These beautiful glass pieces are created with your pet’s ashes

All pet owners know that one day they’ll have to say goodbye. It’s a hard truth, but there are small, sweet ways to cope after that day comes. Many pet parents hang onto significant items like their dog’s collar and leash to remember their beloved fur baby. And now there are even more special ways to keep a little piece of your pet with you forever.

Glassmaker Cameron Davenport helps bereaved families keep memories nearby incorporating pets’ cremated remains into gorgeous glass trinkets. Using a “small spoonful of ash,” Davenport blows the glass into the shape of a dog or cat paw, in the buyer’s choice of color. Paw-print pendants are available, too, for folks who want their furry friend close to the heart.

Cameron stumbled upon the idea after losing a friend, he said in an interview with Bored Panda. He’d received a little of his friend’s ashes, but he didn’t do much with them at first.

“One day it came to me, and I decided to make him into a marble,” Cameron said. “There were quite a few friends that thought this was a neat idea and asked me to make them some memorial glass as well. It sort of just snowballed after that.”

Cameron still makes glass objects for human cremains, as well as pets.

“One of my favorite parts about my job are the smiles and tears I receive from my clients,” he said. “They love the work I do and the meaning behind it.”

Of course, making keepsakes out of cremation ash isn’t a totally new invention. One website, Spirit Pieces, makes suncatchers, jewelry, tiny statues and even nightlights with cremains. At Live, Laugh, Love Art in Portland, Oregon, customers can blow their own glass memorials in a private, one-hour session.

YouTube videos show how to make DIY memorials from ashes using less dangerous techniques than glassblowing. And for a top-of-the-line treatment, cremains can be turned into diamonds in a variety of colors and cuts (starting at $750, excluding the setting).

What do you think? Would you ever incorporate your pet’s — or a human loved one’s — ashes into a memorial object?