From the ashes of Winterwillow…
Sad news for all fans of Winterwillow, the social enterprise of the WinterComfort charity for homeless people which enabled service users to develop basketweaving skills by making wicker coffins. The trustees have discontinued the project. All is not lost. Roger Fowle, lead tutor on the project, has set up on his own. Roger has three […]
Basket cases
Here’s an interesting claim from The Co-operative Group: “The Co-operative has a long tradition of leading the way on fair trade and the launch of the first-ever Traidcraft endorsed fairly traded coffin range at our funeral homes is a natural, if unusual, progression.” This first-ever status is endorsed by Traidcraft: Larry Bush, Marketing Director, Traidcraft, […]
Sarco turns up in Northumberland garden
A retired couple in Northumberland have discovered that an unregarded planter in their garden is in fact a Roman sarcophagus dating from the first or second century AD. They stand to make £100,000 by selling it at auction. Full story in the Daily Mail here. FACT: The word ‘sarcophagus’ derives from the ancient Greek word ‘sarkophagos’, […]
Let’s hear it for the good guys
“Nice guys”, they say, “don’t win ball games.” Well, maybe they don’t – but they certainly make nice coffins. Here’re two of them. First, come with me to Scotland to the tiny fishing village of Johnshaven (above) and meet Robert Lawrence and his wife, Charlotte. In his workshop Robert, artist and lover of wood, makes […]
Today’s mystery object
They’re key fobs. Available here.
Adventures in Funeralworld
2. Experiences of a coffineer What’s in a name? Before I start this piece I should just say (and I think it’s completely appropriate given the subject of this particular post) that this post was very, very close to being titled “The experiences of a confiner”. Not because I thought this was a particularly good title or […]
You say coffin, I say casket
By Guy Keleny in the Independent here. “…this column does not wish to sound like a choleric pedant holding forth in about the year 1950, so we do not go on about ‘Americanisms’. “The simple truth is that there is more commerce of words eastward across the Atlantic than westward because American power, wealth and culture loom […]
Adventures in Funeralworld
1. The late night shopping experience Posted by Andy Clarke ED’S NOTE — We have featured Andy’s adventures with his innovative Curve coffin from the very beginning. Here, he describes the experience of exhibiting at a Christmas shopping event organised by his local Chamber of Commerce in Tenterden, Kent. And so it came to pass, […]
Death in the community
From KentOnline: Grave concerns have been aired over a coffin maker’s presence at a late night shopping event [in Tenterden, Kent]. Andy Clarke of Wealden Coffins, who makes unique curved and painted eco-friendly coffins, said his business had as much right to be there as anyone else. “It was quite interesting,” he said. “We had […]
I’ll be back, sez Prezza
Cessation is a leading signifier of death — discontinuance, expiration, quietus. Not, it seems, if you are a member of the House of Lords (which, the record shows, you are not, you are a commoner, so there). Speaking after being defeated in his bid to be elected as a police commissioner, John Prescott said: “I’m […]
