This elaboration deals with our funeral culture and is about how we use to bury bodies in the past. Humans can become part of a cyclic natural system that provides new recourses we could make use of in the future. I developed mini urns and a bigger main urn out of different kinds of wood.
The mini urns as well as the main urn are suggestion to change our burial habits into an organic, biodegradable system that can go back to nature without harming the soil.
The story goes like this: At the funeral ceremony there are mini urns kept ready for every mourner. The mini urns are made out of different kinds of wood, polished softly so that they are pleasant to touch. They are differently shaped, but always correspond to organic round shapes that fit into the shape of our hands. Each mini urn provides a symbolic part of the ashes. Once the ashes are filled into the mini urns, they are tightly closed so that reopening is not possible. Providing everyone with a mini urn, allows each relative to say goodbye to a part of the decreased person, memories and history during the whole ceremony. They get something they can hold on to during this sad event. Funerals are stressful – the mini urns allow, through rubbing the soft and even wooden surface, to reduce the level of stress. Through the mini urns the grief of relatives occupies its rightful space.
After the ceremony, when everyone steps in front to say a last goodbye, they will find a large but shallow trough in the lid of the main urn. This surface creates a place where all mini urns can gather after the ceremonial part. By laying down each urn on top of the lid can be seen as is a symbol of saying goodbye and letting go. When all urns are gathered, the decreased person can be buried as a whole.
Some families may want to keep their mini urn as a memory. It is possible to take them home or to use them to accompany relatives in form of a soft stress reliever for their everyday life.