“Parting Stone” Turns Loved Ones’ Ashes Into Rocks

Credit: partingstone.com

More Americans are choosing cremation over traditional burial — and many are finding unique methods to dispose of the ashes. Some hope to have them painted or printed onto canvas; pressed into a vinyl record; or one day, even sent to the moon. Parting Stone, a New Mexico-based company, now offers another alternative: smooth stones that can be held in the palm of one’s hand.

“I started to find that people around me who were living with cremated remains would talk so passionately about their loved one or their pet, and then tell me that they were keeping them in their basement or their closet or their garage,” founder Justin Crowe said in Parting Stone promotional video. “And it’s all because cremated remains come in a really gross form. People don’t know what to do with them.”

Crowe obtained a grant to work with scientist Chris Chen at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who developed a method of turning the refined remains into a clay-like material. The material is then shaped into stones, which are solidified in a kiln before being cleaned and polished.

Credit: partingstone.com

“The most surprising thing that we’ve discovered is that each person is naturally a different color,” Crowe said in the video. “Many people come out white, or a hue of blue or green. And some people are a beautiful, radical variation.”

Adults typically result in 40 to 60 stones, Crowe said in an interview with Business Insider. “Many people will share the solidified remains with friends and family, travel with them, leave them in meaningful places, or carry the solidified remains’ solids in their pocket every day,” he said.

Credit: partingstone.com

Some who’ve purchased the stones say they can provide a whole new way of relating to dead relatives. “I have two different reactions,” said Garth Clark of his parents’ ashes in a separate Parting Stone video. “My father’s stone is just a feeling of joy, this lovely man. With my mother, it’s bringing sort of a sense of truce maybe, something of compassion, which I could never summon up during her life. And somehow the war between us is beginning to disappear.”

Those interested in obtaining parting stones can ask funeral homes if they offer stones, while individuals who currently have ashes can request a collection kit from Parting Stone to ship them to the lab. The process costs $595 for a person, $295 for a dog, and $245 for a cat.

“Somehow the idea of your parents turning into rock is a transfer from human life into nature,” Clark said. “Which is sort of exciting.”