‘Each particular person has their very own distinctive persona, so why, after we move away, ought to all of us be saved in the identical commonplace container?’ asks Jonathan Hancock, co-founder of Urn Studios, a brand new UK-based platform redefining the aesthetics of remembrance. ‘There’s no purpose why an urn can’t be one thing stunning, honouring the lifetime of the particular person it holds.’
Launched in 2024, the studio has labored with impartial artists and makers to develop a curated assortment of handcrafted memorial urns, providing an alternative choice to conventional, sombre vessels. By merging artwork and reminiscence, the studio goals to raise urn design, creating expressive items designed to be proudly displayed (equally, we explored a restricted sequence of vibrant ceramic funeral urns by artist John Sales space in 2021.)
Silversmith Marcus Metal has crafted a sequence of patinated and gilded metallic ‘Treasure Homes’ that speak in confidence to reveal an inside vessel wherein to maintain a small quantity of ashes or valuable objects or mementos, £650
(Picture credit score: urn studios)
It was whereas Hancock was flicking by a sure plastic folder of mass-produced generic memorial choices, that the seed for Urn Studios was sown. Following the lack of his grandmother, he turned pissed off with the shortage of significant choices within the memorial house. ‘My preliminary interplay with the funeral house resulted in real shock,’ he recounts. ‘The entire course of felt so antiquated and impersonal, with a common sense of gloom. In one of the difficult instances of our lives, we’re confronted with a standardised method that feels chilly and presents few choices to honour your family members character and uniqueness.’
‘In one of the difficult instances of our lives, we’re confronted with a standardised method that feels chilly and presents few choices to honour your beloved’s character and uniqueness’
Jonathan Hancock
Along with associate and co-founder Merel Swart, Hancock reached out to artists and makers, who had been focused on difficult typical notions of what a memorial will be. Lots of the designers the duo collaborate with had by no means created urns earlier than however had been drawn to the venture’s conceptual depth. ‘Some had already made a one-off urn for a relative or pal,’ Hancock recollects. ‘Many had been instantly drawn to the thought of making urns, recognising the added layer of significance and which means these items might maintain.’
Milo Gibson’s stoneware urn comes with a dish for preserving private objects like jewelry or images, £400
(Picture credit score: urn studios)
The gathering embraces creative freedom, that includes varieties that vary from sculptural and summary to intimate and interactive. The stoneware urn by designer Milo Gibson, as an example, features a memento dish for displaying keepsakes like jewelry or images, making a extra private engagement with reminiscence. ‘We’re gravitate in direction of items that break the mould, exude persona, and categorical one thing genuine’ Hancock says. One other instance is UK woodworkers Cahoots hand turned ash urns with stunning progress rings that present the timber early years on the base and its later years on the rim, documenting the journey of a life and reinforcing a connection between materiality and reminiscence.
‘We’re drawn to items that break the mould, exude persona, and provide new methods to recollect’
Jonathan Hancock
The gathering at present stands at 50 urns with new designs being added over time. By humanising the urn choice course of, the studio goals to shift perceptions round how we have interaction with reminiscence and grief.
‘Dying is sadly nonetheless a taboo topic,’ Hancock explains, ‘although it’s the one inevitable actuality all of us share. Lately, about 80 per cent of individuals within the UK get cremated, and a big share of individuals select to maintain the ashes of their residence. Relatively than relegating them to hidden areas, we envision them as integral components of a house, celebrated and brazenly displayed as tributes to a life lived.’
Crafted from walnut, zebrano or oak utilizing hand instruments and a spinning lathe, the Teardrop Souvenir urn by Sheffield-based wooden turner Keith Jacques holds its contents securely and discreetly with a chromed threaded stopper, £60
(Picture credit score: urn studios)
The venture, Hancock informs, has been drastically impressed by observing approaches to grief and memorialisation in different components of the world. As an illustration, the Toraja communities of Indonesia, the place the deceased stay a part of day by day life for prolonged durations earlier than burial. ‘That perspective gave us permission to rethink memorialisation in a method that felt progressive however nonetheless deeply private,’ he says.
Whereas Urn Studios acknowledges the profound weight of loss, it advocates for a broader emotional spectrum in remembrance. ‘Many individuals don’t realise that memorialisation will be expressive, even joyful,’ Hancock says. ‘We don’t see our position as changing grief with celebration, however as inviting folks to embrace the total spectrum of feelings that include loss.’
urnstudios.com
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