Which traces of an animal can be worked into jewellery?

The most common: paw print (laser-engraved, exactly as with a human fingerprint), whisker (embedded in resin or set beneath rock crystal), lock of fur (in a hollow setting), ashes (after pet cremation). Less often: claw print with birds, muzzle print with horses (the mouth being an accessible site of touch).

How does pet memorial jewellery differ from the human kind?

Technically, hardly at all - the same workshops, the same materials, the same processes. Culturally, however, the practice of mourning is younger and not yet as socially established as mourning for people. Families who have a pet keepsake made are often taking an individual decision not guided by tradition - which frequently makes the pieces more personal and freer in design.

Is pet cremation permitted in Germany?

Yes, at specialist pet crematoria. The legal rules for animal ashes are considerably more liberal than for human ashes - the obligation of cemetery burial does not apply. Animal ashes may be kept at home, scattered in the garden or worked into memorial jewellery. Most pet crematoria work directly with memorial jewellery workshops.

Which animals are most often remembered?

Dogs and cats are by far the most frequent - around 90 per cent of all commissions. Horses come third, often with a combined personalisation (whisker plus horseshoe symbol). Small animals (rabbits, rodents) are rarely recorded for memorial jewellery, because the bodily traces (fur, paw print) are small and not distinctive.

Pet Memorial Jewellery

Pet memorial jewellery transfers the personalisation techniques of human memorial jewellery to dogs, cats, horses and other companion animals - paw print, whisker, lock of fur or ashes as the link to an animal that has died.

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