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Whether you want the peace of knowing that your body's final resting place is ready, like the idea of using your coffin as a bookshelf or Halloween prop until your internment, want to prepare an unusual coffin that uniquely reflects your character and celebrates your life, or are hoping to save a bunch of money on funeral expenses, you've come to the right lens. Visitors who just wanted to see if the lens was really about building your own coffin are welcome, too!
Casket Building Plans and Info
- Casket Plans from Casketfurniture.com
- Casket plans that allow you to build a casket of superior quality than those offered by most funeral homes. Casket hardware, if desired is available here, too.
- Handmade Caskets
- You can create simple, beautiful, and inexpensive wooden caskets. Mother Earth News article tells you what you need to know to DIY
- DIY coffin from IKEA furniture
- An artist makes available a book describing how to use IKEA furniture pieces to make a coffin and flower stands.
- Coffin Design by William Warren!
- Coffin pieces are assembled into a display shelf, then reassembled as a casket when needed.
- "Without Stain or Blemish": An Experience in Building A Casket - by Mark DeCou | LumberJocks.com
- A touching essay by a woodworker on the occasion of building his first casket
Vintage Coffins video
Casket Kits
- Bert & Bud's Vintage Coffins
- Dare I say I think their webpage is really cool? They build coffins, and offer a coffin kit. Easy to assemble when needed!
- Eternity Caskets
- Biodegradable, cardboard casket available here, 385$ shipped. Two faux wood grains, or plain.
- ARK Wood Caskets for Natural and Green Burials
- Each inexpensive ARK Wood Casket is beautifully crafted in simple pine using a
patented slide-together design. Perfect for natural burials.
Burial Shrouds
I cannot find any patterns for burial shrouds (if you know of one, let me know!) , but here are some burial shroud resources to get you started.
- Kinkaraco Burial Shrouds
- Buy a beautiful eco friendly shroud here, or get ideas to make your own.
- Bellacouche Felt Shrouds
- Gorgeous burial shrouds made by a fiber artist in the UK, with a nice explanation of their construction.
- Noble Passing Burial Shroud
- The Attar Burial Shroud has been designed by Joan Haworth-Liu, who has over 20 years of burial experience.
Need some woodworking tools and casket hardware?
Enter your address once to order all the woodworking catalogs from Catalogs.comHow caskets are made commercially
Helpful books at Amazon
Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 12/02/2008) 
Dealing Creatively With Death: A Manual of Death Education and Simple Burial
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 12/02/2008)
Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death
Amazon Price: $18.21 (as of 12/02/2008)
The American Way of Death Revisited
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 12/02/2008)
Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial
Amazon Price: $16.84 (as of 12/02/2008)
Funeral Planning and Caring for the Dead
This lens is all about putting control for the funeral back in the hands of the consumer. You DON'T have to do whatever the funeral home tells you (and the amount of money you spend has nothing to do with how much love and respect you have). Check out this section for more information.
- Funeral Consumers Alliance
- Advocates for putting the control back in the hands of the consumer. Financial aspects and the rights of the family are covered.
- Final Passages
- Final Passages is dedicated to a compassionate and dignified alternative to current funeral practices.
- Crossings: Caring for Our Own at Death
- After-death care counseling and services from Crossings
- There Is A Cheap Coffin!
- I love this story of a great man, his loving family, and a cheap coffin.
- Memories are Forever - Planning Meaningful Funeral and Memorial Services that honor your memories of your loved one
- Memories are Forever gives you a place to go to remember, with ideas on preserving and sharing your memories of a loved one who will always be in your heart.
- My Funky Funeral
- A quirky and sometimes goofy look at funeral planning, but with a nice, concise funeral planning form to fill out to help you plan.
Making a casket flower arrangement
How To Make a Monument Saddle Arrangement
Jane from Afloral.com shows you how to make a monument saddle floral arrangement.
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Green Cemeteries
- Cemetery Group
- Green Cemetery in FL
- Ethical Burial
- An oganization certifying and advocating for green cemeteries.
- The Centre for Natural Burial
- Information and Resources Supporting the Global Natural Burial Movement - A Project of the Natural Burial Co-operative
Halloween Prop Coffins
- Coffin Prop Plans
- Free plans for making a toepincher coffin to use as a prop. Or, use the instructions for adding shelves, and make a lovely coffin bookshelf.
- Cheap motion activated coffin
- Instructable for building a coffin, then making it open when someone walks by.
- Casa de Sade Coffin Plans
- Instructions for making a coffin prop out of plywood
- Mactavish Coffin Plans
- Great description, with photos, of how to build a toepincher for Halloween decor.
- Scott's Coffin Plans
- How Scott built a coffin for a prop, using real coffin hardware for an authentic look.
- Coffin Coffee Table
- How to turn your regular coffee table into a 'coffin' with cardboard and duct tape.
- Halloween Monster List of Projects
- Looking for more Halloween decor? Find links here to some truly creepy projects, and some more coffins.
Coffin builder from Ghana
Coffin Maker
In a part of Ghana, eye-catching coffins have become popular. Meet a man who makes them unique. See All National Geographic Videos http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/?source=4001
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10 Comments:
Reader Feedback
SemperFidelis wrote...
Kind of eerie aerie, but a cool lens nonetheless!
Blessed, 5-starred, and favorited by a Squid Angel today! :)
Colleen ~ www.squidoo.com/squid-angel
Posted September 04, 2008
Pamela2Heaven wrote...
Now this is something I never thought about doing for myself~Quite interesting!
Posted August 31, 2008
aerie wrote...
In answer to Rod's question below, the word lens is how Squidoo.com (the website that hosts this page) refers to the webpages in their site. A lens is a webpage on Squidoo that focuses on a narrow topic in depth (such as building a coffin!). Check out some more great lenses by clicking on 'Top 100 lenses' at the top of the page. Maybe you'll want to make some of your own! It's easy and addictive.
Posted May 28, 2008
Rod Geary wrote
Hello! Several times in this artile you've used the word 'lens' ... in all my like thus far, the word 'lens' always refered to a part of a camara.
What is the persons name who choose the word 'lens' for use in this article? (please answer) ... and wouuldn't the word 'paluka' have served just as well? Thanks, Rod Geary
Posted May 28, 2008
