She said a woman had once come in who had lost her husband and she had been sleeping with his ashes but had been getting a sore arm from the weight of them.
"I suggested putting the ashes into a soft toy, which she liked the idea of."
She came back a week later saying that her husband would have a "fit" if he knew he'd been put in a toy so she asked to have him put in a tube to scatter.
"Grief is so different for everyone. People have different ways of coming to terms with a death."
On another occasion, they had spread ashes throughout a number of small tubes to be "keepsakes" for each family member; another woman's ashes were put in separate teddy bears for her niece and nephews.
Sleep said they had also explored the options of putting ashes underneath scented candles or made into paperweights.
"I am always hearing people say they didn't think they could do that when it comes to ashes."
Waihi's Andrew Killick had also heard the same thing.
Killick owned Laughing Pottery and regularly made pots, vases, and even birdbaths out of human and animal ashes.
"Some people feel funny about it, but we think it's quite a nice way to personalise a memorial."
Ash could be mixed into the clay and be virtually made into anything, he said.
