Mum of three shares the touching story behind her online business making treasured memories out of loved ones cremation ashes.
Cindy Hobbs from Breastmilk Jewellery – Heart Infused Keepsakes and Ballarat Placentas creates her touching master pieces using a range of elements like breastmilk or formula, placenta, the umbilical cord, babies first curl and even babies first tooth. The most touching pieces that Cindy creates are from loved ones cremation ashes.
Cindy takes great pride and care in her work, every piece is a extension of herself and every order is hand made with a great deal of admiration for the Journey that the piece will represent to the owner.
How the inspiration first started
Cindy tells MoM, “I first started crafting after my husband and I lost a little boy, he was still born back in 2012, all our children have been conceived via IVF, we have 2 beautiful girls as we can not carry boys full term.”
The cruel thing about loosing a baby is your body still produces the same physical responses as it would if your baby was born healthy, so, I have a freezer bank of milk from him that I didn’t have the heart to discard.
I saved it knowing I wanted to make breastmilk jewellery out of it and was lucky to have friends donate milk for me to work with to master a method of milk preservation so I wouldn’t loose all of my sons milk in failed attempts.
Once I mastered the art I then went onto craft myself a keepsake from his milk.
It served me a lot of comfort on the hard days. It is the only physical thing that I hold from that journey.
I have so many touching stories from all customers that I craft for when it comes to loss pieces, the most common loss piece I craft is cremation ashes.
One ladies special memory for her son
I once had an elderly lady who travelled two hours to my house to chat to me about cremation ashes jewellery for her son, her son was killed in a car accident 15 years prior, the stress of the accident resulted in her divorce, her husband remained the sole keeper of the cremation ashes of their son and refused to hand them over to her, she argued with him for many years over it until she finally took him to court for “shared custody” of the ashes, she won.
I created her some cremation ashes beads so she could wear it on her pandora bangle and have a part of him close at all times.
She came back to pick the items up personally two weeks later as she was so scared of loosing the ashes again via post.
I wasn’t prepared for the emotional heart break and pure joy and closure she displayed in my kitchen at the sight of her bead.
She hugged me so tight I could hardly breath and sobbed and sobbed thanking me over and over again for my work.
I couldn’t hold it together of course, I was an emotional wreck right along side her. She stayed that long chatting to me and telling me all about her son that she ended up joining us for dinner. I often think of her.
How the jewellery is created
Cindy explains, I work with the ashes by suspending them in high quality jewellery grade resin creating stones for ring settings and also mold them into different shapes to create such things as sun catchers and crystal pendants.
The jewellery is made to be a piece that can be handed down in the family, they should last a life time of memory.
They do of course come with special care instructions for making sure the jewellery is kept in great condition, and the jewellery can be sent back at anytime for a fresh polish if need be (I have never had anyone need it at this point).
Cindy’s dream for her work
I would love to be able to work on a complete family journey – from the birth of all the children (placenta or umbilical cord) through their breastfeeding journey (breastmilk), child’s graduation ( graduation cap tassel?), right through to the child’s wedding day (wedding flowers) and the birth of their own children.
This for me would make my heart sing.
Cindy adds I work with many inclusions such as:
Breastmilk or formula
Placenta
Umbilical cord
Wedding flowers/funeral flowers
First curl
First tooth
Cremation ashes
Moon cycle
Wrap scrap
And much more …
Cindy is also a postnatal doula and a Placenta encapsulation specialist at Ballarat Placentas ( www.ballaratplacentas.com)
Cindy’s website www.breastmilkkeepsakes.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com/breastmilkjewellery
This is such an amazing service for families. We adore what Cindy does and I am sure the families truly appreciate her hard work.
What item would you love for a keepsake?
Share your comments below.
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mom93821 said
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