https://casketkit.com/blogs/news.atomfiddlehead casket company - In the News2022-06-28T12:23:14-03:00fiddlehead casket companyhttps://casketkit.com/blogs/news/from-the-archives-fiddlehead-casket-kit-diy-casket-coffin-kit-intro-20182022-06-28T12:23:14-03:002022-06-28T12:34:55-03:00FROM THE ARCHIVES: fiddlehead casket kit DIY Casket / Coffin Kit INTRO (2018)Jeremy Burrill
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https://casketkit.com/blogs/news/ctv-news-diy-casket-by-fiddlehead-casket-company2022-06-28T12:22:20-03:002022-06-28T12:38:51-03:00CTV NEWS: DIY Casket by fiddlehead casket companyJeremy Burrill
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https://casketkit.com/blogs/news/live-webinar-diy-casket-kit-webinar-green-burial-and-stories-of-finding-peace-in-building-a-pine-casket2022-06-08T10:52:34-03:002022-06-28T12:40:58-03:00Live webinar: DIY Casket Kit Webinar - Green Burial and stories of finding peace in building a pine casketJeremy Burrill
Presented by Jeremy Burrill, lead craftsman and owner of fiddlehead casket company, this webinar features stories of people who have invested in and built the pine casket kit. These simple pine caskets are for often themselves or a loved one, and are sometimes wonderfully customized to suit personality.
The presentation will also include instructions on how the casket kit works, a pine “flat packed” kit that ships direct to your door. With options for a version that allows the casket to be used as a bookshelf as well, this webinar will be of interest to anyone who wants to take control of at least one piece of their resting place, whether for sooner or way down the road.
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https://casketkit.com/blogs/news/cbc-news-in-a-final-act-of-love-this-woman-built-her-wife-a-casket2019-06-07T04:23:00-03:002022-04-20T11:02:29-03:00CBC NEWS: In a final act of love, this woman built her wife a casketJeremy Burrill
Heather Nicholson wanted to send her wife 'off in style'
Heather Nicholson wanted to send her wife 'off in style'
As Heather Nicholson prepared to say goodbye to her partner of 22 years, she set up sawhorses, and made her Oromocto, N.B. living room into a workshop.
She was preparing to build her wife, Heather Morley, a casket, as a final act of love.
"When you're grasping at straws, it's wonderful to have a task to do, and I'm kind of task-oriented. So I'm really grateful," she said. "It was wonderful to do it."
'I won the jackpot with Heather'
Over two decades earlier, Nicholson met Morley at a conference in Salt Lake City. The pair bonded over sharing a name. "She and I were outside smoking, and our nametags both said Heather, and that's how the conversation started."
The rest, Nicholson says, was history.
"So what happened was I won the jackpot with Heather, and I got 20 years."
In 2008, Morley was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, an inflammatory lung disease that causes long-term breathing problems. Nicholson was in the room when the doctor delivered the diagnosis, and immediately started to cry.
"And Heather's thought was 'I'll be fine, I can do this'," she said. "It took a longer time for [the situation] to be recognized by her."
Last year, as Morley's condition worsened, it became obvious she would need palliative care.
"The kicker came when she couldn't put her socks on, and she said 'Honey, I need some help,'" said Nicholson.
Casket kits
With her wife in palliative care, Nicholson began looking for support to prepare for her death. One of those supports, a death doula, suggested a Fredericton, N.B. business called the Fiddlehead Casket Company. They make casket kits, which would allow Nicholson to build her wife's casket.
The disease had robbed Morley of her independence, and there were few opportunities for the couple to feel in control, so for Nicholson, building and personalizing the coffin to honour her wife's life was one way to reclaim that control.
Nicholson bought a casket kit, storing it in her living room until she needed it.
"I said 'OK, the best place for this to be is where I'm going to need it ... It'll stay right here, behind the couch, underneath the windows.'"
On an evening in late April this year, the night before her wife died, Nicholson assembled the casket in the living room. Once it was built, Nicholson painted one side of the coffin lavender, so that friends and health care providers could write messages on the outside. The other side was a beach scene, to commemorate the happy times the couple had spent by the ocean. On the top, she painted a rainbow, to symbolize the colours of gay pride, topped with a strip of silver "because we're both older, wiser lesbians."
Building and painting the casket took Nicholson hours but the time she spent absorbed in the task was a welcome opportunity to focus her mind and prepare herself for the transition to come.
It helped me greatly, and I'm so glad we did it. It wasn't perfect, but perfection wasn't the point.- Heather Nicholson
"It helped me greatly, and I'm so glad we did it," said Nicholson. "And it wasn't perfect, but perfection wasn't the point. It's the love that went into it, that was the point of the painting and the putting it together and having it ready when she needed it."
Nicholson said watching her wife's coffin being carried away by the funeral home's retrieval vehicle filled her with "a sense of pride, and a sense of caring, in sending her off well."
- CBC Radio, Now or Never
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https://casketkit.com/blogs/news/ctv-news-via-canadian-press-n-b-woodworkers-do-it-yourself-casket-kit-allows-people-to-assemble-their-own-exit2018-02-07T14:21:00-04:002018-03-29T14:40:57-03:00CTV NEWS: N.B. woodworker's do-it-yourself casket kit...Jeremy BurrillIt has been called the Ikea of the coffin world: A ready-to-assemble casket kit.
FREDERICTON -- It has been called the Ikea of the coffin world: A ready-to-assemble casket kit.
New Brunswick woodworker Jeremy Burrill has been selling simple pine caskets locally for about two years, aiming to give people an affordable and more environmentally friendly option for their send-offs.
But when the owner of Fredericton's Fiddlehead Casket Co. decided to expand his business beyond the local market, he found shipping the coffins to be expensive because of their heft and size.
So, the entrepreneur came up with an unconventional solution -- a "stripped-down," do-it-yourself casket kit that could be easily assembled and shipped anywhere a delivery truck can travel.
Hence, the comparisons to the Scandinavian chain known for its ready-to-assemble furniture.
"It is like that, but there are no Allen keys to fuss with," Burrill said with a chuckle. "The response has been generally positive, but there have been a few people who have put their eyebrows up and been like, 'What? A kit for a casket? I'd never do that.'
"It's just totally not their thing, but a lot of people say, 'Oh that's what I want -- just give me something simple and don't make a big fuss about it."'
Burrill came up with the kit idea after he started getting inquiries for his rudimentary caskets from people in the United States, B.C., and other parts of Canada. He discovered that the cost of shipping the plain boxes would be about $1,000 -- roughly the same cost of his already assembled coffins.
He fiddled with the design of his assembled casket and came up with one that could be put together on the receiver's end in about a half an hour, though he says he can do it 10 minutes or less.
He's been marketing the $700 kit for about two weeks, and has already had orders from B.C. and Ontario.
Burrill said he also wanted to expand the reach of his business, since funeral directors were constrained by contracts that didn't easily allow them to buy caskets from anyone other than two big suppliers.
"There were a lot of barriers and a lot of them just didn't get it and would say, 'Why would anyone want that, why wouldn't they want one of these fancy hardwood ones like I have?"' he said, adding that a conventional casket can start at around $2,000.
The 35-year-old woodworker says the biodegradable, all-wood kits include 10 pine panels, 38 cherry pins for joinery and a rubber mallet. They do not have any metal and are joined with wooden pegs.
His assembled caskets include cotton cushioning filled with wood shavings to minimize waste and were inspired by a relative looking for a simpler coffin than what they found at local funeral homes.
He said his family asked him to make one for his grandfather, a cattle farmer who died last year. Burrill said he added a personal touch to the casket by writing an expression on the inside that his grandfather used to say "as a bit of a farewell."
"I carried it in and out of the church so that was a bit different, I mean, the emotions around that," he said. "Looking back on it, I was proud to have been able to do that for him."
-- By Alison Auld in Halifax
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https://casketkit.com/blogs/news/global-news-do-it-yourself-casket-kit-adds-life-to-new-brunswick-woodworker-s-business2018-02-06T14:00:00-04:002018-03-29T14:41:33-03:00GLOBAL NEWS: Do-it-yourself casket kit adds life to NB woodworker’s businessJeremy BurrillA New Brunswick woodworker has designed a “do-it-yourself” casket kit to alleviate funeral costs.
A New Brunswick woodworker has designed a “do-it-yourself” casket kit to alleviate funeral costs.
Woodworker Jeremy Burrill of Fredericton says he is a no-nonsense kind of guy, which is likely why his business mantra sounds like it was taken straight from an old-fashioned country song. “Just bury me in a pine box,” said Burrill, who owns theFiddlehead Casket Co.
Burrill said he wanted to give people a simpler, cheaper and more environmentally friendly option for their end of life send offs. He started handcrafting old-fashioned pine box coffins from his workshop in Fredericton, kind of like the ones used in the old west.
“They are fastened with wooden dowels so there are no screws and no metal or anything in it,” Burrill said.
The caskets sell for roughly $700 and even the bed lining is made of wood shavings. So so every part of the coffin is biodegradable. Over time, Burrill says, those who use the caskets will “just go back to the earth.”
Since starting his coffin business about two years ago, Burrill has sold only his environmentally-friendly coffins locally. He wanted to come up with a way to expand his business and market it outside of New Brunswick.
“To ship a standard sized casket, they are big and heavy and quite costly,” Burrill said.
A couple of weeks ago Burrill developed a solution: an easier to ship, do-it-yourself casket kit.
The kit comes with simple instructions so that customers can build their own caskets.
It’s only been two weeks and Burrill has already sold two units to clients in British Columbia. The pine boxes will arrive neatly packaged and ready for what is apparently a pretty quick assembly.
“Anyone can do it in a half an hour I did one the other day in ten minutes,” Burrill said.
And the caskets can either be used immediately or saved for when needed, he said.
"Some people have said, 'I like your casket, but I'm not passing away anytime soon, but this is what I would like. So what do we do in the meantime, can you store it for 20, 25 years?'"
Burrill doesn't offer storage for customers who decide to buy before their time, but his kit can fit under most beds.
"This way, they can have that decision made, order it, and then it's there."
The kits sell for $699 plus tax and come with 10 pieces of pine, 38 cherry wood dowels and a hammer.
Someone up to six feet five inches tall and up to 280 pounds can get one.