Meet my babies

I think it is time to introduce my sand jars. This is pretty much the one thing that I collect, after a brief pencil-collecting stint in the early 90s. My coolest pencil came from the Smithsonian museum and had a clear body with tiny rocks inside.


I got the idea for the sand collection in a Martha Stewart Living magazine. They featured a photographer's home and in one room they had a huge collection of spice jars filled with sand from every beach their family had been to. Of course, their family had been to places like Greece and Russia and Croatia. Which I have not done so much.

This, to me, seemed like a great idea. It's a free souvenir, and I love going to beaches. Once I started the collection, it was amazing to see the differences between the sands. People who have traveled with me have been very patient with me and my burning need to get sand for my jars. Others have been so kind as to offer to bring back sand for me when they travel. One coworker even brought me back Irish sand from the Dingle Peninsula. I have decided after much thought, though, that I can't keep doing that. The jars have to represent beaches I've actually stood on myself.


So far I have sand from beaches in Alaska, California, Lake Michigan, Florida, Oahu, Kauai, Idaho, Utah, England, Gran Canaria, and British Columbia in about 40 jars. I would like to add sand from Greece, Croatia, New England, and the Bahamas to the mix. So if anyone wants to send me there I promise I'll take a picture of the resulting sand jars and send them to you.


So. What about you? Any other cool collections out there?

Posted in: travel