# Custom Made Marble Bust Statues from Your Photograph

> Custom marble bust statues carved from your photographs. You approve the clay model before any stone is cut. Makrana white, black marble, hand-painted finishes.

**Source:** https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/collections/marble-bust-statues
**Business:** Tilak Mandirwala — made-to-order marble temples (mandirs), statues and decorative handicrafts. Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Founded 2006.
**How it works:** Each piece is carved to order by the independent master sculptors TMW works with in Jaipur's Khajane Walon Ka Rasta sculptors' market. TMW designs the piece with the customer, briefs the sculptor, and follows it through to delivery and installation.
**Pricing:** request-for-quote — pieces are custom, so the site carries no list prices.
**Ships:** across India; export enquiries welcome.
**Page updated:** 2026-10-03
**Hero image:** https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Hero%20images%20for%20collection%20pages/marble-bust-statues-hero.webp

## Bust statues of the people you don't want forgotten

A bust statue is a portrait carved from the chest up: head, shoulders, the set of a jaw, the way
someone's turban was tied. It is the form families choose when they want a father, a mother or a
grandparent kept somewhere solid rather than in a fading photograph on a wall.

Most of the marble bust statues commissioned here begin with a WhatsApp message and a handful of
pictures. Some are for a parent who died last month; some are for a grandfather nobody has a good
photograph of any more. Others are commissioned by trusts, schools, regiments and committees who
need a founder, a leader or an officer rendered properly in stone. Both start the same way, and
both are carved by the same hands.

## The busts carved in this collection

Fourteen pieces, and they exist to show you what is possible rather than to be bought off a shelf:
your commission will be of your own person.

For families, there is an [elder in a Rajasthani safa](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-elder-safa-portrait-bust-statue-21in),
a [hand-painted bust of a father](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/hand-painted-marble-memorial-bust-statue-father-24in) with
his spectacles and white hair, a [mother with her pallu drawn over her head](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/hand-painted-marble-memorial-bust-statue-mother-saree-18in),
a [Sardar gentleman in black marble](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/black-marble-sardar-gentleman-portrait-bust-statue-24in)
with a full set beard, and a [double bust of both parents on one shared plinth](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-parents-double-portrait-bust-statue-22in),
the piece families ask for when they cannot separate the two.

For institutions there is an [army officer in service dress](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/vietnam-white-marble-army-officer-portrait-bust-statue-24in)
and a [founder in a suit](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/vietnam-white-marble-founder-suit-portrait-bust-statue-24in) for a
lobby or boardroom. And for committees and trusts, the figures most often commissioned in India:
[Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, hand-painted](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/hand-painted-ambedkar-marble-bust-statue-24in),
[Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in black marble](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/black-marble-chhatrapati-shivaji-maharaj-bust-statue-30in),
[Swami Vivekananda](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-swami-vivekananda-bust-statue-24in),
[Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-sardar-patel-bust-statue-24in),
[Lokmanya Tilak](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-lokmanya-tilak-bust-statue-21in),
[Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/black-marble-netaji-subhas-chandra-bose-bust-statue-24in) and
[Rabindranath Tagore](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-rabindranath-tagore-bust-statue-24in).

## The clay model is where the likeness is decided

This is the part that matters most, and it is the reason a portrait takes longer than any other
piece in this catalogue.

Stone is unforgiving. A cheek cut too deep cannot be put back, so nothing is cut until the face is
already right, and the face is settled in clay first. You send photographs; a front view, a
three-quarter view and a profile are ideal, plus one candid picture that catches how the person
actually held themselves. The sculptor builds the head in clay at full size, and you are sent
pictures of it.

Then you tell us what is wrong. Almost everybody does, and almost always it is small: the mouth is
too stern, the forehead too high, he never parted his hair on that side. The clay is changed and
photographed again. That loop runs as many times as it needs to; it is the cheapest stage to
change and the only one that is reversible. **Marble is only cut once you say it is him.**

After carving there is a fine-tuning stage on the stone itself, where the sculptor works against
your photographs again for the smaller things: the eyelids, the line of a moustache, the depth of
the eyes.

## Plain stone, or painted

Roughly a third of the busts here are hand-painted, and it is a real decision rather than a finish
option.

Left plain, a bust reads as a monument: timeless, formal, the way a memorial hall or a garden
plinth expects. That is the [satin soft polish](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-swami-vivekananda-bust-statue-24in)
most pieces carry, or the [mirror polish](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/black-marble-chhatrapati-shivaji-maharaj-bust-statue-30in)
that makes black marble read almost like bronze, or a [honed matte](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-parents-double-portrait-bust-statue-22in)
with no shine at all.

Painted, it reads as the person. Skin tone, the exact grey of the hair, a blue suit, the red of a
saree with its gold border, dark spectacle frames, a tie, a tilak. Families who want to *recognise*
someone across a room usually choose paint; institutions usually do not. Both are available on any
piece here, and it is worth seeing photographs of each before deciding.

## Choosing the stone

Three stones suit portraiture, and the choice is mostly about how a face reads under light.

**Makrana white marble** is the default and eight of these pieces use it. It is the stone of the
Taj Mahal, quarried at Makrana a few hours north-west of Jaipur, and it is dense enough to hold
an eyelid or a hairline without crumbling. Its faint warmth flatters skin, which is why it is also
the right base under paint.

**Black marble** gives gravity. It suits a uniform, a beard, a figure meant to look formidable,
which is why the Shivaji Maharaj and Netaji busts here are carved in it. Under a mirror polish it
photographs like dark bronze at a fraction of the cost.

**Vietnam white marble** is cooler and cleaner than Makrana, closer to a modern white, and it sits
well in a contemporary lobby or office where the surrounding finishes are pale and grey.

## Size, weight, and what your shelf will take

The busts here run from **18 to 30 inches**, and the weight climbs much faster than the height
does, because a bust is solid stone.

An 18-inch bust weighs about **29 kg**, a heavy but manageable piece for a console or a shelf.
At 21 to 24 inches you are between **38 and 95 kg** depending on how broad the shoulders and plinth
are. The 30-inch Shivaji Maharaj bust is **115 kg**, which is a floor-standing pedestal piece and
not something a wall bracket will hold.

Near life-size for an adult head and shoulders lands around 24 inches, and that is what most
families and most institutions end up choosing. Tell us the surface it will stand on and we will
tell you honestly whether it will take the weight.

## Where a portrait bust belongs in the house

This question comes up in almost every family commission, and it deserves a straight answer.

In Hindu practice, ancestors are honoured but they are not worshipped alongside the gods.
Convention keeps a departed family member out of the pooja room and out of the mandir niche: the
place of worship is for deities. Ancestors are traditionally given the south or south-west of the
home, the direction associated with the *pitru*, and they are given their own place rather than a
shared one.

In practice that means an entrance hall or foyer console, a study, a library, a landing, or a
dedicated corner set aside for that person. Farmhouses and family properties often place a bust
outdoors on a plinth, at a samadhi or under a chhatri. If the piece is for a school, an office, a
regiment or a trust, none of this applies: a lobby, a corridor or a garden pedestal is the normal
and correct place.

## Caring for it

Very little. Dust with a dry or barely damp soft cloth. Keep every acidic cleaner away from it:
lemon, vinegar and bathroom cleaners etch marble permanently, and this is the only real way to
damage one of these pieces indoors.

Painted busts want a dry cloth only, and no solvent of any kind. A bust kept outdoors will
gradually soften in surface and gather a patina; that can be slowed with a stone sealer applied
every couple of years, and many families come to prefer the weathered look.

## Bring us their photograph

Everything above is a starting point. Nobody orders one of these pieces as it stands; every
portrait bust is of somebody's own person, so the real beginning is you sending pictures.

Send whatever you have, even if it is only two photographs and one of them is blurred; a great deal
can be worked from very little, and we will tell you honestly at the outset if what you have is not
enough. From there we will talk through stone, size, plain or painted, and what it will cost, and
then the clay begins. If your idea is nothing like anything shown here (a different pose, both
parents together, a full figure rather than a bust), that is just as welcome. Say hello on WhatsApp
and send the photographs.

## Pieces in this collection (14)

Every piece below is made to order — the stone, size and finish are chosen per commission.

- [Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Black Marble Bust Statue 30in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/black-marble-chhatrapati-shivaji-maharaj-bust-statue-30in): Master-carved black marble bust of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, a 30-inch mirror-polished portrait for civic and trust installations.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/black-marble-chhatrapati-shivaji-maharaj-bust-statue-30in.webp (concept image)
- [Swami Vivekananda Marble Bust Statue 24in in Makrana White](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-swami-vivekananda-bust-statue-24in): Sculptor-carved Makrana white marble bust of Swami Vivekananda: a 24-inch portrait for ashram halls, school foyers and trust offices.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/makrana-white-marble-swami-vivekananda-bust-statue-24in.webp (concept image)
- [Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak Marble Bust Statue 21in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-lokmanya-tilak-bust-statue-21in): Master-carved Makrana white marble bust of Lokmanya Tilak, a 21-inch portrait in the Puneri pagdi, for schools, mandals and reading rooms.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/makrana-white-marble-lokmanya-tilak-bust-statue-21in.webp (concept image)
- [Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Marble Bust Statue 24in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-sardar-patel-bust-statue-24in): Master-carved Makrana white marble portrait bust of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. A 24-inch civic piece on a plain rectangular plinth.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/makrana-white-marble-sardar-patel-bust-statue-24in.webp (concept image)
- [Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Marble Bust Statue 24in — Hand-Painted](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/hand-painted-ambedkar-marble-bust-statue-24in): Master-carved Makrana white marble bust of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, hand-painted in lifelike colour: a 24-inch portrait for institutions.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/hand-painted-ambedkar-marble-bust-statue-24in.webp (concept image)
- [Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Black Marble Bust Statue 24in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/black-marble-netaji-subhas-chandra-bose-bust-statue-24in): Master-carved black marble bust of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a 24-inch mirror-polished portrait for civic and campus memorials.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/black-marble-netaji-subhas-chandra-bose-bust-statue-24in.webp (concept image)
- [Rabindranath Tagore Marble Bust Statue 24in in Makrana White](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-rabindranath-tagore-bust-statue-24in): Hand-carved Makrana white marble portrait bust of Rabindranath Tagore. 24 inches, for school libraries, academies and memorial halls.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/makrana-white-marble-rabindranath-tagore-bust-statue-24in.webp (concept image)
- [Hand-Painted Marble Bust Statue of a Father from a Photograph 24in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/hand-painted-marble-memorial-bust-statue-father-24in): Sculptor-carved Makrana white marble memorial bust of a father (24 inches), worked from photographs and hand-painted in lifelike colour.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/hand-painted-marble-memorial-bust-statue-father-24in.webp (concept image)
- [Hand-Painted Marble Bust Statue of a Mother in a Saree 18in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/hand-painted-marble-memorial-bust-statue-mother-saree-18in): Sculptor-carved Makrana marble bust of a mother in a saree: an 18-inch memorial portrait with hand-painted red and gold drapery.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/hand-painted-marble-memorial-bust-statue-mother-saree-18in.webp (concept image)
- [Black Marble Bust Statue of a Sardar Gentleman 24in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/black-marble-sardar-gentleman-portrait-bust-statue-24in): Hand-carved black marble bust of a Sardar gentleman in a tied turban, a 24-inch memorial portrait worked from your own photographs.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/black-marble-sardar-gentleman-portrait-bust-statue-24in.webp (concept image)
- [Custom Marble Bust Statue of an Elder in a Rajasthani Safa 21in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-elder-safa-portrait-bust-statue-21in): Sculptor-carved Makrana white marble portrait bust of an elder in a Rajasthani safa. A 21-inch memorial piece carved from your photographs.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/makrana-white-marble-elder-safa-portrait-bust-statue-21in.webp (concept image)
- [Marble Bust Statue of an Army Officer in Service Dress 24in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/vietnam-white-marble-army-officer-portrait-bust-statue-24in): Sculptor-carved Vietnam white marble bust of an army officer in service dress, a 24-inch memorial portrait with cap badge and ribbon bar.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/vietnam-white-marble-army-officer-portrait-bust-statue-24in.webp (concept image)
- [Marble Bust Statue of a Founder in a Suit 24in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/vietnam-white-marble-founder-suit-portrait-bust-statue-24in): Sculptor-carved Vietnam white marble portrait bust of a founder: a 24-inch lobby commission worked to a likeness from your photographs.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/vietnam-white-marble-founder-suit-portrait-bust-statue-24in.webp (concept image)
- [Marble Double Bust Statue of Parents on One Plinth, 22 in](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/products/makrana-white-marble-parents-double-portrait-bust-statue-22in): Sculptor-carved Makrana white marble double bust of a mother and father on one shared plinth, 22 inches, worked from your photographs.
  - image: https://vptrobfqdvauunfvodxw.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tmw-media-assets/Statue%20product%20images/makrana-white-marble-parents-double-portrait-bust-statue-22in.webp (concept image)

## Frequently asked questions

### How do you make a bust statue from a photograph?

In six stages. You send photographs; the sculptor builds the head at full size in **clay**; you are sent pictures of the clay and you tell us what is wrong; the clay is corrected and re-photographed until you say it is right. Only then is the **stone cut**. Marble is unforgiving, and nothing is carved until the face is already settled. After carving there is a fine-tuning stage worked against your photographs again, and finally **hand-painting** if you have asked for it. You are shown the piece at every stage, so there is no moment where you find out at the end that it is not him.

### What photographs do you need, and what if we only have one old picture?

Ideally a **front view, a three-quarter view and a profile**, plus one candid photograph that catches how the person actually held themselves, because the tilt of the head matters as much as the features. In practice most families do not have that, and a great deal can be worked from very little. Send whatever exists, even a single old or slightly blurred picture, and we will tell you honestly at the outset whether it is enough before you commit to anything. Group photographs and old passport pictures are often more useful than they look.

### How long does a custom marble bust statue take?

**16 to 20 weeks** from the day you send photographs. A portrait takes longer than any other piece because of the clay stage: the model has to be built, photographed, corrected and approved before a chisel touches stone, and that approval loop runs at your pace, not ours. Families who need the piece for a **first death anniversary or a barsi** should start about five months ahead. If you have a fixed date, tell us at the start and we will say plainly whether it is reachable rather than discovering it late.

### Where should we keep a bust of a departed family member at home?

This is the question we are asked most, and it deserves a straight answer. In Hindu practice ancestors are honoured but are **not worshipped alongside the deities**, so convention keeps a departed family member out of the pooja room and out of the mandir niche. The place of worship is for the gods. Ancestors are traditionally given the **south or south-west** of the home, the direction associated with the *pitru*, and given a place of their own rather than a shared one. In practice that means an entrance hall or foyer console, a study, a landing, or a corner set aside for that person. Many families place the bust outdoors on a plinth at a farmhouse, a samadhi or under a chhatri. None of this applies to a school, office, regiment or trust; there a lobby, corridor or garden pedestal is simply correct.

### Can the bust be painted to look lifelike?

Yes, and it is a real decision rather than a finish option. **Hand-painted** means natural skin tone, the right grey in the hair, a blue suit or a red saree with its gold border, dark spectacle frames, a tie, a tilak: everything that makes someone recognisable across a room. Left **plain**, the same bust reads as a monument: formal, timeless, the way a memorial hall or a garden plinth expects. Families who want to *recognise* the person usually choose paint; institutions usually choose plain stone. Ask to see photographs of both before you decide, because the difference is larger than it sounds.

### What does a marble bust statue cost?

It is quoted per commission, because the price is driven by things that vary a great deal: the **size**, the **stone**, how much detail the attire carries (a plain kurta is quick, a turban with a fanned crest or a uniform with insignia is not), whether it is **painted**, and whether the plinth is plain or moulded. A double bust of two people on one plinth is more than a single. Send the photographs and tell us the size you have in mind and you will get a firm figure, with the freight quoted separately once the piece is finalised.

### Can you make busts of national figures for a school, trust or committee?

Yes, this is a large part of the work. Busts of **Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Swami Vivekananda, Sardar Patel, Lokmanya Tilak, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore** are commissioned regularly by schools, colleges, trusts, mandals, panchayats and regiments, and a founder or chairman for a lobby is just as common. Committees usually want a specific reference, such as a particular photograph or a likeness matching a statue already installed elsewhere, and that reference is worked from directly. Tell us the unveiling date early, because those are usually fixed and the clay stage cannot be rushed.

### What size bust should we choose?

Near life-size for an adult head and shoulders is about **24 inches**, and that is what most families and most institutions choose. Smaller pieces at **18 to 21 inches** suit a shelf, a console or a study. Larger pieces from **30 inches** upward are for a pedestal, a lobby or an outdoor plinth where the bust is seen from a distance. Weight climbs much faster than height because a bust is solid stone: an 18-inch piece is around **29 kg** while a 30-inch piece reaches **115 kg**, so tell us what it will stand on and we will say honestly whether the surface will take it.

## Related collections

- [Custom Made Khatu Shyam Ji Statues in Marble Stone](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/collections/khatu-shyam-statues)
- [Custom Made Neem Karoli Baba Marble Murti](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/collections/neem-karoli-baba-murti)
- [Custom Garden Buddha Statues for Outdoor Peace](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/collections/garden-buddha-statues)
- [Custom Made Meditating Buddha Statues in Marble Stone](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/collections/meditating-buddha-statues)
- [Custom Made Ganesh Statues in Marble Stone](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/collections/ganesh-statues)
- [Custom Made Standing Buddha Statues in Marble Stone](https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/collections/standing-buddha-statues)

## Contact Tilak Mandirwala

- Email: info@tilakmandirwala.com
- Phone: +91 92141 72150
- WhatsApp: https://wa.me/919766532408
- Enquiry form: https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/contact
- Store: Jaipur, Rajasthan, India — https://www.tilakmandirwala.com/best-mandir-shop-jaipur

Enquiries are quoted per piece: share the deity or object, an approximate height, and the stone you have in mind.