A Keepsake For Loss

Approximately one in four women experience a miscarriage.  I don’t think anyone is every truly prepared for the emotional toll it can take on you, and some women are turning to keepsake artists to help with creating a remembrance piece for their lost child.  Shawna was expecting her third child when she was told she lost her baby around 17 weeks pregnant.  Two years later, and after the birth of her rainbow baby (and first girl!), she contacted me to help create some keepsakes with some of the extra cremation ashes from her baby. 

I asked Shawna if she would like to share her thoughts and reasoning behind wanting to have her keepsakes created, and she agreed to answer a few questions for me. 

Cremation ashes vary in shape, size, and color. Shawna chose to add a duo-chrome blue/purple pigment to have added to her keepsakes to customize them a little more.

​What type of keepsake did you order?
I ordered several cremation keepsakes.  A ring, a necklace and earrings with angel wings, two additional pendants, sphere shaped earrings, and a European bead.

What made you want to have this keepsake made?
I wanted these keepsakes made because I had a lot of ashes left over from a baby that I miscarried two years ago that didn’t fit in the urn, so I thought it would be nice to have keepsakes made to do something beautiful with the ashes that had been sitting in my closet for the last two years.

​What does this keepsake mean to you?
These keepsakes mean so much to me because although I only got to hold to hold my baby for a short time, I now can keep a part of my baby close to me always.

Do you wear your keepsake, display it, or store it for safe keeping?
At this time, I wear the ring all the time, but the other jewelry I only wear when I am away from my baby, because she likes to pull on them.  So, those stay put up, but once she is older I will be wearing those more.

​It is hard to capture the beauty of these keepsakes in photos. While I know these keepsakes will not stop the heartache that comes with losing a child, I do hope that they will help ease the pain.