'I built a coffin for my dad' - Sheffield craftsman pays tribute to father in unique way

After his passing, the 35-year-old set about making the perfect tribute, turning surplus stock from his previous projects into a special piece that he’s sure would fill his dad with pride.

"I’m a maker and designer, always a hands on kind of person – and that’s through doing projects with my dad," Ollie says. “I just thought this would be a pretty amazing thing to do and it was a project I could get stuck in to ahead of the funeral.

"It was something that would keep me going and keep my ADHD mind busy whilst I tried to figure everything out. I thought it would be amazing to do this for my dad, build something just for him.”

The coffin was made of solid oak, with cane and rattan details on the lid to reference his father Bill’s furniture shop in the 1980s. The handles were made from foraged beech timber from their local woodland.

Overall, Ollie spent around 60 hours designing and building the coffin, crafting it with love from a small workshop in his garden in Sheffield. The creating process, he says, presented him with an opportunity to reflect on fond memories with his father, who died in February, following a terminal cancer diagnosis.

"When I was making the coffin, I was remembering more and more things about my dad. It gave me that time to figure out who and where he was in my life,” he says.

Ollie is usually found designing wedding rings and crafting showroom furniture as the creative project manager at Sheffield-based jewellery businesses Jessica Flinn and Flinn and Steel. His wife Jessica Flinn-Allen was a huge support during his recent project.

“I am incredibly proud,” she says. “After his father's passing, Ollie knew he wanted to honour his memory in a unique and personal way.

“As someone who finds solace in working with his hands, he decided to create a handmade coffin for his father.

"Everyone deals with grief differently, my husband found comfort in the act of creating something tangible and pouring his emotions into it. Watching him put his heart and soul into this project was truly inspiring.”

Only now, several months on, is Ollie starting to process his father’s death and the effort he put into commemorating Bill, an army veteran and later furniture collector. "I was so proud to be able to share with everybody at the funeral, family and friends, that this is how much my dad meant to me – I built him this coffin. It was a way to celebrate him and his life.”