This company turns your loved one’s ashes into beautiful pebbles

The old phrase “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” may need a makeover.

Parting Stone is a “death tech” startup that can turn the cremated remains of your loved ones into “solidified remains” that resemble smooth, stone-like objects but are in fact almost 100% ashes. Self-described as the first company to provide such a complete alternative to ashes, Parting Stone allows for a more meaningful experience that can be held comfortably, shared with others, displayed, or even scattered.

It also fits into an ever-growing death care industry—expected to be worth about $68 billion by 2025— that is increasingly catering to the desire for more personalized, meaningful, and often sustainable ways to honor the departed.

Parting Stone’s patent-pending technology was developed with ceramic engineer Chris Chen of Los Alamos National Laboratory. It involves a few simple steps following cremation. After arriving at the Parting Stone lab in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the full amount of cremated remains is refined through a milling process that turns the ashes “from a granular consistency to a really fine powder,” explains founder Justin Crowe. After that, a small amount of water and a “glass-like binder” helps turn the powder into a clay-like substance that is formed and placed in a kiln before being polished and returned to the family.

Typically, the remains from an average adult weigh about 4 to 8 pounds, or what Crowe says equates to about 10 cups. “All we do is take that material and compress it into solids,” he says. In the end, the family gets between 40 and 60 stones. Sizes vary from that of a thumbnail to the size of your palm, and colors range from one person to the next, from white to light-green hues, with the occasional deep blues, chocolate browns, or even lavender with speckles of blue.