A long while back, Brenda had mentioned a repeating competition held out of the USA for contemporary designs for funeral urns. The story goes that a major funeral company in California was having a difficult time getting attractive containers for the ashes of those cremated. As the 'Hippy' generation gets older, more and more people are wanting cremation for their remains. Along with this is an increasing number of North Americans who have embraced other religious paths than main line Christian. To remedy this, a competition was started, with prizes given for outstanding work. On top of this, the sponsoring company would also purchase a good number of the top works for the use of their own clients.

Very interesting, I thought. Latter I had one of those late night conversations with David, concerning work, life, the universe (everything). Both of us were floundering a wee bit and running out of ideas and inspiration. I mentioned those other two conversations, and we started thinking about using forged steel as a material for 'containers'.
Hmmm... Now it turned out that Diane (who works in marquetry) had actually created some specific containers for ashes in the past. She was able to pass on some information about sizes and other requirements. At the time we also discussed an idea for organizing a group artisan show - specifically of funeral urns rendered in any number of mediums.

I then got side tracked into pulling together a different concept exhibit - Out of the Fiery Furnace. That group exhibit showcased the work of artists who 'directly manipulate their materials while those are incandescent'. David, it turned out, had not only remembered those late night ramblings, he had acted on them. One of his contributions to Furnace was 'Forged Vessel', his first crack at creating a urn using blacksmithing techniques.

Grave Goods came about as an expansion of that original concept of an exhibit of contemporary artists creating funeral urns. That particular class of object remains as a kind of hidden subtext to the larger exhibit.
It may be a wee bit crass, but the truth is we all need to sell some of our work to survive (!) As the current generation of 'post war babies' ages and dies, there is an increasing demand for not only cremation - but also less traditional containers for those ashes. Put together this looks like an excellent opportunity for we artisans to exercise our creative abilities. These objects by their very nature require the best quality workmanship, inspired designs - and for once the cost of the object is not a serious limitation. On top of all that, these objects are sure to be treasured and preserved into the future, perhaps the best reward for the artist of all. According the to information on the Cremation Association of North America web site, in Canada over 45 % of all burials involve cremation.
To that end I am suggesting to contributing artisans consider making at least one of their submitted pieces a container that might be used to hold ashes. This obviously will apply most easily to those people working in the 'hard' media.

A few technical details: