Modern alternatives look down their nose at the tradition wooden box and offer you hip ways to make use of your ashy remains. Your ashes can start a coral reef, be painted into a work of art or, as I recently (as in 10 minutes ago) discovered the last of your physical remains can be blown into a glass orb!
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| Image from http://memoryglass.com |
It's called "Memory Glass" and actually I think it's quite charming. No really! Well ok it's kind of morbid having great aunt Hettie turned into a paperweight but it's an interesting alternative to the sinister little ash urn that sits on the mantle piece. They put the deceased's ashes into freshly blown glass then let it harden. They can even divide the ashes up into multiple orbs and/or small glass pendants so EVERYONE can have part of their dead relative!
Yes it's a little weird and honestly I don't think I'm close enough to anyone to have their ashes hanging around my neck. It's just one of those things. This also probably not the alternative I would choose for myself. I just think about my little glass orb collecting dust and feel a bit sad.. However, for those people who like to keep their dead close and want to be a little Martha Stewart-ish about it there's no way you can go wrong!
I'm really not sure what the archaeologist doing material analysis on a blown glass orb would think when they discover human ashes inside of it. On one had, I'd imagine they'd think it's an odd addition to the home decor but it's not exactly an action without precedent.
Bodies have been known to be buried under the foundation of houses and the skulls of relatives in some cultures as sort of a protective totem so Memory Glass is just North America's home decorator approach of storing a dead body in the house.
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