Cremation rates in Canada are rising rapidly, and so are the options for keeping a loved one’s remains close to home.

Frustrated artists can now claim a spot above the fireplace in the afterlife by having their cremated remains painted into a custom-made masterpiece, while others can swim with the fishes for eternity when their ashes are embedded in a man-made ocean reef, including one off the Florida coast modelled on the mythical city of Atlantis. Several companies sell jewelry that contains a pinch of cremated remains or lock of hair, and others create glass orbs that swirl with bright colours — and a visible eddy of the ashes of the departed.

Motorcycle Memorials, meanwhile, promises road warriors that “the ride doesn’t have to end” with its line of motorcycle fuel tank urns.

Chalk it up to the generation that has reshaped every other social convention as they’ve grown up, says Suzanne Scott, executive director of the Funeral Service Association of Canada.
“Baby boomers are caring for their parents’ funerals and this is one reason we are finding more personalized funerals,” she says. “Boomers like to have control over all aspects of life — and death.”

The wealth of creative memorial options goes hand-in-hand with changing attitudes toward cremation: in 2005, 56 per cent of all deaths in Canada involved cremation, up from 39 per cent a decade earlier. By 2010, the FSAC projects that cremation will account for 71 per cent of all funeral services.

Families increasingly tailor memorial options to their individual tastes instead of following whatever their religious tradition dictates, says Brent Buchanan, funeral director at Memories Chapel in Brandon, Man. He’s heard of remains packed into shotgun shells to give a passionate hunter one last crack at that prize buck, and recent services at the chapel have incorporated golf carts, stock cars, memorial videos and antique cars.

“Personalization is really where funeral service is at right now,” Buchanan says. “Everything is about the individual, much more than it used to be a few years ago when we called them ‘cookie-cutter funerals.’”

Given that trend, Maureen Lomasney became convinced there should be more choice in urns than generic little boxes, so she founded an arts agency called Funeria in northern California. The company began hosting international juried competitions in 2001 and now ships handmade funeral vessels all over the world at prices ranging from $250 to $8,000 US. Funeria showcases graceful urns that can be enjoyed as stand-alone art objects, as well as several wittier final resting places.

Among their offerings are an aluminum rocket-shaped urn recommended for a “gearhead” who’s shuffled off this mortal coil, a cigar-shaped humidor that can keep an aficionado’s stogies fresh while he’s alive and his ashes neat and tidy when he’s not, and the “urn-a-matic,” a cheeky vessel fashioned out of a vintage vacuum cleaner that can project a tiny home movie.

“We were getting phone calls and e-mails (from artists) saying, ‘Thank you so much for having this opportunity to show work, because we’ve been doing this quietly on the side and none of the galleries are interested, they think it’s creepy,’” Lomasney says.

It’s not just two-legged loved ones who are getting special treatment after death, either. LifeGem, a Chicago company that creates diamonds from the carbon in cremated remains or a lock of hair estimates that one-quarter of its business is devoted to crafting gems to remember beloved pets.

“The common thread with all our clients is that they’ve lost someone who they loved dearly and had a very close relationship with, and they want to maintain some type of closeness,” says Dean VandenBiesen, vice-president of operations.

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