Absence makes the art grow fonder

Are you a graveyard rabbit? Are you a photographer? 

If your answer to both of the above is yes, you can enrich yourself to the tune of £1,000 by indulging your two favourite fads and entering MAB’s Dead Art? Then and Now competition, details of which follow: 

Last year was the second success of the Memorial Awareness Board’s (MAB) “Dead Art? Then and Now” photographic competition. MAB, the organisation that works to promote and raise awareness of memorialisation issues in the United Kingdom, have now launched the competition for a third  year and is sponsored by StoneGuard Memorial Stone Insurance. It encourages photographers of all abilities to submit their images of memorials with the themes “then” and “now” and the winner will receive £1000 from the sponsor.

This year there is an added twist to the rules. The public will be able to vote from the 10 short listed entries, on the MAB website, to choose the ultimate winner and runner up.

 MAB’s Campaign Director Mike Dewar says, “Memorials and cemeteries have long been a favourite subject for photographers. There certainly is no shortage of unusual and interesting memorials throughout UK burial grounds and this competition focuses on capturing and showcasing their unsung beauty”. 

MAB are calling photographers of all abilities. All entrants must submit two images one of then and one of now in order to be valid. The “Then” photograph should represent memorials as history, and the “Now” photos must be a modern headstone. Photographs can be either black and white or colour.  

Closing date for the judges to choose the short listed will be Monday July 2nd. It will then re open in August for the public vote.

To enter the competition and for full terms and conditions please visit: www.memorialawarenessboard.wordpress.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook.

MAB asked us to let you know about this competition and, of course, we are delighted to do so. 

New coffin 2 — the Burial Cloud

From the press release:

Linda Robinson is a professional end-of-life carer and her clients, tucked up in warm, cozy beds, often confided to a dread of being carried out in a wooden box.  When her children were young, the family wrapped dead pets in soft woollen jumpers for burial, and inspired by this, Linda decided to try and design a more appealing coffin. She came up with a woven pouch from sheeps wool and named it the BURIAL CLOUD.

An experienced weaver for over 25 years, Linda sourced wool from local rare-breed farmers, some of whom were burning the fleeces as there was no profitable market for them.   She crafted local oak and pine wood to make a supporting underboard and used calico to make an inner liner. Calico tabs were also sewn onto the Burial Cloud to slot in ash wood poles for ease of carrying, rather like a stretcher.

Linda showed her prototype to a local undertaker and he loved it so much he helped finance the patent.  She was then offered space at Humber Memorial Woodland Burial in Herefordshire as a base for her business, which was originally the site of an Iron Age fort.  She trained local women to weave the wool and an eco-friendly business was born, boosting the rural economy.

The Burial Cloud is:

*   Environmentally friendly, made from natural woven wool, produced and hand-crafted in Britain with minimal transport miles

*   Made  using organic, bio-dynamic and rare-breed fleeces where possible

*   Designed with a supporting underboard made from local oak or pine and an internal calico liner

*   Carrying handles made from locally coppiced ash

*   Supporting the rural economy by employing the skills of farmers, sheep shearers, weavers, craftswomen and tree coppicers

*   Available in all sizes

*   Suitable for all forms of burial and air cremation

*   Retailing for £660 (adult size) 

*   Also available for separate purchase are woven fleece liners for more traditional coffins (such as willow, seagrass and recycled cardboard)

Contact: linda@burialcloud.co.uk  Website: here  Click the photo to make it bigger. 

New coffin 1 — the Curve

Behold the Curve coffin developed in Tenterden, Kent, by Andy Clarke. 

Andy says, “I always knew that there was room for a different type of coffin. I couldn’t understand why there was so little choice for what is, at the end of the day, an essential item in all of our lives.

“My desire was to make a softer curved product, that moved away from the angular harshness of the traditional shape that’s been with us for hundreds of years, and yet retain the traditional robustness of timber in its manufacture.”

Andy has a fledgling website up here

What do you think of it? 

The Good Funeral Guide
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.