John Leeah, Baltimore

I make memorial sculptures of animals, one at a time, in a workshop in Baltimore. Every piece starts from the photographs their person sends me.

Most memorial products settle for the breed. A Labrador shape, a terrier shape — close enough at a glance, wrong every time you actually look. The work I do lives in the particulars: the exact set of the eyes, the length of the muzzle, the ear that sat a little differently. That is what you remember, so that is what has to be right.

“Hand-finished” is not a flourish. Between the print and your doorstep there are hours of work on each piece — sanding, correcting, sealing, painting in passes, checking it against your photos again and again.

I know what I’m being trusted with. These photographs are often the last ones there will be. I treat them, and the animal in them, with the care that deserves.