The Technique Behind Much Of What We Do: Sandblasting

Anyone who has witnessed sandblasting first-hand will know that magical feeling... the moment the piece of stone or glass beneath the screen is transformed from a simple, plain object into a detailed work-of-art with real dimension and value. But simple as the process appears to be, there's a lot more to this technique than first meets the eye. With some engineering processes it's all about numbers and levels, but that's never been the case with monumental sandblasting, which is a separate entity in itself and considered by many to be a kind of art-form. Instead, to create the granite, marble and slate memorials sold online through Pets At Rest, company founder Stuart Gebbie uses a combination of hand-eye-coordination, skill and intuition learned over time... and hundreds of pieces transported up and down the country to many happy people!

For those who are unfamiliar with sandblasting, the basic premise behind the idea, when it first appeared, was to accelerate the natural process of erosion. The first machine was developed in 1870 by a now-infamous Benjamin Tilghman, whose objective was to remove paint and rust from the surface of various materials – something which, up until then, had been a virtually impossible task and a thing of laborious manual effort. Later on, some 34 years following this, sandblasting received a new injection of engineering mastery. Thomas Pangborn was the name of the man who forced sandblasting machinery into its crucial next stage of development. By harnessing the power of compressed air and using a specially developed grinder particle, sandblasting quickly became sleeker, easier to control and a viable solution for etching relief designs into all kinds of surfaces which before had proved impenetrable. Another huge reason for sandblasting was obvious, even in its inception: instead of having to carve lettering, a person could apply the nozzle and compressed air and bore into the surface of the object with an even appearance that would take many hours to carve by hand. Hence, monumental masonry was quick to embrace the technique.

Ever since then, sandblasting has proved enormously successful as a means of turning an otherwise bland piece of stone into a much more interesting object. Additionally, technology has made vast improvements on the technique, with everything from quartz and silicon carbide to walnut shells being used as grinder particles.

Nowadays, sandblasting machinery is more advanced than ever before, but despite the huge leaps in progress which the technique has enjoyed – making machinery more affordable and reducing the risks posed by industrial accidents – it's still a medium which requires a large amount of skill to master. Each and every sandblasted memorial produced by Stuart is a masterpiece on its own. Just have a look at some of these great-looking designs and see for yourself!

Got an idea for a pet memorial? In that case, we'd love to hear it

We don't want to show-off too much (honest!) but here are a few facts about Pets At Rest:

1: we love what we do, but our business is nothing without suggestions and feedback from you.

2: we've been creating the finest pet memorials for years, but we don't only do memorials. We can also offer you a variety of urns and other ways to remember your beloved pet(s).

3: we're really very proud of our new photo memorial service. A black granite model, complete with intricate image, costs in the region of £65 upwards, depending on size and other things. If you'd like a rustic sandstone pet memorial with image then this is available for just under £96. You can see a range of what we do by clicking here.

4: we love challenges. Have an idea which nobody else has been able to help you with? Then give us a call us on 01638 750 066 or email us and we'll see what we can do to make it happen once and for all!

5: we don't like pets dying any more than anyone else does, but sadly it is a fact of life. What we can do, though, is help you through the process. Our system has been designed with your feelings in mind, and our aim is to create a durable, long-lasting memorial for you which you can look at and feel proud of owning.

6: have you found that another company is doing memorials cheaper? Then you can always come to us and ask us to match it. We can't promise we can always do this -- some photo memorials require more work than others -- but we can promise we will listen to you and consider your point of view.

Have some feedback for us about something you feel we could do better? Then please do feel free to leave it with us at our website www.petsatrest.co.uk

We don't just do memorials for cats & dogs!

Everyone knows someone who has lost a pet, and with so many people owning cats and dogs, we're always hearing the sad news of a beloved pet passing.

But what about all the other animals people own? Where do you find a memorial for your horse, for example?

Here of course!  Since the beginning we've been looking after the legacies of all kinds of animals -- and we do mean all kinds. Here are a few things we've done in the past and we guarantee that at least one of them will surprise you.

1: Headstones for reptiles: believe it or not, people have come to us and asked us to create fitting memorials for lizards, snakes, mischievous turtles and thoughtful tortoises.

2: Pets At Rest have also produced headstones for ferrets and rats, as well as chinchillas, too.

3: We've done great-looking urns for Cockatoos also.

In fact, you name it and we have probably done it at some point. Not only that but we also do...

* Photo pet memorials

* Rustic stone pet memorials

* Bespoke text pet memorials

* Pet tribute keepsakes and pet coffins

Feel free to have a look around and if you need us, you know where we are.

Best wishes,

Team Pets At Rest.

Pets At Rest: We Don't Approve Your Artwork Until You're 100% Happy!

100% Approved Artwork

Here at Pets at Rest, we're well aware that there are other people doing monuments, urns and headstones for cats, dogs and even horses. That's business for you! But while that may be true, we do feel that there are a few unique things we do that not everyone else does. One of those things is approving your artwork first before we start creating your piece, and giving you complete control. There are a few reasons for this, but the top 3 are as follows:

1) By getting your final approval before we go ahead with anything -- even before we polish the stone and prepare it for engraving - you end up with a legend to your pet that's identical to what you first had in mind. And the difference is enormous: some companies will only give you one chance to make changes, whereas here at Pets at Rest we're happy to make changes until you're 100% happy. It just makes sense to us.

2) People tend to change their mind about artwork more than once, and we don't believe they should have to pay for it - after all, when you're doing something that's a little unusual and important, you're bound to find yourself umming and agghing! In other words, our service is designed with real people in mind, so when real people change their mind we're only too happy to go with it rather than against it!

3) By telling you when we're ready to go ahead, you get one last chance to change things - it can be vital...the difference between something you can cherish forever and something which constantly reminds you that you should have intervened. There's more to it than that, of course. Another good reason for us keeping you in the picture is more basic: people have different opinions, and sometimes people change their minds about the photo or font being used. This often means that after seeing the first design, family members will discuss it and come to different conclusions. Our service is designed so that there is time to come to a compromise about the design, instead of rushing it through and ending up with a headstone that could have been so much better.

Any questions? Feel free to ask them on this blog and our team will get back to you!

Thanks
Team PetsAtRest

Pets at Rest: always happy to hear from you!

Here at Pets at Rest, we get a lot of emails and phone calls from people wondering how we can help them. We're always happy to discuss ideas and talk things through, and this includes everything from:

1. the type of stone you'd like
2. message you'd like on your memorial
3. font and design work

...AND we also do urns too! In fact, we have lots of products on offer, so feel free to drop by and peruse our new website.

Stuart Gebbie: founding the company, thoughts and aspirations

Visit the official Pets At Rest web-site, or read the upcoming blogs soon to be featured here, and you're bound to be intrigued by Stuart Gebbie's enthusiastic attitude to the art of sandblasting. While many people unfamiliar to the medium might think of sandblasting as a limited and one-dimensional craft, the very ethos of the company is based on an expanse of results to the contrary, as well as feedback from many happy clients. In other words, Pets At Rest aren't like other pet memorial companies. Why? Because instead of simply settling for what has been proven, this Cambridge-based company are ready and willing to expand their horizons, allowing greater freedom to tackle more complex designs and more intricate work.

When it comes down to it, Pets At Rest are just more dynamic and exciting!

The idea for Pets At Rest began over 10 years ago. In Stuart's own words: “...I started working for my father who manufactured a sandblasting system for hobbyists’ and for enterprise schemes within schools and colleges. The minute I had a go on it, I was hooked!'

Speaking about what specifically makes sandblasting so special, he says: “The ability to take a blank canvas in the form of stone, or glass, and change it via this method into a kind of piece of art – but with permanent effect – was fantastic. Also, I quickly learned that sandblasting created the finest and stunning results imaginable...”

Background

After gaining an A* in GCSE Art and studying Art at A Level, Stuart went on to complete a 1 year Foundation course in Graphic Design, spending time at the reputed Colchester Institute. Motivated by a desire to produce art that would also possess a commercial interest – in particular concerning advertising – his move into the pet memorial business was one that aimed to fuse art and craftsmanship with the freedom of self employment. As a result, the company got off to a good start, and almost immediately Pets At Rest was formed, aimed at bringing the best possible pet memorials into the public domain.

Fuelled by the myriad of possibilities that sandblasting offered – among them, corporate gifts to house signs – the pet memorial aspect came about through demand more than anything. “...I kept getting asked to create small garden plaques,” says Stuart. “...People couldn’t believe the amount of money I asked for [in a good way], for what they got and had been quoted for beforehand. I then started looking into it in more detail, as I'd noticed that my competitors' work lacked a certain amount of freedom to be creative – something which I felt I could offer a solution to at a more affordable price. I also didn't like how many companies seemed to be obsessed with restricting choice and keeping things so simple. For the crazy money they charged, I knew I could do better.”

Learning curve

While it's certainly true that you can learn sandblasting in a college environment, Stuart learned much of his technique the old-fashioned way: in a real working environment, from mentors with more experience. For example, he was taught photo-engraving by one of the originators of the art-form, and went on to utilise this rich knowledge base in his own work, which was now beginning to flourish. About his mentor, who developed this new and more painstaking process during the 1960s, Stuart says: “...He was the first person to create the half-tone designs you see on headstones in cemeteries and the like. This is a skill that has to “come to you” over time – your eye suddenly seeing it. In order to get it just right and achieve the perfect end result, a great deal of concentration is required, but that's not a chore when you really enjoy the work you do.”

Quality Stone and the rise of Copycat techniques

Thanks to advanced machinery capable of replacing an element of human skill and labour, sandblasting – and techniques which attempt to emulate the effect of sandblasting – is now more popular than ever. But although this is the case, Pets At Rest firmly believe that nothing matches the integrity provided by true skill administered by an experienced professional. It is this unique characteristic which puts a grieving client at ease during a time of, at times, considerable stress.

In terms of products, Pets At rest uses only the finest stone available anywhere. Stuart says of this:

“...I took years to end up with the best supplier of stone blanks I could find and I only use the best quality products out there. I use white marble from Italy, black granite from Spain and grey slate from Wales – as well as a range of natural stones found mostly in the UK...”

Another important point about the company's stone-sourcing is that all stone – from both the UK and abroad – is carefully hand-picked and chosen based on a number of strict requirements.

Fonts, motifs and the customer's freedom of choice

Using a vast range of more traditional fonts (Times New Roman and Arial) and a number of more elaborate fonts (among them Monotype Corsiva and Chancery Script) Pets At Rest makes any combination of words possible, whatever your personal taste. Popular fonts may be chosen, or a customer may have a specific wish which they would prefer to investigate. Either way there shouldn't be a problem, and all choice is down to the client, making the process a streamlined combination of skill and love.

The company also work with a variety of motifs and have a collection suitable for any occasion. These may be applied to any design format, and just recently a brand-new range of fonts and motifs has been released. About this Stuart says: “...Now included are far more animal designs and even silhouettes.”

But most of all, at the heart of Pets At rest is a desire to please the customer – no matter how traditional, contemporary or exotic their taste. “I am keen for people to feel that they can express themselves in the format of the pet memorial...” Says the owner. “...That if they want something crazy or very personal they can have it. In my opinion, by far the most important part of our service is the creation of the artwork we do for the client. Once they send in the order to us, we set about creating the best possible layout style and offer advice and alternative layout options if need be. This ensures the plaque looks exactly how the customer envisaged. After all, it's reflecting the life of a beloved friend and isn’t just a cold emotionless product shoved in the ground and forgotten about.”

New styles to come in 2012

Pets At Rest is constantly revising, reconsidering and re-interpreting the humble pet memorial – the aim being to do ultimate justice to a medium which has, before, offered very limited scope. "Coming in 2012 are an entirely new range of products, styles and design ideas unique to the company.”

The main aim, Stuart says, is to “enable people to have something created by us that truly reflects the adoration they have for their beloved friends. We also hope to be able to create a dignified product – one just as worthy and special as any customer's pet.”

What sandblasting really is, and how Pets At Rest use it

Very often, the clients who come to us at Pets At Rest – managed and overseen by owner and head technician Stuart Gebbie – are just as interested in the process of sandblasting as the excellence achieved by the final result. A captivating and completely unique way to transform an ordinary looking piece of stone, sandblasting has evolved and stood the test of time, proving itself to be the ideal medium for transferring words, images and even photographs onto a hard surface that will not easily succumb to rain, sleet and other abrasive elements.

A technique which (as the name suggests) harnesses the power of sand, combining it with force to burrow away at the surface of anything from slate to marble – and even the hardest of stones: granite – sandblasting began life over 125 years ago, and has since rapidly progressed, using the most advanced technology to create brilliantly artistic work. And this is what interests Pets At Rest – by staying true to the origins of this much under-rated art-form and focusing on providing a solution for any vision that a customer might have, the best results are frequently obtained. The best part about sandblasting is that with practice, almost any design, no matter how intricate, can be accurately reproduced.

And if you thought that sandblasting ended with stone, you'd be mistaken. Pets At Rest are also specialist's in sandblasting on glass and many other materials. Interested in discussing the potential uses of sandblasting to create a stunning memorial to your beloved pet? Stuart's always happy to hear from you, so either comment here or view the pets at rest website for his contact information.

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to the Pets At Rest blog - want to know what we're all about?Read on...

Made from premium quality Spanish stone, this personalised
memorial plaque – which has been lovingly sand-blasted
by hand with meticulous attention to detail

The date is October 19th 2011, and today is a special day...it's the first post of the new Pets At Rest blog!

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You may have found this blog while looking for our web-site, www.petsatrest.co.uk, or maybe you've just stumbled across it after searching for a pet memorial specialist in the Cambridgeshire area. Either way, we hope you'll check back every so often to see what's new and what's coming up.

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We won't go on about all that here, though, because all that information is available for you to see at the official web-site. Instead, here's a brief summary of what we do so you know what to expect when you do need a pet memorial or indoor pet tribute

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1. A unique customer-first working ethos: we know that your pet matters to you as much as anything else in your life, so when it's their time to go we always try to do our best to make you happy with the best quality product possible. That means a reliable service from the moment you send us the art-work to the moment the piece arrives safely at your door in a timely fashion.
2. A range of different materials to choose from: granite, slate, glass and wood are all things we frequently handle -- and we like to think that the results speak for themselves. Have an interesting idea that sounds a bit unusual? We'd love to discuss it with you and see if we can make it happen.
3. A personal and efficient service that focuses on producing memorials that will stand the test of time: many of our products are made in-house. That way, we get to keep an eye on the quality - meaning the best customer satisfaction possible at a price which you can be happy with.
4. A prompt system so that the second you send us the order, you can be confident the job is in hand: within just 2 days you'll receive the art-work, giving you a much better idea of what the end result will be.