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Thursday, July 24, 2008, 08:00
Sprinkling can seem so final. And with beauty spots, such as Mount Snowdon, now banning it on environmental grounds, it's trickier than ever to know what to do with your loved ones.
For a few years the rich have had the option of compressing the carbon remains of their nearest and dearest to make new diamonds. But such elaborate statements are out of the price range of most people.
But how about ending up as a glass paperweight? Or a vase? Maybe you fancy facing eternity as a pendant or a pair of cufflinks?
Indeed the only ornament the company doesn't seem to offer is an ash tray, but I suppose that's understandable under the circumstances.
“It offers real comfort to people to keep a little bit of their loved ones around,” says jeweller Helen Jones, who set up Eternity Crystal last year with her business partner Emily Evans.
“It's always so hard to know what to do with ashes. All too often they end up being stored at the bottom of a wardrobe, or in a dour urn on a mantelpiece. Our products are a way of celebrating the life of a loved one by creating a beautiful, lasting memorial.
“When people first hear about the idea, they think it's going to be morbid. But when they see how beautiful the glassware is, they realise there's nothing strange or creepy about it at all.”
Based in a tranquil workshop at Moorlinch Vineyard, near Bridgwater, the company has a patent pending for the technique, which embeds some of the deceased's ashes into the glass as it's being blown.
“The initial idea came from a lady called Wendy Redmore, who came to see me in 2006 because she was trying to preserve her mother's ashes in a beautiful way. After a lot of discussion, we came up with this technique, and initially called the business The Winnie Glass Company, after her late mother Winnie.
“In fact Winnie Redmore lives here with us,” she adds, pointing to a decorative urn in the corner of the room. “All the ashes you see in our samples come from Winnie, so she's very special to us.” And the technique is not just a way of commemorating our nearest and dearest. “We get a lot of people bringing in the ashes of their dogs,” says Emily.
“We had one lady a few weeks ago, who drove all the way down from Preston in Lancashire with her dog's ashes. She drove back down to pick up her pendant, too. It was exactly the sort of thing that would help her get over losing her pet.”
The unusual technique has also caught the attention of former Rocky Horror Show star Richard O'Brien, who has included a visit to the workshop in his ITV1 series, Dead Strange.
“It was great to have the TV crew down here,” says Emily. “We also took them to our glass- blowing partners at Dartington Glass in Devon, so they could see the full process.
“It's wonderful to have the opportunity to get on television. As a small company, letting people know we're here is always the first obstacle.
“I think as people learn about the technique, more and more will want to come to us to have a lasting memento created to celebrate the lives of their loved ones.”
■ Richard O'Brien's Dead Strange is to be broadcast on ITV1 on July 31. For more information, visit the website at www.eternity crystal.com
Al least it keeps one-or-two crazy people off the streets if nothing else!
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