For your mum, or for whoever acts like her
On Mother's Day the obvious present is also the wrong one: she has had the candle and the bunch of flowers, and she knows roughly what they cost. These covers say what she is instead, in the name she really gets called, on something that will still be on a desk in five years. Mum and Nan are both editable words on every cover here, so a Mam, a Mummy, a Nanna or a Grandma gets the same cover, set properly, and nobody has to settle for the wrong word.
- World's best MumThe line off a thousand mugs, set properly for once and engraved on the cover this time.£17.99
- Best Mum everThe three words she has earned and would never claim, with Mum set as large as the cover allows.£17.99
- Mum£17.99
- World's best NanHandwriting above her name in the heaviest type we have, which is about the right balance.£17.99
- Best Nan everFor the woman who has been quietly running the family since before you were born.£17.99
- Nana£17.99
- Your child's drawingUpload a child's drawing and it is engraved on the cover, with their name and age beneath.£17.99
- A handwritten notePhotograph a recipe card, a leaving card or a letter, and the handwriting alone is lifted off the paper and engraved.£17.99
- Portrait and caption£17.99
- A poem for themTell us about them (their dogs, their hills, whatever makes them them) and we write a short poem for the cover.£17.99
- WildflowersNine stems drawn singly: daisy, tulip, poppy, lavender and more.£17.99
- GardeningA garden's worth of stems, seed packets, a trowel, a watering can and bees.£17.99
- BakingAn apron, a chef's hat, a whisk, a rolling pin and a tiered cake.£17.99
- In the kitchen, herA cook at the stove with a mixing bowl, long hair under a chef's hat.£17.99
- Flower borderA row of flowers on their stems, running the width of the cover.£17.99
- Wildflower sprayA single spray of flowers and leaves, drawn as one mark.£17.99
Three ways to say the same thing
The family covers come in two voices and the dictionary entries in a third. World's best is the line off a thousand mugs, set properly for once and cut into leather. Best ever is the same verdict with more shouting, the role taking the largest type the cover will carry and a name under a rule. The dictionary entry is the one that takes a minute of thought and lands hardest: the word goes across the cover with its pronunciation and its part of speech beneath, set the way a dictionary sets them, and then you write what it really means. Any of the three will carry Nan instead of Mum.
Let somebody else do the artwork
Two of the covers here start from something already in the house. Upload a drawing done at the kitchen table and it is redrawn as line art the laser can trace, with the child's name and age beneath it. Photograph a recipe card or a letter in her own mother's handwriting and the handwriting alone is lifted off the paper, letterforms untouched, because redrawing somebody's hand invents a different person's. Both happen while you wait and both are drawn on the cover before any money changes hands, so nothing is a gamble. Photograph the paper flat, from directly above, in daylight, and you will not need a second go.
Or draw the thing she loves doing
If she would rather have the garden than the sentiment, the illustrated covers run a drawing across the base with her name above it and say nothing else at all. There is a garden's worth of stems, seed packets, a trowel, a watering can and bees; an apron, a chef's hat, a whisk, a rolling pin and a tiered cake; a cook at the stove with a mixing bowl; and nine wildflowers drawn singly, which is the quietest cover in the catalogue. For somebody who would find a full band too much, a single spray of flowers sits as one small mark above the name.
Nothing here exists until you order it. That is the point of it, and it is also why the week before Mother's Day is late and the fortnight before is comfortable. This page promises no date, because the carriers set theirs each year and ours would be a guess. How long dispatch and delivery take is written up properly on Delivery and returns.