A plain account of how memorial engraving works, written for families who are arranging one for the first time and would rather not have to ask.
Most people arranging a memorial are doing it for the first time, at the worst possible moment, and are given very little information before being asked to decide things that cannot be undone. This is written to take some of that weight off: what the choices are, how long each part takes, and which decisions are worth slowing down for.
None of this needs to be read in one sitting. None of it has to be decided today.
Tile, plaque or headstone
Three different things get arranged for the same reason. Families are often not told they differ.
A memorial tile is engraved granite or ceramic, set into or onto an existing surface: a grave slab, a wall, a garden feature. It is the most common choice where the grave already has a finished top, and it is the least disruptive to arrange.
A plaque is a separate panel, usually metal or granite, fixed to a wall, a bench, a tree surround or a building. This is what most institutional memorials are, and what families choose when the person is not buried locally.
A headstone is the full monument. It involves the cemetery's own rules on size, material and sometimes lettering, and those rules should be checked before anything is designed. Not after.
The one thing worth slowing down for: the wording. Everything else can be adjusted, remade, or added to later. Lettering cut into stone is permanent. The errors that hurt most are not spelling mistakes; they are a name spelled the way the family never spelled it, or a date copied from a document instead of from the people who knew.
How the engraving is done
Granite engraving works because the stone has two colours in it: a polished dark face, and a lighter tone underneath. The laser removes a controlled depth of the polished surface, and the lettering appears as the pale stone beneath. Nothing is added, nothing is filled, and nothing fades. The contrast is the stone itself.
Not every stone works this way. Trotec, a maker of laser engravers, says polished stone with a very smooth surface gives the best results, while bright granite is suitable only to a limited degree and needs its engraving filled with colour to show. That is why a dark, polished granite is the stone to ask for. The lettering then reads without any paint.
That is also why granite behaves so well outdoors in Kenya. Sun does not bleach it, rain does not lift it, and a wash with water restores it. Painted or filled lettering, by contrast, needs redoing every few years, and families are rarely told that when they choose it.
Photographs can be engraved too. They work best from a clear, well-lit original with the face large in the frame. A phone photograph taken close up is usually better than a scanned print, and a scanned print is usually better than a photograph of a photograph.
The practical questions
- Timing. Design and proofing takes a few days, mostly waiting for the family to be sure. The engraving itself is a matter of hours. Fixing depends on the site and the weather.
- Cost. Memorial tiles start at KSh 4,000 for 30 x 30 cm (KSh 6,000 for 40 x 40 cm). Granite panels run from KSh 6,000 at 30 x 25 cm to KSh 15,000 at 60 x 40 cm, and the amount of lettering, and whether a portrait is included, can move the figure.
- Proofing. A layout is sent before anything is cut, at the size it will be cut. Read it aloud to somebody else. Names and dates are the two things a person reads past without seeing, because they already know what it should say.
- Adding to it later. A second name added years afterwards will not match the first exactly. Stone weathers, and tools change. Where a family knows a second inscription will come, it is worth saying so at the start, because the layout can leave room for it.
Other engraved things families ask for
Alongside the memorial itself, two smaller pieces come up often enough to mention. Engraved keepsakes (a small tile, a plaque, an item that belonged to the person) are sometimes made for family members who live far away and will not visit the grave. And where a service is being held, printed material is usually needed at the same time and on a short timescale; the guide to smaller engraved work covers the pieces that get made in ones and twos.
There is no hurry on any of it. A memorial arranged carefully three months later is better than one arranged in a week, and nobody will think otherwise.
Sources: Trotec, stone laser engraving (read 14 Oct 2026).
Common questions
How long does memorial engraving take?
The engraving itself takes hours. What sets the timeline is proofing: most families take several days over the wording, and that is the right way round. If there is a date the piece must be ready for, say so at the beginning and the schedule is worked backwards from it.
Can a photograph be engraved into granite?
Yes. It works best from a clear original with good light on the face and the head filling a reasonable part of the frame. Group photographs cropped down to one person rarely have the detail needed. Send whatever you have, and you will get a straight answer on whether it will engrave well before anything is agreed.
Will the lettering fade or need repainting?
Not on granite. The contrast comes from removing the polished surface to reveal the lighter stone beneath, so there is no paint or filler to fail. It is cleaned with water and a soft cloth. Painted lettering, which some memorials use, does need renewing periodically, which is worth knowing before you choose between them.
Do you work outside Nairobi?
Yes, anywhere in Kenya. Within Nairobi the visit is part of the price; further afield the travel is added at what it costs and shown to you first. For a burial some distance away it is usually simplest to make and finish the piece here and transport it, instead of working at the graveside.
