A Very Special Vessel
"My name is Christy Deal, and my parents have bought some of your inlay bowls in the past at the Sun Valley Arts Festival. I love your work, its beautiful.”
We hear this often. After too many art festivals to count and decades of carving, we love hearing from folks that have seen and appreciate our work. Unfortunately, we weren’t exactly prepared for the rest of the story.
“My husband passed away a year ago May, and I have not been able to find a special enough urn for his ashes. I am wondering if you could do a special order urn with inlay.”
We talk a lot about the spirit of the tree. To honor it’s journey and coax out a new life as a piece of art for many to enjoy. This, however, was a circumstance where our vessel needed to not only honor the tree, but honor the life of a fallen soul.
(Every correspondence from Christy included a heart shape emoji next to Doug’s name. We chose to add and honor this in our blog.)
Doug ❤️ was Christy’s husband. He worked for the Fish and Game as the regional fisheries manager for 18 years, and worked to protect native Idaho fish (cutthroat trout), as well as provide a good recreational fishery.
After sharing photos of urns we had already made, it became apparent that we would need to create something very special for Christy and for Doug ❤️.
"What we did as a family was fish for Kokanee in the summer and then go and see the spawn in the early fall."
Melody picked a resting urn, lying in the drying room for over a year waiting for it’s new purpose. She chose to carve a Tree of Life on the front of the urn. After drawing and intricately carving the tree, it was time to inlay it with gems and stones, only enhancing the beauty that would become the vessel.
Melody decided to add one additional piece of art to the almost complete urn. Two small cutthroat trout, forever swimming together as a tribute to Doug ❤️ and to Christy.
“The urn is exquisite, honors my husband perfectly, I can’t thank you enough. That’s a picture of him on the side, his flag for state service, and his Hat ❤️.”
