| Sand
Album
My chosen method for displaying my sand collection is to
use 10 ml test tubes, measuring about 100 mm long by 16 mm
diameter. These are housed in a custom-built storage and
display cabinet in the shed. Now, while this is fine most of
the time, I also wanted to have something more portable, to
be able to view my collection easily indoors without using
my main storage. This is what I came up with.
My sand album is based on the same storage method used
for 35 mm photographic slides. First of all you will need the following
materials:
- Card or plastic 35 mm glassless slide mounts
- Roll of 50 mm wide double sided carpet tape
- Slide storage ring binder
- Slide storage insert pages for binder
- optional - 50 x 50 mm self-seal polythene bags
Start of by cutting a small piece of the double-sided
carpet tape to fit inside the slide mount, the approximate size is
slightly less than 50 x 50 mm but check the actual slide mounts you have to make
sure as brands can differ widely. Peel off one side of the double-sided tape and fix it
inside the mount. Leave the backing attached to the other
side of the tape. Assemble the slide mount taking care not
to touch the sticky side. Make sure the tape does not foul
any of the plastic clips that are used to secure the two
halves of the slide mount together.
Next, sprinkle some sand onto the sticky side of
the slide mount and gently press to make it adhere well to the tape. Don't press too hard or the sticky
tape will come out. Gently tap the slide mount to remove
excess sand. The next step is to press together the slide
mount, and then label them. An optional step is to
place the finished mounts inside a small self-seal polythene bag. This will protect
the slide mount and contain any sand that comes loose.
You could use a simple piece of card rather than the slide
mounts but the benefit of using slide mounts is that the
sand is at least partially protected by the depth of the
mount. The last task is
to place the complete slide mount into one of the pockets in
the album. |
