Even in death, there are options: JONATHAN DREW on the latest in tombstone technology.
Lundgren monuments produces designs similar to traditional granite monuments. (AP Photo/Julie Busch)
The translucent properties of glass allow it to react to light in different ways than granite.(AP Photo/Julie Busch)
Artists use techniques on cast glass similar to what they would use on granite. (AP Photo/Julie Busch)
Lundgren Monuments principals Greg Lundgren (left) and Jim Nelsen (right) discuss a design for a glass monument. (AP Photo/Julie Busch) Glass is everywhere, in applications that cause people to associate it with fragility: champagne flutes, window panes and eye glasses. One place it's almost never found is at the head of a grave, serving as a sturdy marker meant to last hundreds -- if not thousands -- of years.
But the same technology that allows builders to turn glass into walls and floors also allows craftsmen to turn the substance into tombstones that they say are as sturdy and long-lasting as granite.
So why would someone want a grave marker made out of translucent, green glass? The answer, say those in the monument and funeral industry, is that grieving families -- like any consumers -- want choice. And technology has allowed the rapidly changing industry to offer its customers more options than ever before.
Americans believe it's their right to express their individuality through the things they buy. And the last century has seen a steady march toward a dizzying array of options for consumers. One-hundred years ago, a typical family chose between a handful of different breakfast cereals, soaps and detergeants. Now a typical supermarket offers them dozens.
So it shouldn't be surprising that the funeral and monument industry is catching up. These days families can pick a glass marker with a photograph-like etching of their loved one. Monuments also feature sculptures, video screens or microchips implanted with a life story. And it's not unusual for funeral goers to watch a DVD slideshow dedicated to the deceased or see his casket pull up on a Harley sidecar.
"People today don't want to be another brick in the wall," said David Quiring, president of Seattle-based Quiring Monuments, which sells 14,000 mostly granite tombstones each year. "We have carved everything from marijuana leaves and black panther emblems to skydivers and climbers on the face of a mountain in Yosemite. We're carving unique photo montages of a person standing by his favorite car."
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THE LIGHT ON THE HILL
Glass tombstone maker Lundgren Monuments, also in Seattle, says its products stand out in graveyards dominated by granite's pallette of grays, beiges and roses.
"It responds so incredibly well to natural light," he said. "If you walk into a cemetery you would see one from 100 yards away. It's something where you would say, 'What is that up on that hill?'"
Lundgren's approach appears to be unique: Ernie Stewart, executive director of the Monument Builders of North America, said he's never heard of any other glass tombstone builders.
To create the monuments, Lundgren loads 250-350 pounds of crushed or plate glass into computerized kilns that fire for as long as 40 days. After cooling, artists use many of the same engraving tools as one would use on granite. The company has sold about 20 markers since it launched 18 months ago at prices that range from $7,000 to $22,000.
While many cemeteries only allow bronze and granite, Lundgren argues those regulations are outdated. He says glass' durability and longevity has been illustrated by its increasing use to as floors, walls and countertops.
Meanwhile, traditional granite tombstones have also benefited from advances in technology. Whereas artwork and lettering were once done with hammer and chisel, monument builders can scan a photo into a computer and program a laser to transfer that image onto stone. The pallette of granite colors has also expanded thanks to improvements in worldwide shipping and quarrying in other countries, Quiring said.
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HIGH-TECH IN THE GRAVE
Monument builders and funeral homes are also borrowing from consumer electronics to offer new options to the bereaved. Over the last year and a half, funeralOne has sold about 3,000 funeral homes software for making tribute videos and DVD slideshows that can be shown during visitations and memorial services -- and then distributed to family members.
"A few years back we were offering families picture boards, and people loved that. This is using technolgy to do it in a little nicer, more permanent way," said the St. Clair, Mich.-based company's chief executive, Bob Vandenburgh, who also runs a funeral home in Michigan. funeralOne also helps families set up permanent memorial Internet sites and Webcasts of funeral services.
Memory Medallion Inc. attaches microchips to tombstones that carry digitized photographs and 600-word life stories. The weather-resistant devices can be read by a scanner attached to a laptop or hand-held PDA. So far, the company has sold about 10,000 of the products, which retail for about $600, since it launched in 2001, said chief executive Glen Toothman. Another company attaches weatherproof video players into niches on tombstones.
San Antonio resident Debbie Traugott attached a Memory Medallion in 2003 to the headstone of her husband, who died the previous year at age 50. Otherwise, the marker would have just contained his name and birth and death dates.
With traditional markers, "you just have a line there," she said. "The memory medallion puts what happened from the beginning to the end. It tells you about his life."
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asap reporter Jonathan Drew is based in New York.
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