The Process of Making a Biodegradable Urn

The past couple of weeks in the pottery studio I have been making biodegradable urns.

People often ask me about the process of how it is made, so I thought I’d share that process here.

The urn pictured is a custom order for the matriarch of a family. The children wanted to honor their mother and her memory with an urn that would be fitting for her. She loved roses and periwinkle blue.

It always takes many hours to create one urn. I got carried away with the details of this one, (while enjoying the process) so it took a little longer than usual. Just cutting and paddling the tiny pieces of paper for the roses, stems, and leaves took 10 hours. It’s difficult to calculate the total number of hours, with all of the steps… I would say approximately 25 hours.

All the steps involved are as follows:
-making the clay/cellulose mixture, from clay reclaim and paper fibers.
- setting that mixture on plaster bats to reach throwing consistency.
- throwing the form on the wheel.
- trimming the form once it’s leather hard.
- painting large sheets of recycled paper with soy based inks.
- cutting the paper into tiny pieces to create the image/patterns.
- paddling the cut pieces into the leather hard clay.
- letting it dry slowly for a couple of weeks. (The stage it is currently at).
- finishing it off with a very thin coat of beeswax.