Welcome to Collette Monuments
"A Family Owned Business" Monuments Crafted in Lewiston Maine with care and respect.
Etchings are done with a diamond
Chipped engraver, by hand. The diamond scratches the polish off of the
monument. It is permanent, won't wash off or fade over time. The
only way to get the etching off is to have the monument repolished.
Some people bring pictures of homes, others bring in portraits
to be etched. With portraits the "bigger the better". Tiny portraits provide no space to etch in the detail
that makes an individual face so individual. You can barely put in an eye ball
or a nose. The photograph from which
the artist works should also be large, at least 5 by 7 inches, and be studio quality.
With a 1 inch snapshot,
it's difficult to get a sense of the facial features, and as for the character lines and detail, they just
aren't there. The same goes with other photographs- the bigger, clearer the picture the better the etching.
A lot of detail can be put into an etching, if we have a nice photograph to work
from. You can bring photographs to our shop. The artist can look to
see if it will be a photograph that can be worked with.
