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Hi Deb, We cannot thank you enough! Maeves urn arrived yesterday morning, it is just so so beautiful and absolutely perfect for her. I may have cried more than a few happy tears, I am so in awe of its beauty but also how soft and textural it is, it's amazing! We will treasure it always. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Peta."After we lost our beautiful daughter, Maeve, we spent nearly six months searching for her perfect urn. Nothing seemed special or personal enough to provide her final resting place. We were so grateful for the care and attention to detail provided by Deb. Form our initial inquiry the process was made so simple.
Deb encouraged us to discuss our preferred specifications and offered expert advise to make the design absolutely perfect. In a time when when seemingly impossible decisions need to be made, this experience has been a positive step toward healing. We will treasure our Maeves' urn forever, a very special tribute to our littlest love." Peta |
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"Thank you so much for the amazing custom urn you made for our much missed and precious little girl.
Each child is special and we are so grateful for you making such a personalised final resting place for her.
Each night we light the tea light, and it is our way of keeping her with us, our little ceremony.
It is a beautiful piece of pottery that we proudly display and we love that it is bespoke and made for her by you.
This is the last place she will be, her final outfit, and despite the pain we feel in missing her,
you have made a huge impact into how we can keep her in our daily routine.
Being able to choose the words that are on it, makes it individual to us and reminds us every time we look at it of special memories we have of her.
It is such a fragile time when you lose someone that you love. You were so gentle and loving in your approach with us,
it was our final act as parents to choose an urn, and you made it as comforting as it could have been. We could not recommend you more highly.
Thank you for honouring her memory by using your special skills." Emily |
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"We knew Deb's work, having previously commissioned her to make urns for
family members. These urns were serene and wonderfully smooth to touch or
hold. The tealight candles were mystical when lit and symbolized how one
thing can become another.
When our beloved German Shepherd Wookie died, we needed something very
special. She was an exceptional companion and we wanted her urn to reflect
her magnificence, and our loss. Wookie was dark and beautiful, and so is the
urn that Deb made for her. We love the depth and luminosity of the colours of
the finished urn. It is stunningly beautiful, as she was." Lea-Ellen and George Schneller |
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"Beauty and Ritual – More than Balm for the Soul.
Deb Taylor makes beautiful things. I first came across her work in the foyer of W N Bull
Funerals. There were these porcelain urns, handcrafted, rounded and with arresting poetry
elegantly typed. Patsy Healy, the General Manager, spoke enthusiastically about Deb’s work
and the interest families had shown in the urns, memorials and havens for cremated remains.
It is one thing to be the artist-in-residence at the University of New South Wales, a teacher
and a creator of beautiful objects and then to find yourself making urns associating with
funeral companies. In a conversation with Deb, she spoke of this recent involvement as
‘confronting’.
That’s the word! Despite the increased prominence of funeral advertising and marketing,
there is something in all of us that instinctively and naturally avoids and embargoes images
and talk of death. ‘Memorial Gardens’ is one euphemism for a crematorium. Even
‘Necropolis’ has an exotic ring and most of us forget that it means ‘city of the dead’. Death
and everything associated with it is . . . confronting.
It is this stark reminder of our mortality, the open secret that is pushed to the edges of our
awareness and conversation. And, what could be more confronting than the creation of
containers for human remains? One of my first questions to Deb was how she became
involved in this process.
‘A lady, who exhibits at the same gallery as I do, approached me to make three urns for her
and her sons. She was drawn to my work because of my use of text as a form of expression
and had in mind a special verse to inscribe around each of the candles. It was something
beautiful in which to hold her husband’s ashes.’
For me it a was profoundly moving experience.
‘Something beautiful to hold . . .’ that’s what intrigued me about Deb and the urns. There
was the confrontation with the reality of death, certainly, but there was also the fact that Deb
is an artist, a creator of beautiful things.
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing . . .
John Keats
It is spring in the country. There are superb blue wrens everywhere, bouncing, bobbing,
being-blue and gone in a flash. They are one of the countless beautiful moments and
presences, calling a halt to purposive dashing and opening a window on to timelessness.
That is what Keats is saying, poetically and cleanly, in not-to-be-forgotten phrases. Deb
Taylor says it with her urns and the words typed on them, neat and cryptic, reminders and
recallings.
Death is there, with its sharp presence, embraced and honoured, an ending that is open and
evocative, like a dying note continuing to sound. The tea lights fitting into space in the top of
the urn complete this ritual of remembrance and honouring.
This ‘thing of beauty’ moves beyond the confronting and contributes to the healing we all
need, a healing that is eased by many a gesture and symbol and practice. Deb’s urns can be a
helpful contribution to this healing."
Richard White |
