Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Even though I decided to save this post for today, believe it or not this isn’t an April Fools’ joke. Thought up by product designer Nadine Jarvis the Carbon Copy Pencil is made from the ashes left over from the cremation process and apparently the average body will produce enough ash to create about 240 pencils. The idea is actually part of a larger research project that looks to challenge our usual post-mortern traditions and provide alternatives that are more beneficial to grieving friends and family.

I have been designing urns that lengthen death ceremony to give more time to come to terms with loss. My motivation for this project was my interest in the death and decomposition of materials and how the degradation of materials could be used to aid the grieving process.

From what I can tell no actual pencils have been made from human remains as of yet and I’m pretty sure this option won’t be available from funeral homes any time soon. That is of course until our graphite supplies run out and we’re all forced to use those odd ‘Soylent Pencils’ instead.

[ Carbon Copy Pencil ] VIA [ Cribcandy ]