Recently, I received an email from a woman who wanted to order a keepsake urn for her son’s ashes. She told that she was getting the majority of her son’s cremains turned into stones, but wanted to also keep some in a small Planturn, as a memento urn. I hadn’t heard of this practice before and asked her who was doing it and she told me about a company called Parting Stone.

When I checked out their website, I found that much of their philosophy aligns with mine. They believe in giving people a beautiful and unique way to keep their loved ones close. Also like my cremation urns, their product is modern and minimal and allows families to have a keepsake without being obvious.

In researching and prototyping my urns, I heard over and over again how people kept their loved one’s cremains in a closet, in the garage, or in the trunk of a car because they didn’t want a daily painful reminder. Both my urns and these stones offer a solution to that issue.

The creatives at Parting Stone worked with a scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory to create a brand new way of keeping cremains. The process involves making the ashes into a clay like material. After that they shape the stones, and then solidify them in a kiln and polish them. Just like you would with other ceramics. Most people end up a white color but some stones are radically different hues.

I really love the idea of having different ways to keep loved ones close, and I think Parting Stone and Planturns are great companions, both in their aesthetic and in our values.