Friday, March 11, 2011

Cremation Urns

My step father asked me this week to make him a cremation urn. I have never made one, not even sure what they look like so I did a quick google to get some ideas. Maybe it's just me, and I do not intend any disrespect here to the maker, but this personal portrait urn concept is a bit creepy. I wonder how Barack would feel about being a cremation urn?
I know Hollis wrote a great post a while back about making a glaze with someone's ashes. I would be totally into doing that but I think he wants the urn before the ashes would be available, so I'll have to come up with some other meaningful ingredient. I think it will be a Raku piece.
Fingers crossed that I get a roof today!

11 comments:

Dennis Allen said...

Way creepy.

Sue Pariseau Pottery said...

I recently made an urn for someone and they wanted a photograph of the person who will be occupying the urn added as a decal. The client had the decal made and I fired it onto the urn I'd made. Kind of a neat idea. The photo was large enough that it's size created some design limitations for the urn itself, but I really liked the idea.

Unknown said...

I really like the idea of more personal pottery urns. It was something i was going to explore once i got going.
I like the idea of just having details, written/drawn, key dates names of loved ones and favourite things. I think we should get back to keeping remains with us.. sharing our daily lives with our loved ones still around.
Mine would be a lovely North Devon style sgraffito covered thing ( although i'd quite like to spend eternity inside a Lanier Meaders face jug...erm ... heaven!

Sister Creek Potter said...

That is an incredibly great likness of Obama. But no, that is not what I want my ashes stored in! I have been thinking about making a couple urns for me and my husband. My father-in-law died recently and I was sorry I had not made an urn for his ashes--the one provided by the funeral home was very disappointing from my perspective.

Tracey Broome said...

Great ideas you guys. I especially like the idea of writings on an urn. Maybe I should get Amy Huscani to help me, I love her bowls that she writes on... the decal sounds pretty cool too.

Paula Henderson Pottery said...

This topic is still very fresh to me. I apologize in advance for the length of my comment on your blog.

A year ago this month my father died and I wanted to make an urn for his ashes. Since I am a hobbyist and had never made one, I made 6 for my mother to choose from. I assure you none of them looked like a head of a human. Way to creepy! Of the two that were almost acceptable my mother chose my least favorite. It was a great experience making them and feeling as if my father was present with me while I was forming an urn for him.

The urns that were not acceptable all had cracks. or the glaze ran off the pot. My mother in-law asked that she have one of the cracked ones since it fit her personality. My mother in-law is a retired reverend and was hosting an all woman's retreat last month. The last day they had a white elephant gift exchange. One of the gifts was a cremation urn. When it was her turn to peruse the gifts, she went up to the woman with the urn and said "that is a really nice urn but my lovely daughter in-law has already made one for me." They all had a good laugh and thought that she should worry about well we got along.

Michèle Hastings said...

i wish that i had been able to make an urn for john but neither of us did any real studio work during the year he was sick AND we were certain he would recover so we weren't thinking about urns.
urns from funeral homes are cheesy and expensive... i settled on a simple wood box... after we scattered his ashes with the wild ponies in assateague, the box was used to stoke the wood kiln! i know john REALLY liked that :-)

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Paula and Michele, thanks for sharing these stories. This urn business is a very personal thing, I was very honored when my step father asked me...

ang design said...

spooky!!!

barbaradonovan said...

I've made numerous pet urns which in its own way is a rewarding if not melancholy task, but my mom's urn 4 years ago was my first for a person. It was difficult because it was an emotional time, but I'm glad I did it. She loved seeing the birds at the feeder outside the kitchen window so I made the urn decorated with her favorite birds. It's more a pretty jar and less a traditional urn except for her name and dates around the foot. I wanted it to represent the lovely person she was and think (hope) it did. The urn I made for my mother-n-law was light hearted. I made a ginger jar form as it seemed her favorite times as a navy wife were in Japan. It was decorated with imagery depicting her interests, family, and pets to celebrate her life.

Ok, happy thoughts. Have a great day moving into your new studio!

anuj64 said...

If your family pet is reaching the end of life, part of grieving involves deciding how to memorialize him or her. It is no surprise that you want to memorialize your pooch as dogs are the best friend that a human could possibly have. They are loyal and they always know how to make you smile, even on the worst days. So a memorial service using an urn for dog ashes is becoming a popular option for grieving pet owners.
Fishing Urns