JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) - When Heidi Roberts and Jarrid Mallinson set aside a flame-spun piece of glass jewelry to cool in their home studio, they say they hope the item ends up truly extraordinary.
Some of their pieces are indeed unique: They’re fused with a one-of-a-kind human element.
Among the items the Janesville couple creates are glass memorial pendants that are melded with a quarter-teaspoon or so of cremated human remains.
Roberts, 37, and Mallinson, 28, have made the pendants for about a year - mainly for customers who seek to keep the memory of a deceased loved one close to them in a tangible form.
Roberts and Mallinson have made hundreds of the pendants, which they call “cremation pendants” or “memorial pendants.” The items are a growing part of the couple’s home-based company, Glassroots Jewelry.
The couple makes a variety of jewelry for local art galleries and one regional chain retailer, but Roberts and Mallinson said they’ve begun to branch out with their cremation pendants.
At first, they made a few of the pendants because a friend requested them. They’ve since built a reputation on them, mostly by word of mouth. In February, Roberts said, Glassroots Jewelry made 11 cremation pendants for family members of a deceased local resident.
Now, they are beginning to work with local funeral homes to market glass pendants and even pocket stones that they will create for individual customers.
Some of the pendants are dark and look stone-like. Others are translucent, allowing people to see the ashes inside. When they catch the light, the ashes can appear as flecks in the jewelry.
“It’s definitely different,” Mallinson told the Janesville Gazette . “You might think it’s weird or ’off’ to work with ashes. People ask us if that’s weird. To us, it’s more of a beautiful thing.”
The couple’s jewelry methods, which they keep secret, might be unusual, but Roberts and Mallinson aren’t the only local makers of cremation pendants.
Neal Schneider, a partner at Schneider Funeral Home and Crematory in Janesville, said his funeral home has worked with jewelers to offer such pendants since the 1990s. Schneider said one local business, Janesville wholesale jeweler Madelyn Pendants, has been at it for about three decades.
Madelyn, according to its website, supplies a variety of gold, silver and pewter keepsake pendants, including ones designed to seal in and permanently store human ashes.
Schneider said cremation is becoming more popular because it’s less costly than a “traditional” funeral, which involves embalming and burying the deceased in a casket. In the last 15 years, he said, cremations have grown from about 15 percent of his funeral home’s dealings to about 25 percent.
In that time, Schneider has seen an increase in niche companies that key on the cremation trend - including one he says will compress human ashes into diamond-like stones.
Given the growing prevalence of cremation, Schneider said he’s not surprised to see another jewelry maker enter the market.
“There’s lots of things that people come up with in that area, and some people like it, some people don’t,” Schneider said. “With the jewelry and the pendants and the keepsakes, it’s nice because it’s easy to keep that person close to you. It’s a tangible thing you can hold right next to you to remind them of that person every day.”
Wisconsin has limited rules that prevent people from using human ashes to creatively memorialize a person, Schneider said. Ashes can be sent via certified mail, and Schneider knows of people who sculpt and paint with cremated remains.
Roberts said she and Mallinson try to keep their pendants affordable. They often work on pieces in the $70 or $80 range, although the pendants can take a full day to create between flaming the glass and tempering it in a special cooling process.
They say they’ve worked with 85-year-old widows, people who have lost young family members to suicide and others who have had family members’ ashes stored away for years.
The couple’s clients often have their own ideas when it comes to glass color and design. Some have special wishes rooted in their memories of the deceased.
Not long ago, a woman asked Roberts to play rock band Led Zeppelin’s songs “D’yer Mak’er” and “Thank You” as Roberts made a pendant to encase ashes of the woman’s deceased husband. Roberts said she honored that wish.
“It’s emotional. Each customer has a different story, and it’s hard to explain how important this is to people. It’s really an honor for us,” she said. “The more we do these pendants, the more it is for the love of what we’re giving people to keep.”
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Information from: The Janesville Gazette, http://www.gazetteextra.com
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