Austrian Tradition

The Austrian village of Hallstatt is located between a mountain and a lake, so therefore has very limited burial space. To solve this problem they would allow for the remains of their dead to lie in the cemetery for only 12 years. When that time was up the bones would be exhumed and moved to a charnel, but the skull would be kept. It would be tastefully decorated with the name of the deceased, a cross and plants. It would then be displayed in a chapel. Although creamtion has now been allowed in the village this custom still takes place.

Traditions from around the world

Vietnam
In Northern Vietnam the deceased are buried in the land in which they lived. They will generally be laid to rest in the middle of a rice paddy. After two years, the deceased's family will dig up the body, clean all the bones, and then rebury the body in the family garden.

Canadian Identity?

I was recently listening to CBC 1. I like to listen to "Q" with Jian Ghomeshi in the morning. This particular interview was with "Seth" a world reknown graphic novel artist form Guelph, Ontario. He was talking about how he collects the work of Doug Wright a Canadian cartoonist from the 50's and 60's. One of the comments that Doug Wright made in his day was: If it's from Canada it must be second rate."
I thought about this, and yes as a child I always felt that if it was from any where else it was better.
Canada came into it's own since the 80's with promotions such as BUY CANADIAN. Since the advent of the internet and EBAY does any one ever consider any more where things come from?
I am proud to run a business that buys only from Canadian artists. It's rough to make a living in our society as an artist let alone make a living as a Canadian artist. Almost impossible. Students are so hyped after graduation from art school only to be forced to put bread on their table by becoming a mail man or such. Does any one think about that we are putting food on the table of Canadian artists when buying Canadian art? Does any one care? Has the advent of internet shopping killed the idea that everyone of us has an effect on the economy of our own country. It's all grand to say we have a thriving arts and culture community in Canada but it won't be for long if it's propped up by grants from the government and left to wane by the individuals who make the decisions about where to spend their money. Do you ever think about this? What do you do about it?

Who chooses cremation and Why? I'm learning from people I know. I understand that Native people prefer a casket. Jewish people just don't go there and of Oriental people 90% prefer traditional burial. Any opther facts that I should know about?

Which do you prefer?

Recently had an appointment with a funeral home to place our urns in their showroom. While visiting an interesting comment came up. They felt that most people look and are interested in the funky unusual urns but when it comes to choosing for aunt Mable the final decision is always with the more traditional shape. Is this so? Please consider carefully and leave me your comment. The world of cremation and urns is a changing. We are forging the way and I always find it so interesting to see what people like, think they like but ultimately choose something else.

About two years ago, my wife Francine got a call from her parents in White Rock B.C., asking her to make two funeral urns for them. Not an unrealistic request, since Francine is a professional potter, but it gave her a wake-up call that her parents were acknowledging and preparing for their passing. At first Francine viewed this as somewhat macabre to be making funerary urns for her own parents, let alone the fact that they were still very much alive and well. After much thought and discussions however, she came to realize that this was quite a privilege to be part of their preparations.
So now the task at hand was to create a vessel suitable for the occasion. Armed with inspirations, shapes were drafted up, designs were sketched out, and glazes were chosen. But since teapots and mugs were her usual fare, urns, she realized would have very different and very specific requirements. So the research began. We started visiting funeral homes and crematoriums, talking to funeral directors and cremation technicians, asking lots of questions that everyone was quite willing to share answers to, and perusing urn showrooms and catalogues. We learned an incredible amount of information about this business, in fact, much more than we needed for the task at hand. But since this article is about the events resulting from that research, let me sum up by saying that Francine created two suitably magnificent urns for her parents and that the process has changed her perspective on death and has opened new doors to her future.
During the research process we saw many styles and options for urns; metal, stone, ceramic, wood and even paper, but the overall selection was mass produced and more often than not, sourced from offshore countries. Canada had very little product on the market, let alone anything hand-crafted. Now, both Francine and I are artists, so this struck a dissident chord with us. We thought that Canadian artisans should definitely be part of this picture. So we contacted artisans that we have known over the years and explained our proposal for a source of one-of-a-kind, hand crafted funerary urns. It came as no surprise that we had twenty or so artisans on board in no time flat!
Well that was the easy part. Now we needed a showroom and a website. We had an 800 square foot building on our property that was filled with “stuff” left over from our family of three girls. So after a ruthless purging, we set out to build a gallery and warehouse. The completed gallery is a compact 300 square feet and the rest is storage for inventory and some remaining girls’ “really important stuff”. The website took a bit longer but it’s now a hard working virtual gallery with most of our inventory on display. I am always as excited as a little boy at Christmas, when the Purolator truck shows up with new work and I have never been disappointed by the quality of our artists. Certainly, in my opinion, some of the finest in the world live here.
Francine and I are quite proud of the fact that we have started a company that is 100% Canadian. With artists from Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia to Saltspring Island in British Columbia and many places in between, we once again feel privileged to be giving our own art community an outlet for their one-of a-kind pieces, as well as offering the rest of the world, the opportunity to choose from some of Canada’s most talented artisans.

John Reid and Francine Hampson-Reid are the co-owners of The Earthen Vessel Inc. in Calgary Alberta.
www.earthenvessel.ca
403.984.7900

John and I run The Earthen Vessel. This is gallery of one of a kind, artist created cremation urns. Over the years dealing with artists as well people from all walks of life I have come to realize that a shift is happening in our society. Thirty years ago very few people chose cremation. Today we are choosing cremation 60 to 90% of the time. This is uncharted waters and many questions and controversies have arisen. We have done a lot of research and study on the topic of cremation and would like to share the information we have accumulated with everyone. Please feel free to post your questions or concerns about cremation and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. If I do not know the answer I will find out for you.

EARTHEN VESSEL

http://earthenvessel.ca/