When we lose a loved one, we're often presented with a standard set of options for how to remember them. This includes a range of urns and some jewellery made using ashes or fingerprints.
For some people, these options are enough.
But for many, they don’t capture the individuality of their loved ones. These people are looking for something more, something unique.
That’s what this blog is here to help with. It highlights 15 unique memorials that help commemorate those we’ve lost.
We’ve divided the blog into three sections:
Unique memorial objects made using ashes
1. Paintings made using ashes
(Lanson Moore Art, Step in the Picture, Little Dot Art and more)
A small number of artists offer memorial paintings. They take a few teaspoons of your loved ones’ ashes, mix them with paint and create a bespoke painting for you.
Some artists conceal the ashes within their work, while others feature them prominently.
2. Sculptures made using ashes
You can use ashes to create small sculptures. There’s no standard approach to this: Casting Ashes, for example, mixes ashes with concrete to create their sculptures, while Parting Stone solidifies ashes to create 40 to 80 small, smooth stones.
3. Vinyl records made using ashes
And Vinyly, a UK company run by Jason Leach, presses ashes into vinyl records. You decide what’s on the record: a personal message, your favourite songs or silence. Whatever you choose will be punctuated with pops and crackles from the ashes - your sounds, captured forever. You can create a record for yourself o a loved one.
4. Seed balls made using ashes
Ashes to Blooms mixes your loved ones’ ashes with wildflower seeds, compost, clay and chilli powder to create seedballs that grow into beautiful floral tributes.
5. Tattoos using ashes
A small number of tattoo artists perform cremation tattoos, taking a small amount of your loved ones’ ashes, sterilising them and then incorporating them into a tattoo.
You may have seen something about this in the news recently, as Metallica frontman James Hetfield used the ashes of his bandmate Lemmy Kilmister in a tattoo.
Unique ways to scatter ashes
6. A walking stick that slowly scatters your loved ones’ ashes
(TOLAD)
TOLAD is a walking stick designed to return your loved ones’ ashes to nature. The idea is to go on a walk that was significant to your loved one, using the walking stick to release a small amount of ash each time it’s pressed down.
7. Scatter ashes into water
(St Ives Boats, Ashes at Sea, Seafin and many more)
If you live near the sea - or even a large river, like the Thames - it’s fairly easy to hire a boat to scatter your loved one’s into water.
Some of these services offer the bare bones: a trip to and from an agreed location to scatter the ashes. Others offer a more comprehensive service, including catering and biodegradable urns.
8. Scatter ashes from the sky
Aerial Ashes uses drones to scatter your loved ones’ ashes at beautiful, sentimental locations across the UK.
There’s an emphasis on participation from friends and family, who are able to help load the ashes into the drone and operate the ashes release switch.
9. Scatter ashes from space
(Aura Flights and others)
You can also choose to scatter your loved ones’ ashes from space. They are lifted to 100,000 feet into a stratospheric balloon, before being released. Over the next six months, the ashes traverse the entire planet. Eventually they descend into the upper atmosphere, mingle with pockets of water vapour, and return to Earth as raindrops and snowflakes.
10. Scatter ashes in a fireworks display
(Jonathan’s Fireworks, Heavenly Stars Fireworks, Illusion Fireworks and many more)
Some fireworks companies offer to mix your loved ones’ ashes into fireworks, which they then release in professionally-run displays.
Other unique memorials
11. Commission a poem
Many poets write bespoke remembrance poems. Some of these are written specifically to be read at funerals.
12. Commission a legacy film
Filmmakers can interview friends and family about the deceased, as well as gather visual memories. They use these to create an intimate 10 minute film of their life.
A QR code linking to the film online can be printed on to a memorial plaque that will be placed in a significant public space, creating a lasting legacy and an alternative memorial site.
13. Contour box
Contour Boxes are carved with your specially chosen landscape; hand-made from English oak and embedded with a silver pin to mark a specific location.
14. Memory bear
(Tiller & Co and many more)
It’s possible to take your loved ones’ old clothes and transform them into a stuffed animal.
15. Stanhope necklaces
(made by Remember)
A Stanhope is a small, specially designed lens with a hidden image attached. When you look into the lens, the image is magnified.
Invented in 1860 by French photographer René Dagron, Stanhopes have a long history. In the late nineteenth century they were popular souvenirs, made to commemorate important events. As photography became more accessible over the course of the twentieth century, Stanhopes waned in popularity. But their legacy lives on: nineteenth-century Stanhopes can still be found today hidden in antiques.
Our Stanhope necklaces transform a favourite photograph of your loved one into a discrete, elegant memorial. The hidden image can be viewed by simply holding your Stanhope up to the light, or you can use your smartphone to display it on a screen or project it.
