Do you love your dog enough to turn him into art and hang him on the wall?

Forget pet cemeteries and taxidermy. A California artist has come up with the ultimate tribute to a beloved family dog or cat – turning its ashes into a tasteful bas relief to be hung on the wall.

A former mortician's assistant who became a sculptor and painter, Danny Ortega had the idea of incorporating pet remains into his work after attending a Day of the Dead celebration in his native Mexico, when relatives honour their late loved ones each November.

"I realised that instead of having a dead pet in an urn you can have a custom made piece of art," he said. "I'm an artist and I recycle everything around me. I decided that if the Egyptians can do embalming, why couldn't I do something with cremated remains?"

He now runs a business in which a bereaved owner sends ashes and bone fragments, along with a pet biography, to his PO Box. He then produces an individualised tribute to the animals in the form of a unique framed artwork.