Sculptural Reflections
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Process
    • The Artist
  • Our Selection
    • Memorial Fine Art
    • Memory Hearts and Memory Spheres
  • Client Stories
  • Shop
  • Contact

CUSTOM-DESIGNED MEMORIAL FINE ART

Sculptural Reflections offers custom memorial fine art—Pedestal Memorials, Estate Art, and Custom Glass Sculptures—at a mastery level to clients seeking the ultimate artistic tribute to memorialize lost loved ones. Through custom designs, Chris Nordin, the founder and artist behind Sculptural Reflections, creates visual stories to forever celebrate and commemorate those held dear.

Chris provides not only beautiful fine art memorials but also an experience that supports each client in moving through the journey of grief. His process begins with attentive and respectful listening to each client as he learns about the person to be memorialized. From there, he collaborates with the client to design a tribute specific to the life of the lost loved one. No two art memorials are ever identical: each honors a unique combination of cherished remembrances.

As a master glass artist, accomplished blacksmith and fabricator, Chris contributes his design expertise to custom memorial fine art clients and his nearly limitless technical skills to render any creative vision. Through Sculptural Reflections, Chris dedicates his artistic virtuosity and passion for visual storytelling to delivering museum-quality memorial art, offering solace at a time of grief and celebration to ease sorrow.

Custom memorial fine art sculptures can include cremation remains, a small keepsake, a relic, a lock of hair, or simply your memories. To begin the design process, click the button below. All custom art requires a deposit of $500, which is applied as a down payment towards the final cost of your custom order. Once you have made your deposit, you will be sent a link to Chris’s booking calendar so that you can choose a time to meet with him for your personal consultation. Chris’s calendar shows dates for two weeks forward at a time. If you need more options than what you see there, please feel free to contact us to make your arrangements.

Pedestal Memorials and Estate Art

The Beehive

A beloved mother was known for her trademark beehive hairdo. A rendition of her style in shades of blue and purple reminds her family of her singularity and their love. The free-standing Estate Memorial of metal and glass has electricity to light the glass in the base.

The Lost Cabin

As a tribute to a multi-generational family cabin that burned to the ground in an unfortunate accident, the family sent Chris some of the ashes from the site to encase in this sculpture that is reminiscent of their shared time of ease and joy, connecting with each other and nature. Ashes are encased in every branch of the trees and the base is hand-carved.

Branch of the Family Tree

The client is an avid lover of nature and had this set of branches created in memory of his cherished daughter, son, mother and father. The large branches are hand-forged metal with cremation remains from his family members encased in the glass leaves.

Inspired URNS

A husband shared that his wife loved growing succulent plants and the Aurora Borealis. Chris Nordin was able to incorporate both in these glass Memorial Sculptural URNS. He encased some of the wife’s cremation remains in the body of the urns. There is space within for the loose cremation remains. The top of the urn can be sealed to the bottom. Chris creates unique urns based on inspiration and memories. 

Abstract Cross

A symbolic memorial cross was designed as a tribute to a woman’s husband. Though he was a religious man, she didn’t want the art to look like an actual cross. Cremation remains were encased in many of the interior elements of sculpted glass. The memorial cross is 4 ft. tall by 3 ft. wide and includes 50 pieces of radiating glass spires on a metal frame.

Fiddleheads Sculpture

Forged steel and sculpted glass fiddleheads include three 5-foot-tall branches. The memorial was installed in a hospital atrium to honor the woman who ran its healing arts program for 25 years. No cremation remains were encased, but simply memories of her and a plaque of appreciation for her long, determined dedication to helping others heal through artwork.

TAKE THE NEXT STEP

Custom Glass Sculptures

The Beloved Sunny

A beloved dog named Sunny’s favorite spot was always relaxing in a sunbeam. His “parents” adopted their puppy when they got married. He was a daily bundle of caring and love through many years until they finally had to say good-bye. The glass sculpture, with cremation remains encased, is the couple’s way of keeping him close in their hearts.

Strawberries

A daughter chose to memorialize her parents with the creation of glass stawberries, their favorite fruit of all the varieties of berries at their you-pick berry farm.

Amber Vessels

A father chose pinks and ambers for six memorial relic containment vessels to remind him of the son he lost. Each vessel, created for a different family member, contained a small lock of his son’s hair. They are permanently sealed.

Tree of Life

The hand-sculpted “Tree of Life” features cremation remains encased inside the pine tree’s trunk and branches. The client’s father grew a tree farm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Glass Spaceship

The Commemorative Ship was created for a 13-year-old girl who lost her father. It is a hand-sculpted glass spaceship with cremation remains encased in the body of the vessel. She was memorializing how she and her father would spend their time together exploring the world of alien spacecraft.

Wave on the Beach

The Cresting Hawaiian Wave was designed for a widow who remembered trips she and her husband took to Hawaii, where they once survived a hurricane together. They often walked the beaches and once had an amazing experience with a sea turtle. The base of the piece contains black sand from the Big Island.

Glass Acorns

Sculpted Glass Acorns were requested from a wife whose husband once kept a pet squirrel that he had rescued. The nuts are a reminder of her husband’s tenderness as he cared for the baby squirrel. The cage where he raised the squirrel to adulthood is now used to display the acorns along with a with a toy stuffed squirrel.

The Trumpet Player

A son had candlesticks created for his three sisters to commemorate their father, who was a professional trumpet player. Cremation remains are encased in the memory spheres below the trumpet mouthpieces.

Starfish Memorial

Remembrances of vacations spent hunting for starfish on the beaches where the client and her partner traveled inspired a starfish design with encased cremation remains.

Memorial Vase

As a reminder of his wife’s love of flowers and the joy she found in carefully arranging the bouquets he would bring home to her, a husband commissioned a vase in her favorite pink color. Cremation remains are encased in the vase’s body.

Memorial Murinni

Beautiful cherry wood is the backdrop for a framed memorial that features the Murinni Italian glass technique. Cremation remains are encased in each mini-Memory Sphere.

Memorial Pumpkin Urn

A woman familiar with artist Chris Nordin’s artwork commissioned him when she lost someone close to her. A glass pumpkin encased the cremation remains and is permanently sealed to hold her memories in a way that she finds most meaningful.

TAKE THE NEXT STEP

Contact

Sculptural Reflections
c/o Chris Nordin Studios Gallery
117 E. Ann Street Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Phone (313) 487-6276
Email nextsteps@sculpturalreflections.com

Contact Hours

Monday – Friday

9:00 am - 5:00 pm EST

Privacy Policy

© 2025 Sculptural Reflections Powered by Jottful