Brighten Your Day

Swiss Company Turns Your Loved One's Ashes Into A Beautiful Diamond

November 8, 2014

When your time on Earth is over, how will you be honored? A new trend has people skipping out on the traditional burial funeral for something a little more glamorous - turning into a diamond.

A finished diamond. The color comes from the amount of boron in the ashes / algordanza

Swiss company, Algordanza, provides a service where the cremated remains of a loved one convert into a diamond. The diamond can then be used in jewelry or kept in a collection.

"A Memorial Diamond symbolizes love, loyalty and respect for loved ones who have passed away," Algordanza says on their website. "The process of creating a diamond funeral has generated a completely new way of saying goodbye to our beloved deceased - one that is modern, full of promise and filled with peace."

So how do they do it?

First, the carbon is extracted from the cremated remains. The human body is about 18% carbon, and about 2% of that remains after the cremation process. This is the carbon Algodanza uses to make their diamonds, and filters out of the other materials via a chemical process. The carbon is heated and turned into graphite, the material found in pencils. 

algordanza

The graphite is heated to 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit and subjected to as many as 870,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. The result of this process, which mimics a process deep in the Earth, is a diamond that ranges from white to dark blue in color. The color variation depends on the amount of Boron in the ashes.

algordanza

The diamond is then cut and polished.

algordanza

(H/T) ViralNova. You can learn more at Algordanza.ch.

Turning a loved one's ashes into a diamond is not a cheap process, but it's comparable with the cost of an average funeral. This process will set you back about $4,500.

Would you want to me made into a diamond?