The reference photo of my grandfather was quite faded. I asked them to leave the lines around his mouth, and I’m glad I did. The face has the softness of the original without smoothing away his age.

Restrained, tactile, and beautifully framed.

I ordered the more spare composition for a room that already has a lot going on. It has enough detail to hold your eye without taking over the wall. The narrow black frame was the right call.

The ridgeline from our holiday photo came through beautifully.

I'd sent three photos and each caught a different bit of our spaniel. The finished piece gets the curl on his forehead and that slightly wary look he has with strangers. That combination is what makes it him.

The fine lines around Mabel’s ears are so recognisably hers.

The eyes made me put the box down and just look.

We wanted something from our daughter's sketchbook that she could still recognise years from now. Her drawing was a rabbit in a long coat, with one button roughly twice the size of the others. I mentioned it so it wouldn't get tidied up. When she opened the package she laughed at that button first. We put the carving on a shelf next to the original sketch, and I like seeing both there. The drawing is still playful, while the wood gives all that empty space around the rabbit a little weight.

I sent a sketch of a fish with boots. The question back was whether the pencil marks around the boots were part of it. They absolutely were. I appreciated being asked, and the carving kept the drawing's scruffy charm.

Beautiful on the walnut console, especially under the evening lamp.

The reference was taken on a phone, with one side of Alba’s face almost in shadow. The finished carving kept that contrast instead of trying to even it out. I think that's why the eyes have so much life.

The hands were what I cared about most. They’re beautifully done.

The foreground grasses were such a nice surprise.

Juniper’s sleepy little face is all there.

I chose this for the small wall beside our bookcase. The design is spare enough that it doesn't compete with the shelves. At night the reading lamp picks up one band of texture I barely see in the morning.

Ab the doorway it reads as one clean shape. Close up, completely different.

The path in my reference was half obscured by shadow. I didn't want it brightened too much, just readable. It came through as a thin break in the dark foreground, which is exactly how I remember seeing it.

It still looks like our boy’s drawing, right down to the enormous feet.