Topic: Oh My - " Funerary Glass " by Angelo Rossi ( CANADA )

[antiquerose123]

Glass pieces made with Human Ashes....??  FUNERARY GLASS

Link HERE, CLICK


[quoted from the above link]:

"" As a service for grieving families, Angelo Rossi makes ‘memory glass’ which is a type of funerary glass where cremated human remains are added directly into the mix, and can be seen inside the finished piece. The technical difficulties of making memory glass sculpture are encountered in the different thermal expansion rates of the ingredients. Calcium, sodium and phosphorus, the three most abundant elements in white human bone ash — cremated remains — have different rates of expansion than the soda lime glass. So if the glassblower adds too much of the ashes, the glass sculpture will be more likely to crack as cools in the annealing oven or later in any temperature flux inside the house or in shipping.....""

Other INFO HERE

[Anne E.B.]

Personally it makes me shudder I'm afraid Rose, but it takes all sorts I suppose, and if it gives someone comfort, then... 
I know someone who has a friend's ashes included in a tattoo. 

[Paul S.]

most unusual Rose - perhaps the modern equivalent of the Medieval reliquary - but do I sense an element here of capitalizing at a time of grief or great emotion, do you think?          In the U.K. we have a small but growing custom which is a 'green' take on the traditional physical burial, whereby you purchase a 'space' in an allotted field - suitably set aside for human interment - and they provide a cardboard box for the deceased's last journey.              The ethos behind this idea of course is that our physical remains don't go to waste, and provide rich nourishment for the soil and its inhabitants  -  I understand they can accommodate several cardboard boxes in one hole.

As a realistic but somewhat brutal reminder of the reality of the practice of crematoria - I was informed at the time of my first wife's cremation that the container they provide to hold the deceased's ashes contains simply a shovelful of ash at the end of the day's work  -  thus the mourners may be the recipient of ashes from several individuals, the more so if the day was busy.          The plastic urn they provide is tacky and kitsch to say the least, though most bereaved scatter the ashes and have no need to keep the container.

In view of the contents of this 'memory glass', of calcium, bone ash and phosphorus, then do you think it likely that - in common with opalescent glass - there will be a 'sunset glow' if the piece is held up to a strong light source?

My take on annealing ovens is that I had understood they are supposed to prevent the glass from cracking due to the long wind down of temperature.       It could be very embarrassing to suddenly find that as the ash tray breaks, 'Grandmother' drops to the floor.

Much of the above is true  -  but for those who might consider some of my words irreverent - I apologize