Create Your Own Grave Marker In Upcoming St. Pete Ceramics Class

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Those interested in the arts and the macabre will have the chance to create their own, personal grave goods and markers during a four-week ceramics class at The Hive Community Clay in St. Petersburg.

This whimsical funerary arts course with artist Calan Ree kicks off Sept. 22. It’s open to artists of all skill levels. Those interested should register online here.

“I feel like a very experienced ceramics artist could really dive deep into this and a beginner could also get a lot out of this,” Ree told Patch. “It’s friendly to any experience.”

She first envisioned the course’s unique theme while traveling earlier this summer to forage for clay and attend a pottery workshop in Minnesota.

“I thought, ‘Why do we make so many other things? Why don’t we make any kind of grave marker of our own?’” Ree said. “It’s not a thing that’s done regularly. I brought it up to other people who weren’t all weirdies like me and everybody was like, ‘Oh my God, I love that.’”

When she returned to St. Pete, she suggested it as a class at The Hive.

“I mentioned it because I still wasn’t sure if it was too weird,” she said. “But everybody was so into it. Even people who said they wouldn’t take it started talking about a funeral memory or a song they want played at their funeral or something related to their own passing. I couldn’t believe the conversations that came up every single time.”

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Inspired by the positive death movement, Ree added the workshop to the Hive’s calendar. She hopes to teach it several times a year moving forward.

While students are welcome to create pieces to honor the memory of lost loved one’s, she strongly encourages them to make more personal pieces.

“Even if you’re not planning on getting buried — like, I don’t plan on getting buried — I want them to make a little grave marker or make a grave good, an object or artifact to be buried with, or just something to reflect on the fact that you’re going to die some day,” Ree said, adding, “I want it to be a little bit more of ‘memento mori.’ What we might want on our little grave marker or our epitaph or if it’s a grave good, what would it be? Would it be a figure that symbolizes, I don’t know, your dog or jewelry?”

She hopes the workshop encourages people to have honest conversations on the topic.

“It’s healthy to talk about death,” she said.

Ree also stresses that the class “isn’t meant to be spooky.”

“It’s intended to be thoughtful with a little bit of humor and about community connecting,” she said.

She referenced a piece she recently made for herself — a hand with mushrooms growing on it and the words “walk on by.”

“There’s a little bit of humor to it. The hand to me could be like waving from the grave, and ‘walk on by,’ it’s a little sassy and said with a grin,” she said. “And to me, personally, if it’s in the ground or some kind of marker, I just want people to remember that they’re still here and they have a life. What they should be doing is living and not hanging onto the past. I wouldn't want people to mourn a lot; I would want them to go on with their lives.”