Death Mask 2

  An altogether more spooky type of death mask, using human hair mixed with clear casting resin.

 This is very similar to Marc Quinns

series of 'Bloodheads'

I wouldn't like to have this done as a death mask of myself or anyone dear to me....too spooky

Lighting up the sky

Our research into putting a loved ones ashes into a firework really got me thinking, especially as Guy Fawkes night has just passed.
 A family friend lost her 26 year old son this year and as a fitting celebration of his life, the family put his ashes into a firework and shot him up into the sky.

Commercially, this probably isn't a viable option as I can't imagine firework manufacturers would be too happy at having to deal with human ashes.

But as I was watching numerous firework displays this weekend I found myself thinking what a wonderful send off it would be. I think it has similarities with the burning on a pyre rituals that are famous with Viking cremations.

I would find it a wonderful and very emotional sense of closure for the loss of someone.

It would also solve problems of space as there would be no need for a cemetery.

That said, I think people do still need to have a place for mourning. A place where you can go to remember specifically the person gone.

Looking at the first world war cemeteries in France, they serve a purpose so that we never forget the sacrifice of the soldiers who died, but also for generations of families who go to pay respects for a great grandfather whom they never knew.

Death Mask Dome

We had the idea of the snowglobe as a new kind of urn, using ashes to make the dome, but then we moved on to the death mask in the dome idea. The photos on the previous posts show the process we went through to make a life cast of May.
We couldn't get hold of any human ashes, not surpisingly, so we used ashes from a fire and incorporated them into the plaster of the life cast.

This made the cast come out a grey colour. We also placed some hair into the cast but this didn't really work as of course you can't see the hair when it is embedded in the cast.

Once we had made the mask and put it in the dome, we started thinking, 'What would we need the dome for?' other than for an interesting display purpose, and would we need to have the 'snow' effect inside the dome.

I think it makes quite an unusual 'new age urn' but I'm not sure if I would want a death mask of my loved one on my shelves.

I'm trying out a clear cast so that you can see the hair inside it. Look on next post, if I've managed to get it to work.

Preserving memories

 Looking at different ways of preserving memories, our group discussed the possibilities of dyeing fabric using some of the  chemical elements of a deceased loved one. I spoke to a pharmacologist friend who informed me that the four main elements of a human are water, nitrogen, carbon and fat. Of these four, carbon is the only one that could be used as a dye , in the form of cremated ashes. There are many other elements which exist largely as trace and therefore would be almost impossible to extract unless you were able to work with a scientist in a  laboratory. 

 What other ways of using fabric could we do to preserve memories?

It has long been a tradition in quilt making to incorporate items of clothing and even hair from a person, to make a kind of memorial or a recording of history.

The quilt here also incorporates human hair into  a portrait of the 'loved one' using  a needle felting technique. It is very difficult to needle felt with hair due to it's springy nature, so I decided to place the hair in a transparent pocket.

The quilt invokes memories of a person for the bereaved more powerfully than a simple urn of ashes because of the 'triggers' used such as favourite items of clothing, hair or the story told of their life in the quilt. The memorial quilt is a piece of art as well as a reminder the bereaved.  

HAIR

 From the work on the quilt, we started looking at other ways to use hair.

As a humourous idea, ew thought of



Making process on 4th Nov(2)

Making process on 4th Nov(1)

Making process on 5th Nov

Making Process on 4th Nov

We met in Tracy's cozy house and have sup of teas.

snowglobe - a new age urn

Snow globe as New Age Urn.

The idea of putting photos of loved ones into snow globes is not new, but through our research into uses for human ashes from cremations we discovered that ashes can be made into many things, glass for one.

The thought emerged that we could make the ash from a loved one into the glass of a snow globe.
A photo of the deceased would be encapsulated into perspex.
Mementos coud be placed inside the globe, for example a lock of hair, a piece of jewelery with the photo.
We could use ash to act as the 'snow' but we believed the ash would dissolve in the glycerin and then we wouldn't be able to see anything in the globe but dirty water.

We started thinking of other things we could put into the globe and quickly thought of a death mask. How would that look in a globe?

We could incorporate human ashes into the casting material of the cast, hence giving a living presence in a static material.

We are going to make a cast of a member of the group and play around with incorporating different things into the cast, like ash or hair.