Not as uncommon as it sounds, who hasn’t heard of people taking the ashes of their loved ones and having them made into “diamonds” and mounted in jewellery. Keeping a little piece of a loved one with you at all times is…well, it’s creepy. Why would you wear your dead? Well, it’s not a new practice, people have been doing it for centuries for many reasons.
Warriors would collect tokens from their kills to decorate their doorways, scare off the bad spirits and their enemies. Magi and Shamans have been known to use the bones of the dead for better sight into the other worlds and wear tokens as jewellery.
The Victorians, before photography, made commemorative jewellery as a way of remembering their recently deceased loved ones. Some people throughout history have even believed that parts of the dead should be eaten as a way to imbue their strength and knowledge.
It’s the difference between wearing Grandma’s necklace and wearing Grandma.
A Celebration of Life
Without
The same way an artist might use animal bones, jewellery can be made from human bones. These are often from donated bodies that once served an educational purpose in a university or college,
In most cases, memorial jewellery uses the ashes of your loved one, either turned into a “diamond” or preserved as part of a design in resin. However, it’s not always possible to obtain the ash and items like buttons from a favourite shirt, hair, or some other small token could be used in their place to create a commemorative piece for you to wear.
Karen Bachmann, Morbid Anatomy Museum
There is some emotional drive to want to retain a physical remnant of somebody once they’re gone,
a very personal indicator of self
Memorial Jewellery Doesn’t Always Hold A Piece of the Deceased
Some pieces of Jewellery are created as a memento that anyone can buy and wear to commemorate a loved one, a public figure, or a pet. Intricate designs that remind you of a date and a person, or even a saying or feeling that they brought to your life. And these items make money years after they’ve first been created and worn. Centuries after in some cases.
Other memory jewellery, or keepsake jewellery, holds memories of living things. Births, life, moments. There is a growing market for breast milk jewellery. A memory for mothers of the times they spent with the little one they carried and birthed and fed. When those little people were still learning and growing and snuggling in.
You could have a flower from the bouquet of a wedding, or give these tokens as a gift after a christening with the flowers that decorated the church or were part of the naming ceremony.
Or how about that beloved pet? A little cat hair, or dog hair, in a shaped charm on a bead around your wrist.
I often wonder though, for those who are sensitive to spirit do these mementoes provide a stronger connection to someone who has passed on? And can a spirit remain attached to the earthly
Horror and Fantasy Author – Also writing as K.T. McQueen. Love Western Horror, cowboy boots, my cactus Collin, & my Demon Cat.
Moths – I hate moths, the way they flutter at your face!