Jessica Maria Toliver opens up an artistically informed and at the same time deeply personal approach to the themes of death and remembrance. Her journey to designing urns is the result of numerous formative experiences – from end-of-life care for family members and hospice work, to an intensive engagement with materials and transience in her art.

For Jessica, the urn is a highly symbolic object: a condensed space of meaning and a "final home" with which one can ideally engage during their lifetime. With her T'URN collection, she deliberately develops a reduced, archetypal form, inspired by the motif of the egg – as a symbol of origin, transformation, and the cycle of life.

Her design approach is strongly material-driven. The starting point is paper or pulp, whose physical production process is as significant to her as the finished object. She combines natural materials, often from specific geographical contexts, with a clear, functional formal language. The urns are deliberately designed to be transient and reintegrate into the natural cycle.

Her understanding of design as a process is particularly formative: In workshops, she opens up the production of the urns to other people, creating spaces where grief can be actively processed. The physical work with material thus becomes a transformative, almost therapeutic experience.

Despite their artistic ambition, the objects never lose sight of their functionality – they meet practical requirements while also being designed to allow for closeness and to be present in everyday life.

In dealing with death, Jessica advocates for openness. For her, transience and beauty are closely intertwined, and conscious creative engagement can help to understand and accept loss. She sees her work as an invitation to engage with one's own farewell early and autonomously – not heavily, but sensuously, reflectively, and with a certain lightness.