Where can I order a personalized metal plaque?

July 14, 2014 6:05 PM

I want to get a personalized plaque, pewter or some other metal, for outside. It will attach to a fence at all four corners so needs holes in the corners. It will have 4 lines of text. I need letters (some lowercase and some uppercase), numbers, quote marks, and a dash, and the longest line including spaces will be about 30 or 32 characters.

I'm thinking something perhaps the size of a bumper sticker? In a week, few months, a year, or a couple years I will need something to match this one, but this is not something where I can order the second one ahead of time.

I checked with my favorite pewter artist on Etsy but she only does small jewelry stuff and can't make this. Can I get something like this online? Where? If you know of an Etsy artist who does this kind of thing, I'd love to hear about them; otherwise some kind of commercial outfit is okay if reliable. Or maybe someone here makes this kind of thing?

Thanks, all.

posted by AllieTessKipp to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Best answer: I believe the folks at danger!awesome are able to etch metal.
posted by phil at 6:18 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

Try a local sign shop, they often do engraving. They should be able to source whatever material you want and put whatever design in it.
posted by mhz at 6:18 PM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

I've had good success with this custom road sign service. The signs are sturdy and the printing is sharp. Most of their templates are larger than a bumper sticker, but perhaps their 6"x18" or 8"x24" signs would work.
posted by Mars Saxman at 6:33 PM on July 14, 2014

Any shop that sells trophies should be able to do this. Trophies and awards are often plaques.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:33 PM on July 14, 2014

This is definitely a job for your local trophy shop, unless you need something more fancy/artsy than I am imagining.
posted by charmedimsure at 6:42 PM on July 14, 2014

Best answer: I think a trophy shop is probably the way to go.

If you wanted a more sculptural piece, like this, a metal fabrication shop would be willing to help. You email them a file (or work with them to make the digital part) and they cut it out with LASERS. It's really cool.
posted by Ostara at 7:35 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

A trophy shop. If you were in my area I would send you to Crown Trophy. On the linked page they have metal plaques. They do custom. I think they are in every state but 5 included in that 5 is Washington State so... I have ordered from them without ever setting foot in one of their stores, so consider calling one location and discussing it. I use the 38th St in NYC store.
posted by 724A at 7:57 PM on July 14, 2014

Best answer: I bought a nice house number sign from these folks:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ModaIndustria

which was nicely done. I believe they do custom work as well.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 8:19 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you for this magical search word "laser" - that is exactly what I needed for my googling.
posted by AllieTessKipp at 8:28 PM on July 14, 2014

For something smaller and cheap, UPS Stores also do custom signs.
posted by colin_l at 8:21 AM on July 15, 2014