Memorial Jewelry Helps You Stay Connected While You Grieve

Scosha Woolridge is a Williamsburg, New York City – based artist, designer, and jeweler. She considers herself to be a “story jeweler”, drawing her primary inspiration from her travels to create jewelry that combines the modern and ancient worlds. She creates pieces from gems, stones, metal, and recycled fibers to achieve a “lived-in style”.

Inspired by a piece she had designed for traveling – a necklace with a small pouch for collecting mementos along the way – Scosha has created a beautiful piece of memorial jewelry. She designed the original about two years ago for a friend who had lost someone in her family. When Scosha couldn’t attend the memorial service, she sent the piece as a gift, something to help her friend stay connected with her lost loved one as she healed.

The idea caught on, and Scosha has since made them for several friends and clients, and she is currently seeking a patent for the design. The small leather pouch on this necklace holds a tiny glass jar, meant to contain cremation ashes. A metal plate on the front of the pouch can be engraved with any message, design, or simply a person’s name. The piece, the artist says, can become a part of the grieving and healing process.

“It’s carrying a little piece of them with you until you’re able to let it go,” she says. “You can wear it with you, and then you can hang it somewhere, or put it away when you’re ready.”

What’s it like to work with someone to create such an important memento? “It’s always different for every person,” says Scosha. “It’s touching. It’s kind of a celebration.”

Scosha also creates other custom memorial pieces upon requests from clients – memorial tags or engravings, small photos in custom-designer frames, etc.

A leather pouch hangs from this necklace and holds a glass jar with a waterproof snap lid (it can be worn swimming or in the shower!). A small braid also attaches the bottle to the chain, to prevent it from being lost. A small metal plaque on the front of the bag bears custom engravings, and a tiny metal charm – designed to be meaningful to each individual – dangles alongside the pouch.

Q&A with Scosha Woolridge and SevenPonds Blog Writer Kelly Larsen:

Kelly: Could you tell us about the custom jewelry you make that has to do with end-of-life?

Scosha: The jewelry I like to make are little tokens or totems that represent a life, a keepsake, a memory. This transcends into the pieces I make whether it be a ring, a pendant and ID bracelet, or as ashes bottle, and then as soon as you put script onto anything it becomes official, final, or “marked” — and a place to visit and be reminded.

Kelly: What’s the process like for actually making this kind of jewelry? Are the family members of the loved ones involved at all?

Scosha: Often the family members will give me the background of the person so I can get a sense of their personality — like, are they traditional, modern, a mixture; what type of music or art they liked; colors etc. I will get the inscription info they want on the bottle, and generally they leave the rest up to me. I’m very respectful of this, so I’ll basically do whatever they need if I can.

Kelly: What advice do you have for SevenPonds readers who may be dealing with a loss? Would you recommend expressing grief through art/creation?

Scosha: Obviously everyone will deal with it differently, but I think exploring yourself through some kind of art form,  whether it be writing, painting, music, dance, or other, is a great way to release many emotions and feelings that can be very hard to express verbally or physically during this time. You never know you may just find a rebirth, and the cycle begins all over again. It is all so lovely.

Scosha photo from Seeds and Fruit. Jewelry images courtesy of the artist.