How It Works

The photo can be an image at any age in her or his life – that is completely up to you!

We have three suggestions for the best result: the photograph should be in the highest resolution you have (300 dpi would be great), the face needs to be fairly prominent and if possible, the mouth should be closed.

If you are unsure which photo to choose send us a few and we are happy to discuss which might produce the optimal result.

You can also number the photographs in the order of your preference.

Our team has very experienced portrait artists and can readily assess the perfect image for your chosen size and technique.

Mosaic Portraits are made in a mosaic technique (usually made with different colored stones that become an image) in this case the cremated ash particles are affixed one by one onto a substrate. The choice of different shades of gray creates the diversity of hue that results in a portrait, similar to the way that individual pixels contribute to complex images on a computer. Depending on the size, this technique requires up to six weeks.

For the patent pending process of making Ash-Transfer Portraits a larger number of ash particles are affixed in a different way and afterwards the ink of a photo is transferred onto that surface. Depending on the size this takes up to three weeks.

Everyone who owns a cremation portrait by Heide Hatry has described a profound effect of presence that is “calming,” “soothing,” or “consoling.” Many, especially when they had been suffering powerful grief, have described it as life-changing, as a way of coming to terms with the fact of death, especially when it came upon them unexpectedly.

Graveyards and mausoleums stay where they are, while we do not. Especially in a time of global movement, it seems more appropriate to be able to take our beloved with us when we have to move.

There are a few locations where ICONS IN ASH portraits are exhibited permanently:

At the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston, Texas, at The Merchant’s House Museum in New York City and at Ubu Gallery in New York City.

When her father died unexpectedly and under mysterious circumstances more than twenty years ago, she was disconsolate, and she lived with a gnawing grief for many years. In 2008 one of her closest friends chose to end his life. Not only was she shocked and devastated, but she found that the still unresolved feelings of loss in her father’s death had resurfaced all the more powerfully. With a sudden inspiration, she determined that she would make portraits of her friend and her father out of cremated ashes. She has described the feeling of calm and tranquility that she felt upon completing the works and abiding with them in silent communion as life-altering. And she realized that she could offer the same deep solace to others as well. During her lengthy experimentation, she discovered a way of creating an actual relic that both honors the dead and inspires the living with a rich sense of presence, continuity, and connection.

In deciding to commission a memorial portrait, made out of ashes you don’t lose any options. A quite sufficient quantity would still remain for scattering, preservation in an urn, making jewelry objects (please see madelynco.com) or whatever other means you might choose to honor and remember your loved one.

Our cremation portraits look as realistic as a photograph of your loved one, even more so, as it has depth and a texture that photographs cannot achieve, and at the same time, it is your loved one. The effect of that reality is indescribable, and will always be true. You are seeing the person you loved in her or his image, and this knowledge never diminishes, effortlessly enriching your relationship to the image and to memory.

Please ask your local funeral home, crematory, or Ubu Gallery for their preferred payment method.

If you buy your Memorial Portrait directly from us, please send us a check or we accept PayPal, Zelle, Apple Cash or Venmo.

Your payment has to be made as soon as we will have received the cremated remains and the image you’d like us to use.

Heide Hatry invented the Mosaic Portrait technique in 2008/2009, so it is impossible to say with absolute certainty, but if you imagine a candle that has collected dust when it was burning, those particles never come off, so we assume that the portraits, too, will last forever.

Egypt Fayum mummy portraits for example (naturalistic painted portraits on wooden boards, using a wax-based encaustic technique of integrating pigment) have survived 3000 years (you can see them at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), assuming that reasonable care is taken.

The technique of the new patent pending Ash Transfer Portraits was invented in 2018. So there has not passed much time, but we have done extended research and are sure that they will last as long as a regular artwork, like an acrylic painting for example, assuming that reasonable care is taken.

The portraits are displayed in deep wooden shadow-boxes, equipped with museum-quality glass. They can be hung on a wall like a painting, rest upright on a table, pedestal, or mantle-piece, in a glass display niche in a cemetery, or basically wherever you prefer.

Your Memorial Portrait is an artwork and should be treated like one: never hang it in direct sunlight, don’t expose it to moisture, and maintain it at normal room temperature.

It is not terribly fragile or susceptible to damage, but it can collect dust very easily, so it should never be removed from its frame. Naturally, in the event of an accident, it could be restored, though that would involve a lengthy process and additional expense.

If you need to transport the Mosaic Portrait, we suggest to always keep it laying face up.

Please contact us at info@inconsinash.com