After Janet Greiling lost her 31-year-old son, Rodney Greiling, she and her daughter faced a tough decision: finding a fitting way to honor his memory through his ashes.

Instead of the traditional urn on the mantel or in a columbarium, Greiling wanted a more modern and heartfelt option to hold his remains. That's when she learned about Artful Ashes, a Seattle business that memorializes ashes within glass art.

Now, when she wears her pendant or glances at the glass artwork on her living room table, I know that it's uniquely him," said Greiling, a Kent, Washington, resident. "Every little bubble of his ash — there's no other piece in the world like that."

Today, more people prefer cremations as the cost of burials skyrockets. Washington ranked in the top five states with the highest cremation percentages, at over 80% last year, according to the Cremation Association of North America. Nationwide, the cremation rate hit 63% this year — about double the burial rate of almost 32%, per the National Funeral Directors Association.

"As far as caskets and burial, yeah, that's kind of on its way out," said Jeff Jorgenson, owner of Elemental Cremation & Burial, a funeral home with three Seattle-area locations.

He estimates that his business is based almost entirely on cremation, though crematory operators are handling rising demand with limited capacity as of late.

Accompanying cremation’s rise in popularity are local businesses entering the scene to answer the question of what to do with the ashes.

Jorgenson, who has worked in the industry since 2006, has watched several trends for cremated remains develop: pressing ashes into vinyl records, transforming them into diamonds, loading them into shotgun shells, glassblowing with them.

"Everyone's got something that speaks to them," Jorgenson said. "I mean, death is final, but that shopping process isn't."

Glass art memorials

Two Seattle businesses strive to provide loved ones of the deceased with personalized memorials through glassblowing.

Artful Ashes in Ballard has transformed cremated remains into glass art since Christina Dale started the business in 2012.

"It is a labor of love," Dale said in a phone interview. "For the price of, let's say, an expensive meal, you have this for the rest of your life."

Clients can stand by and watch as artists craft their loved ones’ ashes into memorials. The process usually involves just a tablespoon of cremated remains that are mailed to Artful Ashes.

The artwork, which includes a heart, an orb, an oil lamp and an angel wing pendant, is priced between around $200 and $350 based on the design. An infinity swirl of ashes is incorporated within the glass pieces.

Leftover ashes are either returned to clients or directed to Seattle's Limitless Sea Burials for scattering.

Greiling felt the cost was reasonable and purchased several pieces to share with her loved ones before spreading the rest of her son's remains on Crystal Mountain.

"We all want something to cling to. Why not cling to something that brings beauty to the person that you've lost?" she said.

The business is competing against an industry standard, urns.

Retail giants like Walmart and Amazon sell mass-produced urns. The average price varies based on material, with wood, marble and stone options costing as low as $50 and ceramic options reaching as high as $550, according to estimates by Funeral Advantage from Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company.

Dale's argument: "Nobody wants an urn in their house."

"Why people come to me is because they have their loved one in a beautiful piece that they can display, and nobody has to know,” she said.

Instead, clients take their glass memorial art abroad, on fishing trips, on waterfall hikes — Dale has seen it all.

With clients around the U.S., Artful Ashes' footprint is growing in Washington: The state makes up 30% of its business, compared with 16% in 2019, Dale said.

Seattle Glassblowing Studio in Belltown is also seeing an uptick in interest for custom memorial art pieces over the past few years, sales associate Ian Minton said.

He spearheads the memorial art projects at the gallery and studio, which typically offers private lessons, group classes and events tied to glassblowing.

Memorial glass is why Minton learned glassblowing in the first place. His mom, Pam Minton, helped him get his first tools and lessons.

Around three years ago, she died. She had asked for a portion of her ashes to be used for memorial glass. Minton is the one who made the pieces for his loved ones, including a planter with a flamingo for him and paper weights for his relatives.

"I discovered a significant therapeutic, healing aspect in glassblowing," Minton said.

Now, he helps others navigate the intersection of grief and glassblowing.

Seattle Glassblowing Studio fills custom orders of memorial art pieces with cremated remains, and clients can watch as their pieces are made. With worry stones, paperweights, pet portraits and more available, prices vary between $40 and $275 based on the design.

Sea burials

If the dearly departed and their surviving relatives aren’t the artistic types, then maybe spreading the ashes at sea is more apt. Seattle is a city known for its sea burials, with a number of options.

Carl Nyman, owner of Fish Finders Private Charters, doesn't solely provide fishing charters. Sometimes, he heads out to Puget Sound from Shilshole Bay Marina in Sunset Hill to scatter ashes.

After establishing his business in 1995, Nyman got a call to do a sea burial. Soon, he was extending it to clients as an add-on service for reduced rates compared to the industry standard.

For $450, a charter boat takes groups of up to six people on the water for an hour to say a final farewell to their loved ones. The service includes a sea burial certificate with coordinates.

Comparatively, a full-service burial in Washington costs around $6,500 on average in 2024, though it could reach a staggering $26,000, according to funeral choice nonprofit People's Memorial Association.

Nyman estimates that he's done hundreds of sea burials over his career. "It's certainly accelerated in recent years," he said.

Many other fishing charter operators now offer similar services.

"Seattle is a maritime city, so that potentially could be a large part of why sea burials in our city are popular," Nyman said. "The bottom line is dollars and cents."

The service only makes up less than 10% of his business, but he doesn't mind offering it. Nyman depicted sea burials as less work than a fishing trip, and they ultimately satisfy his clients, who scatter the ashes themselves.

One day, he imagines that his remains will be spread across the lapping waves, too.

"I mean, why not? Nyman said.

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