Janet Kaiser on sat 8 apr 00
This has come up before, following someone using animal ash. Speaking for
myself: the head says "why not". Perfectly reasonable to use any ash and I
use bone meal on the garden all the time. The best rose gardens are around
crematoria. And coming from a family who have always chosen cremation to
burial -- including scattering of ashes in said gardens -- it is has been
our tradition to "recycle" that way since the 1920s.
But, human ash in a glaze would probably be from someone you love and I am
afraid my heart would say "no" to that use. I do not think it is
squeamishness.
Firstly I think it would be putting too much pressure on the owner/s of the
finished pot/s. Break a pot - however valuable - and it may be with a
little regret. No regret if it is one of those unwanted and unloved gifts.
But break a pot glazed with Mum, Grandma, or whoever, and it would be a
pretty catastrophic to me. I would be totally guilt ridden. Or even worse if
someone else broke it! I would probably never forgive them.
Following family tradition, my Mother was cremated three years ago. She does
not "turn in her grave", she "whizzes round her rose bush" much to the
disgust of strangers when they hear our "disrespect". My grandfather doesn't
because his ashes were scattered in a howling force 10 gale and got whipped
out into the Irish Sea, but just about all the others rotate round the rose
bushes doing a pretty good job...
And I personally think that is best, fulfilling the true meaning of "ashes
to ashes, dust to dust". Petrifying them in a glaze on a pot somehow does
not let them "rest" in the same way. It may be illogical and sentimental,
but that is the way I feel.
Janet Kaiser - Wondering who else saw the planets in conjunction last night?
The Chapel of Art, Criccieth LL52 0EA, GB-Wales
Home of The International Potters Path
TEL: (01766) 523570
WEB: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
EMAIL: postbox@the-coa.org.uk
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> > Why not use the physical remains of human beings for our purposes? The
> > essential essence of the person has moved on. All that remains in
physical
> > form is waste for recycling.
> > Why not use human ash in glazes for a dinner service for the next
> > generation? Natural deaths only, of course.
> > Martin Howard
>
> Martin, somebody is actually DOING this! On page 25 of the March/April
Clay
> Times there's a little write-up of a guy who produces "Spone," offering
family
> members "...an opportunity to make your loved one into an urn." I can't
help
> myself from giggling about this--it certainly opens the doors for some
serious
> examination of life and death issues!
> Di
> Tittering uncertainly about the whole issue
>
Toni Martens on sun 9 apr 00
Hi Janet
As you say this thread has come up before. I have had various
reactions 1) Thought it was pretty weird 2) not fancied "mother" or
someone else sitting in pride of place somewhere, maybe with
flowers in or something 3) Wondered what on earth one does if the
glaze turns out a complete disaster, could one easily take a
hammer to the last remains of a loved one to end up as landfill
somewhere? That is probably sentimental and I am sure the
relative or ash donator is past caring, but choosing for myself, I
would rather be scattered on the wide grass plains of my childhood
veldt or into the sea off Chapman's Peak Drive in Cape Town (One
of the most beautiful places in all the world who could mind ending
up there?)
Durban has a knack of producing thick cloud cover during
'celestial" events so sadly I never saw the planets in conjunction.
Toni Martens, Durban, South Africa
On 8 Apr 2000, at 22:49, Janet Kaiser wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> This has come up before, following someone using animal ash. Speaking for
> myself: the head says "why not". Perfectly reasonable to use any ash and
> Firstly I think it would be putting too much pressure on the owner/s of the
> finished pot/s. Break a pot - however valuable - and it may be with a
> little regret. No regret if it is one of those unwanted and unloved gifts.
> But break a pot glazed with Mum, Grandma, or whoever, and it would be a
> pretty catastrophic to me. I would be totally guilt ridden. Or even worse if
> someone else broke it! I would probably never forgive them.
>
> Following family tradition, my Mother was cremated three years ago. She does
> not "turn in her grave", she "whizzes round her rose bush" much to the
> disgust of strangers when they hear our "disrespect". My grandfather doesn't
> because his ashes were scattered in a howling force 10 gale and got whipped
> out into the Irish Sea, but just about all the others rotate round the rose
> bushes doing a pretty good job...
>
> Janet Kaiser - Wondering who else saw the planets in conjunction last night?
> The Chapel of Art, Criccieth LL52 0EA, GB-Wales
> Home of The International Potters Path
> TEL: (01766) 523570
> WEB: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
> EMAIL: postbox@the-coa.org.uk
>
>
> > ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> > > Why not use the physical remains of human beings for our purposes? The
> > > essential essence of the person has moved on. All that remains in
> physical
> > > form is waste for recycling.
> > > Why not use human ash in glazes for a dinner service for the next
> > > generation? Natural deaths only, of course.
> > > Martin Howard
> >
> > Martin, somebody is actually DOING this! On page 25 of the March/April
> Clay
> > Times there's a little write-up of a guy who produces "Spone," offering
> family
> > members "...an opportunity to make your loved one into an urn." I can't
> help
> > myself from giggling about this--it certainly opens the doors for some
> serious
> > examination of life and death issues!
> > Di
> > Tittering uncertainly about the whole issue
> >
Martin Howard on tue 18 apr 00
Janet Kaiser's view is very interesting to me, because my wife has just
finished writing a book about the Afterlife, trying to describe it for
Quakers, in Quakerly terms.
If you follow the the spiritualist line of thought, that the remains are
just that, remains; the real person has travelled on elsewhere. Then there
is no problem about breaking a vase glazed with a dearly loved relative,
anymore than breaking one with a dearly loved glaze of any type.
Of course, our basic philosophy colours everything.
Those who still think that we will sometime return into our present bodies,
which is still part of some orthodox church teaching, then there is a
problem with cremation and using the ash in our glazes.
Perhaps Janet can unwrap her thinking a little further, to see where the
conflict she sees in using cremation ash really lies.
Martin Howard
Webb's Cottage Pottery
Woolpits Road, Great Saling
BRAINTREE, Essex CM7 5DZ
England
martin@webbscottage.co.uk
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