Blue Ellipse Candle Holder

The same ring of optical crystal as the clear ellipse, low and wide and solid in the hand, with blue worked into the crystal around the candle and your photograph engraved in the part that stays clear. Where the colour sits is the point of this version, and it is worth understanding before choosing between the two.

Colour Beside the Picture, Not Over It

A tinted crystal that ran colour across the engraving would put a blue cast on every face in the photograph. That is not what happens here. The blue occupies the side of the ring where the candle stands, and the engraving sits in clear glass on the other side, so skin tones stay in the neutral white the laser produces. What the colour changes is the light: the flame passes through blue crystal before it reaches the image, so the picture is lit cool rather than warm.

Cool Light, and the Rooms It Suits

Candlelight is warm by default, which is most of its appeal and occasionally the problem with it. In a room of grey, white and steel a warm flame can look out of place, and blue is the version that belongs there. It also reads differently by day: unlit, the piece is a band of blue glass with a picture in it and does not announce that it is for a candle at all. If the room is wood and warm tones, the clear version stays neutral and the green leaf is the warmer alternative in a different shape.

Engraving, the Candle and Ordering

Your photograph is engraved inside the crystal at varying depths, so it holds volume and nothing sits on the surface to be scratched or washed away. The background can be kept or removed. Our designers retouch the file first and say what it can carry before the laser runs, so nothing is decided by guesswork.

A free 3D proof is sent to you first. A 3D Preview before ordering costs $9.99, credited against the crystal. Ultra HD cuts up to 4.5 million points against 3 million. Half as many points again, in practice. It shows best with a light base under it.

Names and dates are engraved free of charge. Order the same crystal twice and the second is half price. Send a sharp, well lit photograph taken from the waist up. Every image is checked by hand.