Help with making ball shells, with a morbid twist

[FlaMtnBkr]

So my mother in law had a genetic form of breast cancer and unfortunately decided to ignore the signs and long story short she passed away late Tuesday night after a 5 month battle. Her wishes were not to have a funeral and to be cremated and then her ashes spread on a family trip. My wife and her brother decided they wanted to have a small bbq with family to remember her and tell stories. Out of the blue my wife's brother asked her "do you think Ryan would be weird-ed out if I asked him to put mom's ashes in some fireworks?" Now I have heard of a few people doing this and even mentioned it to my wife in the past. But now that I have been asked to do this somewhat morbid task I have some questions since there isn't much info out there on this.

 

I have made various 3" and 4" ball shells both paper and plastic. I can think of a few ways to go about doing this. One would be to mix the ashes into an actual star formula. Downside is I don't know how they will burn and I don't want to do a lot of experimenting with a limited amount of ashes. Second option is to mix some ash in when assembling the shells. I usually use a flash bag and fill any spaces between stars with polverone. I was thinking putting a little less BP and adding in the ash. The only problem I can foresee is that the ash could act like a heat sink and insulator not allowing all the stars to take fire. So my last thought is make a nice variety of shells like normal. Then also make a handful of 3" salutes and then attach another 3" shell that is completely full of ash and make something that looks similar to a 'peanut' shell. I think a 3" salute will do a good job of spreading the ashes and the second shell will hold a decent amount of ash, at least quite a bit more than I could squeeze into a 4" shell. From what the guy at the crematory showed me, there will probably be about a half gallon container of ash so I am probably looking at making at least 10 3" 'peanut' salutes.

 

So that is where I am at right now and no, this is not a joke. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas I would like to hear them. But please be serious as I am taking this serious and only doing it because I was asked to do so by a family member.

 

Thanks!

[Trippiej!]

You also could make a nice 3" shell, paste it, then fill up some 4" hemi's with the ash and gently fit the 3" in there without spilling too much. Just another pastewrap would do the trick.

 

I've seen this method on some rip-off commercial 3" rocket headers which actually contained a smaller 2" shell in it, with the rest filled up with rice hulls.

 

OR you could build some can shells and fill the gaps between the wall and the stars with some ash instead of wood dust.

 

I think it's more 'satisfying' when you have the idea that the ash is actually part of the 'effect' rather than sitting on top of a salute. Therefore some amounts of ash could be tossed in to the shell before closing, although i don't know if it will affect the effect.

 

Another thing, you could also just test some compositions or devices containing a certain amount of wood ash or some beef that you've burned with a torch to ash.

 

Good luck with your project.

 

By the way, my granny past away some time ago and i remember her ash was something about 4-5 kg.

Edited December 9, 2011 by Trippiej!

[Mumbles]

There are a few more common ways that ashes can be introduced into a shell. As already mentioned one of the more common and more benign ways is to use it as a packing material instead of saw dust between inserts or comets. It can also be used to cut the flash powder. 5-10% wont affect the performance much. I've heard of others mixing in a little of the ashes into formulas, or into burst. I'd imagine not a lot of this is used.

 

As a suggestion, make sure you can do this in a way to honor her. In my opinion the shells they're introduced into should in some way honor or remember the person. Also make sure they're serious about this.

 

If you want to practice, ash from charcoal grills or a campfire probably wouldn't get you too far from the real deal.

[TrueBluePyro]

I remember reading people doing this somewhere, But I think a 8" salute or something like that would need to be done if you wanted to do it this way.

[Mortartube]

Hi guys.

 

Firstly I would like to say that I'm sorry to hear about the news of your mother in law.

 

I have put ashes in rocket headers. I would like to say that they are quite heavy and there is a lot of volume to them. The ashes I had to put into rockets came in (and almost filled), a similar plastic container to the sweets that the newsagent weighs out and puts in a paper bag for you. 4 to 5 kg is not an unreasonable figure.

 

 

I placed portions of ashes in separate thin plastic sandwich bags and removed some of the stars to make room for them. If you have enough shell cases and chems, it might be an idea to make some shells that contain only ashes and a blowing charge, and fire them amongst colour shells and rockets.

 

I am unsure if they are still available and if they were cat 4, but Essex Pyrotechnics did sell funerary rockets, where the header was empty ready to receive ashes. I believe that you simply put the ashes in the empty header, pop on the cap and they are ready to fire.

[Mortartube]

Hi guys.

 

Firstly I would like to say that I'm sorry to hear about the news of your mother in law.

 

I have put ashes in rocket headers. I would like to say that they are quite heavy and there is a lot of volume to them. The ashes I had to put into rockets came in (and almost filled), a similar plastic container to the sweets that the newsagent weighs out and puts in a paper bag for you. 4 to 5 kg is not an unreasonable figure.

 

 

I placed portions of ashes in separate thin plastic sandwich bags and removed some of the stars to make room for them. If you have enough shell cases and chems, it might be an idea to make some shells that contain only ashes and a blowing charge, and fire them amongst colour shells and rockets.

 

I am unsure if they are still available and if they were cat 4, but Essex Pyrotechnics did sell funerary rockets, where the header was empty ready to receive ashes. I believe that you simply put the ashes in the empty header, pop on the cap and they are ready to fire.

 

http://www.excelsior-fireworks.com/

[Mortartube]

Sorry for the double post and as you are probably in the USA forget the link. It was morning when I posted this and thought I was on the UK forums. I get confused easily Edited December 9, 2011 by Mortartube

[Arthur]

This while not common, does happen in the UK. As a DIY project Start with your competences and equipment, Shells or rockets? And what size mortars do you have.

 

I'd consider firing a few fireworks as a show but with one carrying the ashes with only a break charge, now whether this "one" was a cylinder or ball shell depends on your preferences -you'll have to make it reasonably quickly.

 

Suggestion! A couple of nice commercial cakes -say 2 minutes total, a finalé of 4" shells and have a 4" cylinder shell open at one end ready to receive the ashes and tie down. Just fire it in the finalé. Put the ashes up to 500ft or so, then they will blow with the wind and disperse adequately before reaching the ground.

 

If you want to go the rocket route you are going to need a few rockets to carry that load, but just get some big rockets and fire them some filled with stars and some with ashes.

[ryanlg95]

I too, am sorry for your loss.

I may be way off with this, but aren't ashes carbon? So could you replace the charcoal in the burst charge and star compositions with the ashes? It may not be just carbon, so I might be wrong.

[Mumbles]

Ash is what is left over after combustion of something. It essentially is composed of all the minerals or inorganic parts such as calcium, sodium, and potassium. They're primarily there as oxides, carbonates, sulfates, and phosphates. It will not work in place of charcoal. Charcoal is carbon plus a little incompletely combusted wood and volatiles in addition to the ash content. If one were to be really be interested in utilizing ash in an effect, it might be easiest to use it as a glitter delay agent.

 

There are a few commercially available fertilizers that may make things easy to practice with like bone ash. That could probably be mixed with something like potash or ash left over from a bonfire or charcoal grill to approximate the composition of cremains.

[Timm]

I'm pretty sure Hunter S. Thomposon had his ashes treated the same way, pasted up in a big-ass shell by some italians and shot over his property in Colorado.. finer points left unfiled.

 

I have put tiny amounts of my then-brother-in-law-ish's earthly remains in multiple batches of beer, mushroom compost, and soilless indoor potting mix, was always one to help out. Not much woulda made him happier. And possibly powder but i don't remember doing so, would have made a bit less sense without the direct cycle of life involved, despite the tinge of outlaw status..

He was a really cool guy.

 

But I knew what would really make him smile.. A time after he had gone, passed through the mirror of waters, There was a fair-sized earthquake under a couple miles of seawater, many more away, after which the standard concern of oblivion runs through this peg-legged town.. And were it's doom (..again) so impending, I proposed that the vessel containing the bulk of his ashes be taken downtown, tossed in a skiff, spirited out into the channel, and his ashes broadcast onto the swell as it passes.. literally seconds before it stacked up into the tsunami that crushed the terrified heart of our salt-encrusted community. The helpless harbor, rent splintered.. All things washed away.

 

 

But no, despite the concern and vigil, nothing to show for such a display of elemental power than some strange tides and tired eyes.. bathtubs drained and emergency kits put away.

..I bet he smiled anyway.

 

RIP Louie

[californiapyro]

if I recall hunter s. thompson's wife said he asked her to do it because "he liked explosions" and they were fired from a 150-foot cannon