Guinea Pig Cremation Memorial - Pearl

Pearl was a guinea pig I had several years ago. I only had her a short time. I adopted her with a bonded female, Holly, and they lived with my guinea pig, Yogi. But only a week or two into having Pearl, she had what seemed like a seizure—it happened too quickly for me to take her to a hospital, as after I got out the shower getting ready to go a late night trip to a vet, she was already gone.

I had the rest of my pigs much longer than Pearl. Oswald was my first guinea pig; Holly I had for a long time. I cremated those three. Anyway, I say this all because I chose Pearl for this project, because I’d be slightly less heartbroken if it all went wrong, unlike Holly and Oswald…

My last post, I did test to make sure it was possible to use a large amount of bone ash, as that’s what I’d be mixing in the clay. Yes, I did feel like a psycho while doing this, but it’s no different than what a funeral home does. The final object—a memorial for my guinea pig—is nice, but the process of making it isn’t so nice.

I used the ash as I went, incorporating it in such a way & wedging in a way that no ash would be thrown away or put in the sink, constantly reincorporating sculpted bits into the working clay.

It was already looking pretty adorable at this point. My initial sketches for this were of a realistic guinea pig—something I’m sure I could have done, but guinea pigs are silly little creatures, and even though it’s a “serious” object I felt in the moment it was more appropriate to make something that reflected the personality of the animal.

I was not inspired by Fernando Botero, but I’m certain he was inspired by guinea pigs.

And with her arms and pot added, she was finished. It took from 10am to 4:30pm, which is quite a short time to make any coil built structure, but I had to make it that quickly in order to make sure all the ash was in the statue and not on my tools/sink/table/leftover clay/etc. I didn’t intend to have it holding a pot, either, but as I was making it I thought of the candles in Catholic churches in Italy, and thought incorporating a candle would be perfect for a memorial. I bought some tealights that would hopefully fit, as I don’t want to pour a candle directly into it.

Now I just have to wait for it to be fired, hope it doesn’t break, bring it to raku, hope it doesn’t break, actually put it under the immense pressure of raku, hope it doesn’t break, bring it back to London, hope it doesn’t break…