City business turns placentas, teeth and ashes into jewellery
City woman makes keepsakes out of hair, ashes, teeth and breast milk. - Credit: Danielle Clewlow
Ever wanted to preserve something special like a loved one's ashes or your child's first tooth?
A Norwich jeweller is offering customers the chance to keep such items with them always.
Danielle Clewlow launched HALO Keepsakes in October 2020 to help people honour their loved ones.
She said: “It has been a long-term mission of mine to run my own business."
And her passion for keepsakes was born out of a love of animals. She lost a pet a few years ago, and upon looking at cremation jewellery was shocked about the price.
She explained: “I realised that this was something I wanted to do to help others.
“I believe that everybody should have access to something so precious and that nobody should be emotionally taken advantage of during a vulnerable time in their life.”
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She added: “I do what I do to bring comfort to those who have suffered great loss whether this be in animal or human form.
“To me this is more important than profit.”
Because of this she believes it’s also important to offer emotional support to customers.
She said: “I’m more than happy to be all ears when it comes to consoling my customer's loss or worries.
“I spent months researching the funeral and cremation industry to try and set myself apart from other companies by offering that level of service."
Danielle works with human, animal, natural and man-made materials.
Her most requested items are cremation, hair and breastmilk jewellery.
But she also works in mediums such as placenta, sand, soil from gravesides and sentimental fibres like wedding dresses or toy fluff.
And her pieces can also mark happy occasions as she also works with the families of newborns to preserve placenta and breast milk in jewellery form.
The founder said she works with the customer to choose their colour scheme and only requires a very small amount of the material to make the piece.
HALO Keepsakes has had a great response from customers so far, she added.
“Many people have been able to find comfort in their losses with jewellery from HALO keepsakes and that's all I could ask for,” she added.