Hauling

Shop, then wall

Five black-and-gold engraved name plates in a row, each with a name and a month of 2025. — Five months' worth, engraved and ready to go out.

The black Employee of the Month plaque on a wall, with four name plates fitted and empty slots below. — On the wall — plates fitted, and slots still waiting.

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If we made something for you and it's found its home, we'd like to see it. Customer photos are the only reason this page exists — and the only way it gets longer.

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In the wild.Where the work ended up.