Fuck yeah Mark Mitchell! A fine artist and a true mensch.

I can't wait for this, Mark is a genius.
My mom and a cousin had a crazy funeral-planning fight over my grandmother; the cousin thought it really important that the casket have a pink velvet lining to match grandma's old lady orange hair. Mom thought that not only was that really dumb (who would see it?), but that it clashed horribly.
My ancestors are wackadoodle Mennonite folks for the most part, so I assume they're buried in the same ultra-plain handmade clothes they wore when alive. Never thought about it before.

This work hits all the right notes: evocative, beautiful, potentially useful, and pieces so clearly made with skill that even schmucks like me can see it.

Would he really be interested in letting someone release his piece and their loved one into the ocean? Is that not a perfect conclusion to art about death and decay, to decay itself? Isn't that the most healthy way for art to go, as a living thing which passes away rather than fading from memory in a storage room on the vain hope it will be one of the handful of pieces Future Generations remember?

Thanks for posting, Jen!

Copper pennies?

Some glass artists will make objects that incorporate cremains. So you can wear your ancestors (or other loved one who has died). You can also get cremains incorporated into a tattoo, if you live in the right place, and/or find the right tattooist.

I'm a funeral director. Let me tell you something if you're thinking about this. Go a couple sizes too big. Most families bring me clothes that are too small. Gotta cut'em.