Ashes to Art
Not everyone chooses to scatter a loved one’s ashes. Many are kept in an urn at home, in a repository or are, more commonly, being used to create a lasting memorial or treasured keepsake. For a personal tribute or a gift for family members, ashes or ‘cremains’ are being used in increasingly clever and inventive ways.
Cremation Jewellery
A piece of memorial jewellery can be a comfort to those bereaved. It is the thought that you are keeping part of your loved one close to you that has made mourning jewellery popular since Victorian times. Traditionally mourning rings, brooches, watches and pendants would include a lock of hair of the deceased. Today technology allows us to go a step further and incorporate cremation ashes into the actual piece. There are many companies online offering a wide range of affordable pendants, rings or bracelets created with a vial or ‘pocket’ inside to place hair or ashes.
For a more bespoke piece ashes can be used to ‘grow’ a genuine diamond which can then be used to create a unique item of jewellery of your choice.
Decorative Items for Your Home
Cremation ash can be used in a variety of ways to create an item for your home – stylish or traditional there are so many options. Glass is a great medium for incorporating ashes and can be used to create candle holders, vases, etched images, paperweights and stained glass. For a poignant reminder you can also have your loved one’s ashes placed inside an hourglass. There are items available to suit most tastes and make very special gifts.
Many artists will be happy to take on a commission to paint a portrait of your loved one. For a meaningful remembrance it is possible to add a small amount of the ash to the paint itself.
Often we prefer to create a memorial in our gardens. Ashes can be added into crystal wind chimes or a garden sculpture.
The National Glass Centre
The National Glass Centre, part of the University of Sunderland, has been producing hand blown glass paperweights
as memorial items for the last three years. The production of paperweights using human ashes was passed by the University of Sunderland ethics committee in 2011.
funeral magazine spoke to Head of Commissioning Chris Blade,
“We find that fairly traditional designs are quite popular as they tend to enhance the aesthetic appearance of the ashes, which by their very nature are inert and therefore difficult to work with and not easily used in a decorative sense.”
The paperweights can be personalised using colour and engraved with names dates or a short message.
Vinyl Records
Not your standard memorial but, yes, you can have your ashes pressed into a vinyl record! It will play, like a standard record, and can include favourite songs or even recorded words of the deceased.
These are a just a few of the services and products out there. Cremation jewellery alone offers thousands of styles, colours and metals to choose from – far too many to list here.
[dropcap type=”1″]fm[/dropcap] recommend that you take your time and look at all the options before making a decision and we hope you find a memorial piece that will last and be treasured by this, and future generations.
