Urn Studios introduces inventive funeral urns to the UK
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‘Each particular person has their very own distinctive character, so why, after we cross away, ought to all of us be stored in the identical normal container?’ asks Jonathan Hancock, co-founder of Urn Studios, a brand new UK-based platform redefining the aesthetics of remembrance. ‘There’s no cause why an urn can’t be one thing lovely, 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 steel ‘Treasure Homes’ that speak in confidence to reveal an inside vessel during which to maintain a small quantity of ashes or treasured objects or mementos, £650
(Picture credit score: urn studios)
It was whereas Hancock was flicking via 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 annoyed with the shortage of significant choices within the memorial area. ‘My preliminary interplay with the funeral area resulted in real shock,’ he recounts. ‘The entire course of felt so antiquated and impersonal, with a basic sense of gloom. In probably the most difficult occasions of our lives, we’re confronted with a standardised strategy that feels chilly and affords few choices to honour your family members character and uniqueness.’
‘In probably the most difficult occasions of our lives, we’re confronted with a standardised strategy that feels chilly and affords few choices to honour your beloved’s character and uniqueness’
Jonathan Hancock
Along with companion and co-founder Merel Swart, Hancock reached out to artists and makers, who had been curious about difficult standard notions of what a memorial might be. Most of the designers the duo collaborate with had by no means created urns earlier than however had been drawn to the undertaking’s conceptual depth. ‘Some had already made a one-off urn for a relative or pal,’ Hancock remembers. ‘Many had been instantly drawn to the thought of making urns, recognising the added layer of significance and that means these items might maintain.’
Milo Gibson’s stoneware urn comes with a dish for preserving private objects like jewelry or pictures, £400
(Picture credit score: urn studios)
The gathering embraces inventive freedom, that includes varieties that vary from sculptural and summary to intimate and interactive. The stoneware urn by designer Milo Gibson, as an illustration, features a memento dish for displaying keepsakes like jewelry or pictures, making a extra private engagement with reminiscence. ‘We gravitate in the direction of items that break the mould, exude character, and categorical one thing genuine,’ Swart says. One other instance is UK woodworkers Cahoots hand turned ash urns with lovely development 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 remembrance.
‘We’re drawn to items that break the mould, exude character, and supply new methods to recollect’
Merel Swart
The gathering presently 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 interact with reminiscence and grief.
‘Dying is sadly nonetheless a taboo topic,’ Hancock explains, ‘although it’s the one inevitable actuality all of us share. Today, about 80 per cent of individuals within the UK get cremated, and a big proportion of individuals select to maintain the ashes of their dwelling. Moderately 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 Memento 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 undertaking, Hancock informs, has been drastically impressed by observing approaches to grief and memorialisation in different components of the world. As an example, the Toraja communities of Indonesia, the place the deceased stay a part of every day life for prolonged durations earlier than burial. ‘That perspective gave us permission to rethink memorialisation in a manner that felt progressive however nonetheless deeply private,’ Swart 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 might be expressive, even joyful,’ Hancock says. ‘We don’t see our function as changing grief with celebration, however as inviting individuals to embrace the total spectrum of feelings that include loss.’
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