If you're reading this, you've probably just been to a funeral, or you're sitting at home with flowers that came back from one. They're somewhere in the house — in a vase on the kitchen table, maybe still wrapped on the side — and the thought of them being thrown away with the rest of the week's bin feels harder than it should.
You're not the first to feel that way. For many families the flowers feel like the last physical thing tying the day together, and what to do with them becomes a small, quiet question that no one quite knows how to answer. A resin robin is one of the answers families come back to most often.
The short answer
A resin robin memorial keepsake is a small, handmade figure of a robin — about the size of your palm — with real petals from the funeral flowers cast inside the clear resin body. The flowers are visible through the figure, not hidden behind it. Each one is made by hand, one at a time, in our UK studio by Julie.
Most families choose the robin because the robin already meant something — to them, or to the person who's gone. It sits on a windowsill, a mantlepiece, or a bedside table. Somewhere it gets seen every day, without being asked to do anything more than be there.
Image placeholder — a finished resin robin keepsake catching morning light on a windowsill, with petals visible inside the figure
"When a robin appears, a loved one is near"
There's a line you'll hear a lot in the UK around bereavement: when a robin appears, a loved one is near. Folklorists trace versions of it back centuries, and most British families have a version of their own — a robin in the garden the morning after a funeral, a small brown bird at a graveside that refused to leave, a robin on the fence on the anniversary of a parent's death.
It isn't a religious belief, exactly, and it isn't quite superstition — it sits somewhere between the two. A quiet, almost wordless way of holding onto someone, in a culture that doesn't always make much room for that.
That's why the robin is the most-requested figure in our memorial range. Families aren't choosing it because it's the largest or the most striking — they're choosing it because the robin already had a meaning for them. The keepsake just gives that meaning somewhere to live.
What the keepsake actually is
The robin is small enough to hold in one hand, and you don't need to look for the flowers — they're set throughout the body of the figure, not just placed under it.
The figure is 8cm tall and around 10cm long including the tail. It's a solid resin casting — clear enough to see the petals from any angle, weighted enough to sit firmly on a flat surface without tipping over. There's no battery, no glass dome, nothing fragile to be careful with. It doesn't have to be dusted carefully or kept out of the light. It sits where you put it, and the flowers stay where Julie placed them.
"Can we use any flowers? Even ones that have been sitting for weeks?"
The honest answer is yes. Funeral flowers rarely arrive in perfect condition — by the time the service is over and you've remembered the bouquet is still in the back of the car, several days may have passed. Petals will have curled; roses will have opened all the way and started to drop; foliage will have dried out. None of that stops us using them.
We work with flowers in almost any state, including bouquets that arrive two or three weeks after the funeral. Every petal and bloom is dried and prepared individually before it goes anywhere near the resin. If something is too damaged to use well, we'll tell you, and we'll work with what's left. The whole reason these flowers matter is that they were there. If you're worried they've waited too long, please email us and ask — we'll be straight with you.
How the process works, slowly
There's no rush in any part of this. Many families wait several weeks before deciding what to do, and the work itself takes time too — it isn't something you'd want done overnight.
- You place the order. That fixes your place in Julie's production queue. The flowers don't have to be ready yet; you can send them when you are, even if that's a month later.
- You post the flowers to us. Royal Mail Tracked is fine. We send packing guidance — and we don't need the vase or the wrapping, just the blooms.
- The flowers are dried and prepared. Julie sorts through every petal and bloom by hand. Some will be used whole, others opened up and laid flat. The aim is to keep the colours and shapes that mattered, not to fit everything in.
- We send a design photo before casting. This is the design-approval step. You see what Julie has planned, and you tell us if you'd like anything moved, added, or held back. Nothing is sealed inside the resin until you've said yes.
- The robin is cast. Resin is poured in layers around the flowers, so the petals sit throughout the body of the figure, not only at the base.
- It arrives. Carefully packaged, ready to take out of the box and place somewhere it will be seen.
Full turnaround is typically a number of weeks. We give you a date when you order, and tell you straight away if anything changes.
Robin, frog, or dog — when each one feels right
The robin is the most-requested figure, but it isn't the only option. The same casting process is used for a frog and for a dog, all three priced the same.
| Figure | Often chosen when… |
|---|---|
| Robin | The robin already meant something — folklore, a garden visitor, a card someone always sent. The natural choice for many UK memorials. |
| Frog | The person being remembered had a connection to frogs, ponds, or garden wildlife. Sometimes chosen for a child's memorial too. |
| Dog | The flowers came from a beloved dog's passing, or the person being remembered was a lifelong dog owner. |
If none of those feel right, our wider funeral flower preservation collection holds the other shapes families ask for — resin hearts, photo frames, acrylic shadow boxes, paperweights, and crosses.
Image placeholder — the three figure options — robin, frog, dog — shown side by side on a neutral background, each containing different preserved flowers
A note on timing, and on cost
There is no deadline, and you don't need to decide today. We work with flowers weeks after the funeral. We've worked with families who held onto the bouquet for a year before they felt ready to send it, and with people who ordered before the service had happened, because they knew they would want this and didn't want to be making decisions in the days afterwards. All of those are normal.
The resin robin sits at the lower end of our memorial range. We keep all UK pricing on the product page itself — we don't have "contact us for a quote" pages — and the full breakdown of how memorial pieces are priced is in our UK flower preservation cost guide. Many families order a robin as a complete keepsake on its own; others use it as one piece in a set from the same flowers — a robin for the windowsill, a small resin heart for a child, a paperweight for the desk at work. None of that needs deciding now.
Caring for the keepsake
Once you have it, there's almost nothing to do.
- Wipe gently with a dry cloth if it gets dusty.
- Normal daylight is fine. Strong direct sunlight, day after day across years, can warm resin slightly — most families never notice, but if your windowsill gets full afternoon sun, the back of the room is kinder long-term.
- Don't put it in the dishwasher. It's resin, not glass, and it's solid.
- It will outlast most ornaments in the house.
FAQs
Will the flowers look exactly as they did at the funeral?
No, and we'd rather tell you honestly than have you expect a copy. Real flowers change once dried — colours can deepen, soften, or warm; whites tend to shift slightly towards cream; reds tend to darken. The petals keep their shape but lose their freshness. What you receive isn't a photograph of the bouquet; it's the bouquet, kept.
Can you use flowers from a coffin spray or wreath, not just a bouquet?
Yes. Coffin sprays, wreaths, casket toppers, the flowers people brought to the wake — all can be used. If something has been treated heavily with floral preservative spray, please let us know; it can affect the drying, but rarely stops us using the flowers.
What if there isn't enough left to make a robin?
If there genuinely isn't enough — for example, only a handful of petals survived — we'll suggest a smaller piece instead, like a resin heart or a charm. Julie will tell you what's realistic before you commit. We won't take on an order we don't think will turn out well.
Can a robin be made with flowers from more than one person's funeral?
Yes. Some families combine flowers from a parent's funeral with flowers from a grandparent's. Some include a small amount from a partner's funeral alongside their own wedding flowers. It's an unusual request, but a meaningful one, and we handle it carefully.
Do you make these for pets too?
Often, yes. The dog figure was created partly for this reason — for flowers from a pet's burial or memorial. The robin and frog are used as pet keepsakes too. The same process and the same care apply.
Can I send the flowers without telling you whose they were?
You don't need to share anything you don't want to. Some families tell us the whole story; others send the flowers with only an order number. The work is the same either way.
If you'd like to see the keepsake itself, you can view the resin robin memorial keepsake here, or browse the wider funeral flower preservation collection for the other shapes families ask for.
If you'd rather start with a question — whether your flowers are still usable, or what other pieces might suit them — you can email us directly. Julie reads everything that comes in, and we'll reply gently and in your own time.
Every Artisan Palace memorial keepsake is handmade in the UK by Julie. We've been preserving wedding and funeral flowers since 2023, with more than 2,000 orders completed across our Etsy and Shopify stores, and over 300 verified reviews. Read more about Julie.