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The creation of artificial diamonds is by now a well established process. It has been around since the 1950’s, but until quite recently the production of sizeable gem-quality diamonds was prohibitively expensive. As of 2003, however, improvements in the process and new technologies have lowered costs so much that at least two US companies have started making artificial diamonds for the jewelry trade.
Or at least there were two. Since there is cheap available technology for making artificial diamonds, there would not seem to be much room in the field for an exclusive hold on the market. However, one company, LifeGem, has come up with a different way to corner a clientele. Wait until they die.
LifeGem holds a patent on a process for extracting carbon from cremated remains. Human or pet, they take a few ounces of ashes, process it into graphite, and then using a high-pressure system, turn the graphite into diamonds – one or many, however the customer prefers. The original LifeGems were canary diamonds – yellow – but the company has since added blue to its line, and is actively investigating other colors. They also offer settings, so the customer can choose to wear their loved one on a ring, broach, or necklace. Based on the customer commentary, some people are choosing to combine gems from several sources into one piece of jewelry. Mom and Dad together forever on a ring, for instance.
The result is somehow reminiscent of Victorian mourning jewelry. The Victorian era saw mourning become high art, with prescribed clothing and jewelry. Ornaments, including broaches and watch-fobs made from elaborately knotted hair, became a highly fashionable way of showing the bereaved’s continuing attachment to their lost spouse, parent, or child. LifeGems are promoted in exactly this way, their site refers to the gems as an “everlasting connection to the one you have lost”, while the carbon recovered from the remains is referred to as “the true essence of your loved ones”. While some people find the idea of wearing a piece of a dead person, however processed, thoroughly creepy, LifeGem appears to have been doing a respectable amount of business. They report steadily increasing sales since they opened their doors, and in 2004 they opened LifeGem UK. Should some suitably famous person suffer bereavement and choose this visible form of mourning, the popularity of the option could readily explode. That is, after all, what happened in the original Victorian Era, with the 40-year mourning of Queen Victoria for her husband, Prince Albert.
So don’t be surprised if the next time you go to a funeral home, you see something that looks suspiciously like a jewelry catalogue lurking about. It just might be a pamphlet offering to let you wear your relatives forever.
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Proof that things can have both real life and sentimental value… 8)
i wonder if they’ll do pets in the future? sounds feasible…
sounds creepy and wrong
Actually, Vorador, they already do pets, though the keep the references separate from those for humans. Any sort of cremated remains can be used for the process.
Plot for a sitcom 50 years from now:
How could you lose your wedding ring, it was your grandmother!
Shine on your crazy diamond…
This is a lot better than eating my enemies!
Hey now! Could someone be wearing Jimmy Hoffa?
The prices listed on the website are significantly less than what I expected… although still a bit out of my range. However, why stop at people and pets? If you only need to extract carbon from ash then… if the house your great-grandfather built burns down, turn it into a diamond! Love space exploration?… get some charring from a space shuttle launch. Want the ultimate “remember me” gift?… burn a few drops of blood. You can do pretty much anything.
Furnace said: “Want the ultimate “remember me” gift?… burn a few drops of blood.”
You’d never get enough from a pint. You’d have to donate a lung and a kidney or something ;)
Dammit, meant to say “a few drops”, not ” a pint”. Sorry!
Supposedly they can make as many gems as you desire from eight oz. of material (post-burn). I suppose you could save up fingernail clippings until you had enough, and then torch them. Given the water content of blood, I think you’d need more than just a little to get enough, though if blood is significant, perhaps you could put a few drops in the mix first.
I would think any burned organic material would probably do, but as they don’t advertise the specifics of the carbon extraction process, I could be wrong.
I’m sorry. That’s just too creepy. Talk about feeling like someone looking over your shoulder. Gives a whole new meaning of being together forever though. Come to think of it… only a matter of time before someone gets the idea to make couples into one stone. Instead of adjoining funeral plots, you can just have a setting for you both. Just think of all the real estate we can save!
I can make a necklace out of all the squirrels I’ve hit with my car!
I fail to see how this is any more creepy than keeping a loved one’s ashes in an urn on your mantel. I can certainly see the sentimental value of wearing part of a beloved spouse or child as jewelry. I don’t think I’d want to wear Grandma around, though.
Im really warming to the ide. It strikes me as a rather elegant solution as to what to with my father…
-L.
I had my dog cremated and I wear some of his ashes in a dog ID barrel on my necklace.
I would do my pets. I like the Blue. But, the price will have to come WAY down for me to afford. Otherwise, it is ashes; but I won’t keep them around. Creepy for me. Rather scatter them or bury my pet.
I cut off my arms and legs to be cremated to make a ring for my gf. Im such a thoughtful Quadriplegic.
Almost 20 years ago I spread Mom’s ashes off lighthouse beach, Sanibel Island. Mom wouldn’t have minded being a necklace. (hoping reincarnation has nothing whatsoever to do with the physical body or current incarnation) My sister is in the garage in a can..I’ll be looking into this! Thanks!
It’s not really your loved one though is it? It’s just some carbon. Your loved one is the memorys you have of them.
So if a lady had someone very close to her rendered in this way, it would give — not a new meaning — but certainly a more literal one to the phrase “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”.
Put family remains on a nice necklace. Good way for the dead to hang around for a little bit longer.
that adds a definition to the saying diamonds are a girls bf
I never had an idea of what I want done with my body when I die until I read this article. I told my husband and it’s decided. We both want our bodies to be made diamonds when we die. then we can have the rest of our ashes scattered somewhere cool, nothing comes to mind right now, I have a long way to go . . I hope :)
Well, this sure beats some stone slab in a graveyard!
thats freaky and weird
Hmmm…nobody caught this one.
A few generations of making relatives into diamonds and one would have a quite a collection of family jewels. O.o
Theft and black market come to mind. I don’t want to be part of that or anyone I survive either.