What a beautiful way to share the memories.
I had a customer come in who wanted me to take 3 necklaces from 3 generations of women (herself, her mother, and her grandmother) and make 3 bracelets, one for each of her daughters.
One necklace was entirely of small gold beads, one of jet, and one of jet and pearl. I made the bracelets as triple strands, intertwined, each different from the others, but all similar. My customer was so happy with the result that she had me use the left over pieces to make her a similar bracelet.
My photo shows the bracelets with the strands pulled slightly apart to show the differences in the strands and the bracelets. See the picture in my gallery as "Spanning The Generations"
JoAnne
I had never heard of people putting ashes into jewelry until I had a customer who had saved the ashes from her friends husband because her friend was too grief stricken to have them in the house. She had a feeling that one day she would regret not having them. Sure enough her friend said she wish she had kept them. So my customer came in and bought a small ceramic urn to put the few ashes she had in it and made a necklace for her. Needless to say her friend was very grateful. Thank you for sharing your story. The turtle is fabulous and the story makes it even more special. How lucky your family is to have you.
Been away for awhile.. good post and the stories are beautiful..
A friend of mine passed away about 5 years ago.. his son in law makes "pen" size holders from oak..etc. .. where the ashes of a loved one can be carried with them ... the first time I saw it was at the hospital as his wife was showing & explaining it to me.. I was a little "shocked" especially since he was sitting up in bed doing so well.. I had to ask her to place it back in her purse.. mainly until I could absorb this "new" thing.. I'm more understanding now and am happy that people can do this for their loved ones and family.
I really like the idea of the turtle...
I was touched by the above stories of saving remembrances of loved ones -I had never thought of saving ashes in wearable form. Recently on a "Traveling Stitchers" fabric trip here in Florida, I met a lady who did a similar thing for her neighbor. The neighbor's husband had passed away and his family was mourning him. The wife was saving her husband's well worn bluejeans, so the lady offered to make purses out of them in patchwork style. She used (10) 6-inch squares for the bag, used grommets in the top and leather shoe laces for the straps, with some wooden beads on the ends. She used existing bluejean pockets in the front & back. She said the lady loved the bag and she had made the daughters a bag and a bag for the granddaughters. This way they had a remembrance of their dear dad in wearable form. There was enough denim squares leftover and the lady made a bag for herself and was carrying it the day of the trip. She said her neighbor was so grateful to her for making the bag and she just loved it and carried it all the time. I was really touched by this story, even though it was not jewelry related. However, this idea could be used and maybe some old family beads, brooches or buttons could be added to the bag for further remembrance.
I was also reminded of the Victorian ritual of saving a loved one's locket of hair and placing it in a locket or pocket watch - a loving way of preserving the memory of a loved one. I guess the above mentioned stories are a more modern version.
My daughter also made purses from my husband's jeans for each of us and I took several of his shirts, cut squares out of the center of them, used the sleeves to make cording and made the shirts into pillows for all the grandchildren. Now they all have what they call grandpa shirts. We can remember our loved ones in so very many ways.
My daughter Beth took an Illinois tee shirt and made a real cute teddy bear out of it the belonged to her husband Bill that passed last August. She plans to make more when she can deal with letting more of his clothing go. She also kept some roses from the casket and put them in a shadow box with the obit and a picture of them both. She is very crafty. She has done more but I just cannot remember right now.
