Posted on 01/14/2006 4:43:05 PM PST by HarleyD
Diamonds are forever -- and now mom, dad and grandma can be, too -- thanks to a process that converts ashes from their cremated remains into gems.
``My wife and I had already decided on cremation when we die,'' said Scott Mason of the Adams-Mason Memorial Chapel in Akron. ``She never wants me to talk about business at home, but when I brought up the diamond option, it piqued her interest.
``We like the idea that when we die, we will be able to leave a lasting gift and a special memory to our family.''
The ashes-to-diamond cremation option was developed by LifeGem, a Chicago-area company, about three years ago. Mason, who learned about the process at a recent convention of funeral directors, began offering his clients the option of shipping ashes to LifeGem for conversion into a diamond this week. Only a few funeral homes in the country offer the diamonds, and Adams-Mason is the first in the Akron area.
``We like to stay progressive and offer our clients every possible option available to help comfort them,'' Mason said. ``This idea sparked my interest because people want to have a good memory of their loved one and this is a reminder that people can cherish and carry with them.''
Mark Musgrove, a spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association, said the number of cremations is on the rise, so companies are coming up with more personal and unique ways to keep loved ones close, such as through keepsake jewelry.
Cremations were the method of disposition for 29 percent of the deaths in 2003, compared with 21 percent in 1996, said Jack Springer, executive director of the Cremation Association of North America.
Last year, Ohio ranked eighth among the states in the total number of cremations (25,601) and 29th in percentage of cremations to deaths (24 percent), according to the cremation association.
``It is increasing,'' Springer said, ``because it is being chosen by people who are living longer and they are making their own arrangements. It's also simpler and less expensive.''
Mason, a fourth-generation funeral director whose father started the Cremation Society of Ohio in 1985, said 90 percent of his funeral clients prefer cremations. Adams-Mason is only one of four funeral homes in Akron with an on-site crematory. There are only about 87 crematories in Ohio.
Dreaming up idea
The idea for turning cremation ashes into gems came from Rusty VandenBiesen, a 37-year-old Chicago native. As a former pilot, he spent a lot of time in the clouds thinking about the afterlife.
``I'm a dreamer,'' VandenBiesen said in a phone interview this week. ``I always had a personal thing about death. I was not happy with the idea that after you die you may be forgotten and gone forever. It was like a dark cloud of mortality hanging over me -- the realization that everyone would be gone someday.'' So he researched ways to find a comforting solution to death. He knew there was carbon, which is what diamonds are made of, in human bodies and figured there might be a way to turn people into precious stones.
Rusty VandenBiesen and his brother, Dean, who has a background in geology, teamed up with another set of brothers -- Greg and Mike Herro -- and founded LifeGem. They opened for business in 2002 after they had perfected their conversion technology.
Patented process
To turn ashes into a diamond, LifeGem requires an 8-ounce cup of remains. The remains are purified at about 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The high temperature vaporizes all of the noncarbon elements in the ashes and converts the carbon into crystallized graphite. The graphite is then placed in a small cube called a core. In machinery called a diamond press, the core is subjected to heat and hydraulic pressure. That causes the graphite to break down into individual carbon atoms and recrystallize as a diamond.
The patented process takes about six months.
Clients can choose from a yellow- or blue-hued diamond in a variety of sizes and cuts. Prices are set according to carat size and range from $2,699 to as much as $20,000.
Mason said the cost of a traditional burial can be comparable in price.
The funeral home is not only offering the LifeGem option to people who are contemplating cremation, but to those who have stored the cremated remains of their loved ones.
``The beauty of converting the remains into diamonds,'' Mason said, ``is that it's something that doesn't have to be done right away. It can be done any time after cremation.''
Other options
Other Akron area funeral home directors said they have not been asked by clients about the diamond option. People have mostly purchased decorative urns or pendant jewelry in which partial remains can be placed. Curtis Robinson, of Bissler & Sons Funeral Home and Crematory in Kent, said his funeral home offers an option of placing parts of cremated remains inside blown glass or making flat pieces of blown glass that can be carried in the pocket or turned into jewelry pieces.
``You can mostly do anything you want with blown glass, making any design as big or as
"I always said you were a jewel, babe..."
Sounds very interesting! The cremains of the typical human body would probably yield several diamonds!
Oops, there goes mom down the garbage disposal.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...
Is there nothing tasteless that yups won't do?
My Jewish Mother-In-Law is a "real gem," just not that kind.
translation: Become a part of a Kent State University Art School project for eternity.
However, while at the funeral home making the arrangements, I was intrigued by the array of containers and jewelry for the ashes. I thought, "Well, what do you do three generations downstream? Who is going to want to get saddled with Great-grandpa's garish "buffalo on the plains" mantle ash-bin?"
My parents' ashes were buried in a private moment.
I am going to have this done so my wife can have her navel pierced and wear me there. No I am not into being worn on the genitalia.
Sounds pretty disgusting to me.
Mine too.
The hollow glass option is one I'm quite familiar with. As a glass artist, I've made a couple vial pendants for teardrops or cremains. It's also a popular option to make memory beads from a treasured piece of broken glassware or a special event wine/champagne bottle.
I like the song "I'm Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be A Diamond Someday)"...but that way's not really what I had in mind.
It will keep the cat from crapping into them if they are spilled.
If I did that, with my luck I'd end up in a pawn shop somewhere.
They used to have a grandchild ring - with a diamond for each grandchild. Now the grandparent ring.
Hey, it'd work for me! I like the idea.
Madness. People are taught to value all the wrong things.
I guess a fat person would yield a bigger diamond, right?
At my current weight I could probably make one the size of that "Star of India" or whatever its name is, the big diamond in the Smithsonian.....
I really need to drop some pounds and get down under 5 carats :lol:.
LQ
Let me see.... Diamonds are made from carbon, but carbon burns, so in a cremation, wouldn't all the carbon have burned out? Hmmmm.....
*snort* At this point, I could probably supply enough diamonds to make a necklace! I dearly hope to change that in this new year, though! Maybe, by the time I'm done, I'll only supply enough to be a set of earrings and a solitaire! Now that's optimism!
With my luck, the folks at LifeGem would have the temperature set wrong, and I'd end up cubic zirconia. LOL!
Not for me thanks. With my family, they'd forget which one I was after a few years. Then I'd end up in a pawnshop and be on my way to being an ornament on some pimp's keyring. Fagedaboutit!
Seriously, recycling mom seems that it would be a pressure-filled venture. I don't want to shatter my mother--or lose her in the wood pile.
I've heard about this before. Disgusting. This brings new meaning to the phrase "family jewels."
LOl, I have to say there are some relatives I wouldn't care to have around...
This could be done with a deceased pet, too.
Most would but not all.
Thats what you think.
A guy could make a ring and literally have his wife wrapped around his finger...
I do ceramics and have joked about this. It would be very easy to use ashes in making a pot. The ashes could be mixed right into the clay and also used to make a glaze. You could become the urn.
"You could become the urn"
---I can just see the ad in "better magazines"now:
"Live your afterlife with the elegance you've
always deserved: you've urned it"
But, seriously, if this thing catches on, I can see
all kinds of entrepreneurial opportunities:
Instead of handing down Mom's or Grandmother's ring to your fiance , you could hand down the ring with Mom or Grandma themselves actually IN the ring, or incorporate them in settings in earrings, etc, ...the possibilities are endless. I can see piercings also incorporating the small jewel cremains.
The price would have to come down though---I don't see a big mass market while the process is still in the 20K range.
LOL! That's what I told my wife to do to me. She could flash her jeweled finger in front of people and say, "...and this is my husband, Harley."
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