Ta-dah! The jar of sands!

I'll start saying that I'm so proud of this project it makes me want to lock myself home, deactivate all my social media, turn off the phone and spend the rest of my life sitting on the floor and staring at it until I starve to death.

I'm joking.

During my eight month travelling on board Silver Cloud I've collected samples of sand from beaches and deserts around Europe, Africa and Asia with the idea, once back home, of layering them in a jar and see what could come out of it. Sand is such a fascinating and artistic matter, it comes in an infinity of colours and shades and once layered it can reveal subtle patterns and nuances you would never notice in normal circumstances.

Soon my idea of the "jar" seemed a little restrictive because after four months I had already collected 12 different samples... Towards the end of my contract on board I've made a selection, letting go the less interesting ones colour-wise and texture-wise. When the moment to fly home arrived I showed up at Athens airport with more than two kilograms and a half of sand wrapped in transparent, labelled plastic bundles, in my hand luggage. Of course I got stopped and questioned at border control, the agent examinated the whitest packages and looked at me with a "Really?" face, making me feel like the creepy weirdo that I probably am.

Once back home I started to build up my project: I bought a tall glass container from Muji, I've organized the samples alternating colours and textures and started pouring the sands, levelling them carefully and removing pebbles and other bits to make the layers look as smooth and homogenic as possible (see pictures below). Once finished I cut labels from a black chalkboard tape from Paperchase and wrote the places of collection for every layer. The final result turned out to be even better than I had envisioned it! There is still space on the top and I want to add a final layer of sand I will collect when I'll travel to Portugal in July.

I hope I gave you a nice idea to create an object that would remind you of your travels everytime you look at it ;) Let me know if you have or have created any nice travel memorabilia artefact, I would love to exchange creative ideas on this space. Bye for now!