Thread: Black Bean urn

Photos attached of two urns of our late 16 yr old dog Harry, a beagle cross, one for youngest daughter whose dog he was until she left home 12 years ago, and one for us. He was my wife's constant shadow for the next 12 years, well cared for, walked every day.

We split the ashes in half, and made two identical urns of 10mm thick black bean timber. After oiling with Kunos Oil, the urns turned out so silky smooth. But still haven't mastered the art of grain filling, so had to wipe the oil blisters formed every 15 minutes for the first few hours. Although the box is very smooth, can still feel the grain as you run your fingernail across the sides and lid. I am open to any suggestions on grain filling for oiling.

The design of the urn is such that it is fully sealed, with the base epoxied in position. I have covered the base with a 2mm stiffened brown felt, set about 3 mm from each edge , so that there is a shadow line. You can't see the felt. Used double sided tape to hold it in position, wondering how that will go long term. Will take a few weeks for the epoxy and the oil to fully cure.

The lid is a floating lid design, fitted to a 4mm wide slot around the top of the box, just 4 mm below the top of each side. It is glued in position in this case. Normally it just floats. The base is a stepped plug that fitted neatly inside the rebate cut in the bottom edges of each side, and is epoxied in position after the ashes were installed inside the urn. The ashes arrived from the crematorium in two vacuum packed strong plastic bags, inside two velvet bags.

Determining the size of the box was a problem. I went to the Internet and found the volume of ashes for that breed of dog, and made two boxes prior to delivery of the ashes, and found each velvet bag was twice the volume of these initial boxes, so another two boxes were made in a hurry.

The dimension of each urn is 140W x 140D x 86H, which uses the Golden Ratio used by the Egyptians. It is used in modern day structures as being the most aesthetically pleasing form. Turned out well for the urns.

You can see that the grain is continuous around the sides for three of the 4 corners, made from a single board. The grain at the beginning and end of the board cannot align.

My daughter is pleased with her urn. She did the image on the front, Photoshopping a picture I had taken of Harry wearing the black and white scarf she had given him. We had this image made into two ceramic photos each 50mm diameter and inlaid them on the front face. These are epoxied in place too.