MelK
11-30-2005, 01:49 PM
Wow, what a perfect gift. No more carrying around urns. Now we can wear our loved ones to parties and family occasions. Cool.
Wear Grandma on Your Finger (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,359567,00.html)
"Making diamonds out of human ashes is only strange when you first hear about it," says Andree, chain smoking behind his large desk that teems with funeral brochures. "When you get used to it, the idea is beautiful." The diamonds, he says, pulling out a blue velvet sample box, are gorgeous and are just as valuable as the real thing. "Of course," he points out, "if it's your grandfather that is the diamond, then it is absolutely priceless."
Memorial diamonds come in various sizes, ranging from 0.25 carats to 1.0 carat and cost between €3,000 and €7,000 -- which, the consummate salesman is quick to add, is about the going price for a traditional funeral and may even be less if you count the plot, the coffin and all the associated niceties. While clients can pick -- and pay for -- how big a diamond their loved one will become, they cannot dictate the exact color of the stone.
So how do you transform corpses into diamonds? The technology, Andree has to concede, is not his own, but originated in Russia and was first marketed by the Americans. Today, two major memorial diamond firms -- each claiming superiority over the other -- exist, the older LifeGem in America and the year-old Swiss firm Algordanza. Both work hard to promote their specialties. LifeGem, for instance, offers to mix ashes with other minerals so that clients can decide if their loved ones would make a better blue, red or yellow-toned stone. Algordanza flatly refuses such "impure" mixing and insists its diamonds are made from 100 percent human beings. No "genetically-modified gems," so to speak.
Wear Grandma on Your Finger (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,359567,00.html)
"Making diamonds out of human ashes is only strange when you first hear about it," says Andree, chain smoking behind his large desk that teems with funeral brochures. "When you get used to it, the idea is beautiful." The diamonds, he says, pulling out a blue velvet sample box, are gorgeous and are just as valuable as the real thing. "Of course," he points out, "if it's your grandfather that is the diamond, then it is absolutely priceless."
Memorial diamonds come in various sizes, ranging from 0.25 carats to 1.0 carat and cost between €3,000 and €7,000 -- which, the consummate salesman is quick to add, is about the going price for a traditional funeral and may even be less if you count the plot, the coffin and all the associated niceties. While clients can pick -- and pay for -- how big a diamond their loved one will become, they cannot dictate the exact color of the stone.
So how do you transform corpses into diamonds? The technology, Andree has to concede, is not his own, but originated in Russia and was first marketed by the Americans. Today, two major memorial diamond firms -- each claiming superiority over the other -- exist, the older LifeGem in America and the year-old Swiss firm Algordanza. Both work hard to promote their specialties. LifeGem, for instance, offers to mix ashes with other minerals so that clients can decide if their loved ones would make a better blue, red or yellow-toned stone. Algordanza flatly refuses such "impure" mixing and insists its diamonds are made from 100 percent human beings. No "genetically-modified gems," so to speak.