Urn design – designer urns – urn art

Questions for ‘cosmicball’ Thomas Schär, excerpt from an interview by M. Haas, November 2016

What does your work involve?
Since founding urne.ch in 1998, I have been building my own urn collection. I design my urns in principle like an architect plans houses and apartments. First, I have a basic idea. I then develop a concept, a design and a story around the object, which then creates a name. My collections have different names, such as ‘ball of love’ for my round urns. It takes a long time - sometimes up to two years - until the first prototype is produced. My work is an artistic process and consists of conception, design and implementation. After production, I give some of my urns the finishing touches in the studio - in the form of a printed motif, an engraving or an assembly of individual components. In my work, it is important to me that my creations appeal to a wide variety of people and also reflect the essence of a deceased person. Depending on the customer's wishes, I customize the urns or develop completely new concepts, although this takes more time and resources. Other artists have also immortalized themselves on some selected urns in my collection.