Designing a Single Slant Memorial For One Person
Single Slant Headstones For One Person
Placing a single slant memorial at the grave of a loved one is a time-honored and lasting tradition seen throughout much of western culture. We as humans loved to strive to remember everything, that includes the story of our loved ones. We want to hang on to the pieces of their lives that truly made them, well, them.
Single Slant Memorials come with a standard overall shape but are ultimately very customizable. Meeting with our family of memorial designers here at Bras and Mattos Monuments can help make you feel at home enough to celebrate your loved one’s story with us and have us try to capture it and tell it forever in stone.
Schedule time to meet with our design staff today.
In this article, we are going to go over the basic design elements of some of the most popular and beautiful single-person slant memorials that we have had the pleasure of carving in stone.
Traditional Single Slant Headstones
Of all of the memorial styles we offer, the single slant memorial is one of the original designs used to mark any grave throughout North America. A common and honorable memorial, these polished granite pieces make a wonderful tribute to any loved one lost.
Standing a common height of 16 to 18 inches at the apex, a slant memorial will get its name from the slanted front polished face. This polished face is the most common space on the stone to do any engraving.
In trying to use effective engraving space to its fullest potential, we can take many different routes to incorporate each aspect of your loved ones’ life. Their name and important dates are standard but what else?
In designing a slant memorial that will mark a loved one’s grave, the engraved design is really only limited to the story it needs to tell. We have the experience of hand engraving as well as the technology to craft nearly any image in stone, or in a beautifully colorful porcelain portrait inlay. The amount of detail we can pack into these mid-sized memorials is purely astounding.
Single Slant Memorial Sizes
As mentioned previously, a single slant memorial traditionally starts at 24 inches wide 16-18 inches tall, and 10 inches thick at the bottom with a taper to 2 inches at the very top. In fact, this taper is the whole reason for our calling it a “Slant” memorial.
This 24″ wide slant can be set in many cemeteries alone if you wish. Or, if you wanted flower vases or other memorial accessories, the slant can be mounted to a wider granite base of the same color to add a grander feel.
The single slant memorial simply starts at 24 wide but can be designed to take up the full width of the burial plot where necessary. Most private cemeteries in California like Lone Tree or Chapel of The Chimes, have very strict rules regarding the maximum size permitted. It is best to meet with a member of our Bras and Mattos staff so they can help you build a beautiful memorial for your chosen plot.
The slant memorial pictured here for Ms. Carol Sullivan shows a slightly larger width of 36 inches in our beautiful blue pearl granite.
Choosing Your Material
If you or your family is ready to begin actually designing a memorial than choosing your slant memorial material is always a good place to start.
Throughout North America, the most chosen material to build these types of memorials is granite. Granite is a natural stone mined from select portions of the world. It is most commonly chosen because it is long-lasting and extremely durable.
With proper engraving techniques, you can expect your chosen memorial to last for an industry average of 7 lifetimes. Bras & Mattos has made it a tradition of crafting many single slant memorials for individuals throughout the Bay Area.
Other but far less common materials used for slants are sandstone, limestone, and other natural stones. Being less common, you will likely pay a pretty penny to build your memorial in anything other than granite.
Choosing Your Single Memorial Upright Top Style
Flat top
If you are looking to make an attractive modern statement with your loved ones slant, then a flat top maybe your edge. Typically smooth and polished, this design style adds the touch of class your clean-cut loved one always had.
Serpentine top
The serpentine top is “THE” headstone topper for almost all slant memorials. Typically incorporated with a rock pitch finish on the edges, the serpentine is a centered and tapered design element. Almost all serpentine tops start from the top middle of the headstone and taper down 1.5-2 inches at the outer edge of the headstone. For more of a visual example the serpentine style is shown in the Paine Cross Memorial Design.
Rock Pitching
This is the name for the “natural finish” incorporated in many an upright headstone design. Natural and longest living, a rock pitched side of a memorial is one that has been set and literally broken away with hammer and chisel.
To craft this design element, our monument builder must set a precise line and physically break the stone by tapping each point one after another until the stone naturally cracks. View our behind-the-scenes videos to get a better idea of what we mean by rock pitching. No two rock pitches are the same, thus adding a level of uniqueness to each stone.
Granite Colors
The color of the stone is what we call the headstone’s “Body Language”. By this, we mean that the color is the first thing that anyone will notice about the stone, and lends itself very well to represent the personality of your loved one. The color of the granite typically corresponds to the price point, much like what we spoke about in the materials section. Most of the “colorful” granite used for slant headstones come from outside of the United States. (I.e Black from India, Blue Pearl from Norway)
The most common colors of granite used throughout the Bay Area are white and gray, both are typically mined in the hills of the Sierra Nevada mountains as well as parts of Minnesota and the North East United States. China and India both supply similar white and gray granites.
Prices for Traditional Single Slant Headstones
When it comes to finalizing the design process for your loved ones’ slant memorial, you can expect to pay somewhere between $1200 – $5000+ depending on size, shape, color, and amount of engraving or personalization. As mentioned before, color plays a huge factor in how expensive a single slant headstone might be. Grey and White will likely be the most cost-effective while Blue Pearl and Emerald Pearl, with their iridescent flakes, can potentially increase the price of the same single-person memorial design 4 fold.
In Conclusion
When we say “you can design to your heart’s content” know that the price for such designs will reflect the amount of work and materials that will be needed to accomplish your vision. A completely custom memorial design and granite shape typically starts at the $5000 mark and could cost as much as $100,000 for the most elaborate of upright setups.
If you are serious about using every inch of the stone to celebrate your loved one’s life then we highly recommend you give us a call so that one of our family of memorial designers can tailor the stone and design experience to your loved one’s unique story.
We at Bras & Mattos are here to help. We believe that every life has a story tell and each should be celebrated in beautiful granite stone. We hope we helped you understand the basics of single slant memorial Headstones and if you are ready, we would love to set a meeting to design the story of your loved one in stone. Please fill out the quote request below or select a time in our appointment manager.
At Bras & Mattos monuments, we pride ourselves on delivering Slant Memorials at affordable prices. In fact, no matter the monument or memorial, you can be sure that with your help on the design, your loved one will be remembered with the perfect headstone for their memorial plot. Thus allowing future generations to remember the legacy and story through their quality memorial. To learn more and see our full memorial design process, please view our Youtube Channel.