Wine Stopper Rectangle 2D

This is the flat-engraved rectangle: a block of optical crystal on a stainless steel plug, with your photograph engraved inside as a single tonal layer rather than modelled in depth. The straight faces keep the picture the shape it was shot in, and the flat engraving gives it higher contrast than the 3D version. Which of the two you want depends entirely on the photograph you have, and for a great many files this is the more honest choice rather than the lesser one.

When a Flat Engraving Beats a Depth Model

A 3D engraving converts your picture into a model of depth, which needs a close, reasonably sharp subject and a background it can separate. Given a scan of an old print, a shot taken from across a room, or a phone photograph from ten years ago, that conversion has to invent detail nobody ever captured. Flat engraving simply reproduces the tones that are in the file. The result reads crisply on an object this small, where fine gradation is lost anyway.

An Object That Lives on the Counter

A bottle stopper spends most of its time standing next to the bottle rather than in it, which is the real reason people buy one as a gift. The image is sealed inside the crystal, so hands, wine, water and detergent never reach it, and nothing scuffs off or fades with use. An occasional wipe with a soft cloth is the whole of the care. A name or a date can be engraved beside the picture at no extra cost, and a rectangle leaves room for a full line rather than a couple of characters.

Ordering This Version

Send whatever photo you have, including one photographed off a paper print. Our designers prepare it for flat engraving, usually with a tighter crop and stronger contrast, then email you a proof before the laser runs, and nothing is engraved until you approve it.

You see a free 3D proof before the laser starts. Want to see it first? A 3D Preview costs $9.99, credited back.

Standard runs to 3 million points, Ultra HD to 4.5 million. It is half as much detail again. A light base underneath is what makes it read.

Text engraving is free. Every extra copy of the same crystal is half price. A sharp, well lit half body picture is what works best. Every image is checked by hand.