Glass artist offers free memorial service to grieving families
As the coronavirus pandemic marches on, people are looking to connect with and aid their community in any way they can.
Some are donating food, delivering groceries to those who are unable to leave their homes, organizing socially distant parades to celebrate birthdays, making masks for hospitals and their community while others work on the front lines of the pandemic.
New Milford’s Lise Weller is a glass artist who makes glass jewelry called omi and she announced that she would like to make free memorial pieces for those who have lost a loved one to the coronavirus.
“It occurred to me that this is such a hard time to grieve,” Weller said about the pandemic and the need for social distancing. “This may be a way of helping and I certainly have plenty of time to work on them.”
Weller said memorial omi contains the ashes of the deceased, so their loved one can always carry a piece of them. Weller herself has made a memorial omi from a teaspoon of her mother’s ashes and she said having the omi was cathartic.
“It’s nice to always have her with me,” she said about her mother’s memorial piece.
Weller makes her pieces through a process called deep firing, where she layers the colors on top of each other. “Each time I fire it, the piece becomes more holographic” she said.
When making the memorial omi, Weller asks the grieving families about their loved one’s favorite colors and what they were like; “it’s very special,” she said.
Weller hopes the memorial omi can help those who are grieving. “I would really love to be something meaningful right now,” Weller said.
For more information about Weller’s memorial omi, visit omibylise.com.