About
Lance has been doing this, one piece at a time, since 1994.
He's a sculptor. The keepsake program started as a favor for a friend and became the work of a career. After a long pause, he's reopening the studio — same craft, same standards, smaller scale on purpose.
Our story
From a single favor to a thirty-year practice.
The first one wasn't supposed to be a business. A friend in Pasadena asked Lance — then in his thirties, working in metal and clay — whether he could cast her two-year-old's hand. She'd been to a chain studio and hated the result. Lance said sure.
A few weeks later her son's preschool teacher saw it on the mantel and asked if Lance could do her class. Then the teacher's friend at another school. Then five schools. Then forty.
The work could have scaled. Lance was offered partnerships and manufacturing deals. He turned them all down — once you scale this kind of work, it stops being the kind of work. He stayed small, ran the kits himself, finished every piece by hand.
In 2020 the program paused. By 2024 he'd quietly started experimenting with new materials. By early 2026 he was casting again. This site is the revival — a slower, more deliberate version of what worked the first time.
"I make these one at a time. There isn't another way that's worth doing."
A short timeline
Thirty years, told briefly.
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1994
A friend asks for a favor
Lance, a sculptor working out of a small studio in Los Angeles, agrees to cast a friend's toddler's hand as a one-off. Word spreads.
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1995–2001
The school program takes shape
A kindergarten teacher invites Lance to do her whole class. By the end of the next year, a dozen LA-area schools are running the kit. Teachers find Lance through other teachers, never through ads.
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2002–2019
Decades of one-by-one work
Thousands of sculptures, ten thousand children. Lance keeps the studio small on purpose — every piece is finished and signed by him.
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2020
A long pause
COVID closes schools. Lance pauses the program. The signs in his studio window stay up but the kits stop shipping.
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2026
Quietly starting again
New studio, same hands, same craft. The first kits are going out this fall — to schools that remembered, and to families who never had the chance.
Why it's still done by hand
A few things Lance won't change.
One pair of hands
Every piece is cast, finished, and signed in the same studio, by the same person. Always.
Small batch on purpose
Lance caps how many kits go out a month. If we're booked, we'll tell you — we won't cut corners to fit you in.
No upsells
The kit price is the kit price. No frames-they-have-to-buy, no rush fees, no fine-print add-ons at checkout.