Turning the dead into vinyl records – BBC News
John Hobson listens to a recording of the talks with his late mother, mainly small talk about family.
The words are on a vinyl register, although this is more than a recording of remembrances.
The ashes of Madge Hobson are combined with the vinyl, with a photograph and details of their own lives published on the labels.
“It makes the perfect household record, which can be passed down the generations, ” supposes Jason Leach, 46, the founder of And Vinyly, which produced the disc.
The firm is part of a fast-growing sector of the end-of-life industry. No longer necessity ashes be stored in an urn or scattered to the wind. Now you can wear, booze from, or display a little part of what is left of your loved one.
Mr Hobson, a 69 -year-old sculptor, says his mother, a devout churchgoer, would exhaustively approve of her record.
“I had to weighed out significant quantities of the ashes[ which had been kept in an urn ], and put a large teaspoonful into a number of small plastic bags, one for each disc, ” he says.
Fifteen registers were pressed for family and friends. Mentions Mr Hobson: “I guess And Vinyly has undoubtedly helped to keep the remembrance of my mother alive.”
Mr Leach, based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, began mulling the possibilities of pressing ashes into records about 10 years ago.
There was no business plan. He was just reflecting on mortality, issues brought into sharper focus when his mother began work at a funeral directors.
“I was astounded by how little I or any of your best friend had even properly considered or even accepted our own mortality, and how unbelievably sheltered many of us are from death and exchanges around it, ” Mr Leach announces.
“It was not intended to be a business. It was the result of having a bit of fun with what at the time felt like a shocking and flustering inevitability.”
The process is the same as making a standard vinyl disc, with ashes( human or pet) added at a particular stage in production.
“It’s a balance between adding enough ashes so as to be seen, but not so much as to affect the grooves’ smooth playing, ” supposes Mr Leach.
“There will, of course, be some extra pops and cracklings resulting from the inclusion of ashes – but we like these, as this is you.”
Prices vary as every entreaty is different, he supposes. A basic packet expenditures about PS900, rising to about PS3, 000.
Options include 7-inch or 12 -inch disc, specially-composed music, a likenes painted on the record applying the ashes, and clear or coloured vinyl.
Mr Leach, a music producer and music label owned, currently presses about two discs a month that have human ashes added to them, on equipment he already owns.
But he is in the process of organizing more funding to meet rising demand. He is also relating with funeral home which will offer the services offered. “The concept marketplaces itself, ” he says.
“Of course, there are those who find it strange, even creepy, but most people actually come round to the idea.”
And his a blueprint for his own register? Spoken terms from him, his partner of more than 25 times, and their two daughters, plus some music he has written.
“I like to think about my great, great grandchildren listening to me. This is about as close to hour travelling as I’m going to get, ” he says.
In Domat/ Ems, Switzerland, Rinaldo Willy, 37, has another way of deterring memories alive – moving ashes into diamonds.
“I was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 21, and therefore was sensitised to the topic of death, ” he says.
While a business examines student, in 2003, he read about isolating carbon from ashes to develop synthetic diamonds. A years later, with his professor, he founded Algordanza.
A diamond is 99.9% carbon, while the human body is 20 %. After cremation about 1-5% of carbon remains.
Natural diamonds – represents of enjoy and the everlasting – are created under immense pressure and high temperature inside of the earth. Algordanza replicates the process in its laboratory, establishing stones within weeks.
About 85 diamonds a few months are hit, expensing between about PS2, 800 and PS12, 700.
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The start-up investment in Algordanza was PS300, 000, with Mr Willy use all his savings.
“After six years, we were able to pay ourselves a proper salary, ” he tells. The business now utilizes 60 people worldwide, with 12 based at the Switzerland headquarters.
Many of Algordanza’s clients have gone through massive trauma. “We have families who lost someone in events and incidents such as the tsunami in Thailand, the quake in Chile, soldiers who lost their lives on duty in Afghanistan, the terror attack in Madrid, the flight crash of Germanwings, ” Mr Willy says.
In Santa Fe, in the US, Justin Crowe, 29, applies cremated ashes as raw material for pottery.
A fine art graduate, he founded Chronicle Cremation Designs in 2016. He already operated a ceramics studio, so necessity minimal initial investment. But he has now conjured $100,000( PS78, 400) seed funding to expand.
A typical ceramic coating is made up of flint, minerals and clay. “We’ve developed a special glaze recipe that incorporates the cremated remains, which ultimately function to form the gloss you meet on the surface of the study, ” Mr Crowe says.
His Lifeware product line includes vases, urns, and coffee cups. The most well known pieces are candle luminaries and jewellery. Rates range from $195 for a necklace up to $995 for a large bowl.
He get abundance of unusual requests, such as from a women who wanted the ashes of her sister and two hounds glazed on to coffee mugs.
Mr Crowe acknowledges that some people feel that transforming someone into a piece of homeware is disrespectful.
But, he says, a bud vase or candle holder provide daily reminders of loved ones. “Ultimately, the parts are about stopping remembrances close in daily life.”
Follow Business Brain series editor Will Smale on Twitter @WillSmale1
Posted by dj0pium- Posted in DJ News
Sep, 02, 2017
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