Stone Engraving Machinery

Engraving Showing a Selection of Improved Machinery Designed for Deep Sea Soundings, 1861 $39.99 Engraving Showing a Selection of Improved Machinery Designed for Deep Sea Soundings, 1861 - Giclee Print

Stone Engraving Angkor Thom, Cambodia $29.99 Kim Digiulio Stone Engraving Angkor Thom, Cambodia - Photographic Print

Stone Engraving, Angkor Thom, Cambodia $29.99 Kim Digiulio Stone Engraving, Angkor Thom, Cambodia - Photographic Print

Stone Engraving, Angkor Wat, Cambodia $29.99 Kim Digiulio Stone Engraving, Angkor Wat, Cambodia - Photographic Print

Battle of Stone River, 1863, engraving of Kurz and Allison $49.99 Battle of Stone River, 1863, engraving of Kurz and Allison - Giclee Print

Stone Engraving of Battle, Angkor Thom, Cambodia $29.99 Kim Digiulio Stone Engraving of Battle, Angkor Thom, Cambodia - Photographic Print

Stone Engraving, Angkor Thom, Cambodia 2 $29.99 Kim Digiulio Stone Engraving, Angkor Thom, Cambodia 2 - Photographic Print

Stone Engraving, Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia $29.99 Kim Digiulio Stone Engraving, Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia - Photographic Print

Machinery $11.49 Machinery

Damekh Stupa Brick Work and Stone Engraving on an Ancient Indian Ruin $34.99 Jason Edwards Damekh Stupa Brick Work and Stone Engraving on an Ancient Indian Ruin - Photographic Print

An Engraving $79.99 An Engraving - Premium Photographic Print

Inscriblio Engraving Tool $10.94 Now THIS is going to leave a mark! Use the Inscriblio Engraving Tool to inscribe glass, metal, wood, stone, ceramic, leather, plastic, acrylic, and more! Perfect for decorating and personalizing scrapbook pages, albums, tools, general crafts, picture frames, and most other items. Features a unique stay-on button for easy use and includes 1 versatile diamond tip which is best when used to engrave plastic, metal, wood, and leather. Cordless engraving tool operates with 4AAA batteries (not included). Tip diameter: 1.5mm. Tip length: 45mm. Material: ABS fireproof. Keep out of reach of children. Protective eyewear is recommended for satety.

Stone Engraving Machine MAM-101

9 Alternate Ideas for Customary Cemetery Markers

When you think about a cemetery, what’s the first image you see in your mind?  More than likely it’s a picture of a sprawling, manicured expanse of acres cluttered with tombstones, statuary, follies, monuments and mausoleums.  It’s this rather Victorian image of the cemetery that pervades most images of the traditional final resting place.  In later years, some cemeteries have opted to remove the clutter and architecture afforded by headstones in favor of a more streamlined and modern look with metal or stone plaques flush with the ground.  Other specialized cemeteries prefer all graves to be marked with matching monuments—a line of identical crosses or Stars of David, etc.

Yes, there’s a certain nostalgia and comfort in these familiar images from the plinths and obelisks of the Victorian era to the Spartan look of the “modern” cemetery.

However, upon closer examination, what do we have?  We have stone which has been quarried from other areas and brought in at great expense.  The quarrying process strips perfectly good land, digging irreparable holes and caverns into earth which would be better used in other ways.  We have a landscape trenched by machinery which uses valuable petroleum, we have an earth filled with unnatural chemicals, an eco-system interrupted by concrete and plastic vaults designed to unnaturally elevate the land and keep the natural processes of erosion at bay.

In green burial, the land is often left to grow naturally—free of pesticides to control weeds, free of unnatural materials, free to grow and evolve as it was intended.  More often than not, graves for green burial are dug by hand, not by dangerous and expensive machinery.

As I have pointed out, the goal of eco-friendly burial is to preserve the earth, to give the body back to the land where it will serve as nutrition for the plants that grow on the Earth and the organisms that live below it.

So, in looking at a green cemetery in that light, it’s only proper that the monuments we leave to mark the place of a loved one’s burial should be equally natural and nondestructive.  Remember, a green burial is a celebration of life.

Of course, we can’t minimize the importance of having a marker on the grave—something to tell us “our loved one is buried here,” something to say, “We remember you.”

But, a monument doesn’t need to be costly stone—stone that was stolen from other land; it doesn’t have to be a bronze plaque rendered at great expense.  To truly celebrate life, the marker for the grave in a green burial is something enduring, something that wasn’t harmful to the earth, and, most importantly, something befitting the person buried beneath it.

Each green cemetery will have recommendations about what kinds of markers are acceptable.  However, here are some ideas of green markers and monuments that will serve as a lasting reminder of the life you are honoring.

1. A tree native to the area, planted in honor of the deceased, a tree that will be nourished by the loving gesture of returning the body to the Earth.

2. Native plants.

3. A rock or stone found on the site itself which has been engraved with the name of the deceased.

4. A plant that had a special meaning or symbolism for the deceased.

5. A tree stump or log found in the area, uprooted by nature itself which can be inscribed with the name of your loved one.

6. A marker made from re-claimed or salvaged wood which, in time, will also deteriorate.

7. A cluster or design made-up of small stones native to the area.

8. A natural-wood bird feeder made from reclaimed wood.

9. Nothing at all.

 That last option may seem surprising, but many who are proponents of green burial would rather see nature take its course uninterrupted.  Simply knowing the general area in which their loved one is buried is enough for them.  They take comfort in seeing the land grow free and unencumbered. 

About the Author

Hal is the author of several critically acclaimed ebooks specifically written to help people deal with end of life issues. His ebooks include topics such as: cremation, writing and delivering a eulogy, eco-friendly green funerals, funeral planning, organ donation, and buying and selling cemetery plots. To find out more about his CemeterySpot family of free services and resources, to learn more about his books, and to get a free gift, please visit: http://www.cemeteryspot.com.