"A funeral urn should not remind you of a funeral or even an urn. An urn should be something quietly beautiful and deeply resonate - something to gather your loss and your love, and to help you carry these things forward into your own evolving life."
- sculptor/designer David Orth |
Crafting a Bronze Cremation Urn:
the Search for a Requiem
Here in my small shop, the funeral urns are pounded out of solid plates of sculptural bronze. A timeworn surface slowly emerges over the anvil. The curves are shaped with a heavy mallet over a rounded surface. The closely fitting parts are welded with intense heat into a seamless whole.
An opening is formed on the bottom of each urn and a cover plate fitted carefully and bolted down tight. Grinding, sanding, and burnishing bring a satin sheen to the urn and prepare it for the patina. The ancient patina solutions are applied repeatedly until the bronze itself glows with patience, depth, and wisdom.
Each urn is crafted to the highest standards. Each urn is unique, personal, and expressive. Metalcraft is loud and fiery; but behind all the fuss there is the quiet heart of the matter. Brahms, Faure, and others wrote profound musical requiems that seem to understand something important about loss. Of course a small bronze vessel can never touch this depth of feeling, but I hope it is apparent that I am trying.
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