If you're interested in donating or trading sediments, contact me through the contact form, Instagram, or Facebook.
For donations/gift sands: I am usually (but not always) able to cover shipping costs through PayPal or Venmo, especially if you have samples I am very interested in. If you've never sent sands before, check out my page "How to Send Sands".
For trades: After you contact me, I'll email my spreadsheet of the extra sands I have available. Unfortunately, new tariff regulations by the European Union have made it very difficult to send sands to many European countries (many disappear in customs or require other fees); because of this, I do not currently send to countries in the EU unless the receiver understands that I am not liable for packages that are lost or held by customs.
For donations/gift sands: I am usually (but not always) able to cover shipping costs through PayPal or Venmo, especially if you have samples I am very interested in. If you've never sent sands before, check out my page "How to Send Sands".
For trades: After you contact me, I'll email my spreadsheet of the extra sands I have available. Unfortunately, new tariff regulations by the European Union have made it very difficult to send sands to many European countries (many disappear in customs or require other fees); because of this, I do not currently send to countries in the EU unless the receiver understands that I am not liable for packages that are lost or held by customs.
More information:
I usually collect in volumes of 10-30 ml (approximately 2 teaspoons - 2.5 tablespoons). You are welcome to send more than this; I give or trade any extra I have with other sand collectors. I am also starting to make educational sample packets for sand talks or to donate to classrooms.
I'm especially looking for:
• Rodolith gravel from Jeju-Do, South Korea
• “Pomegranate Beach”, Lake Baikal, Russia
• Greenland UV fluorescent sand
• Hormuz Island, Iran
• Skrova, Norway
• Falkland Islands
• Beirut and Byblos (Lebanon)
• Antarctica
My mailing address is:
8101 Boat Club Road
Suite 240 PMB 3127
Fort Worth, Texas 76179
I usually collect in volumes of 10-30 ml (approximately 2 teaspoons - 2.5 tablespoons). You are welcome to send more than this; I give or trade any extra I have with other sand collectors. I am also starting to make educational sample packets for sand talks or to donate to classrooms.
I'm especially looking for:
• Rodolith gravel from Jeju-Do, South Korea
• “Pomegranate Beach”, Lake Baikal, Russia
• Greenland UV fluorescent sand
• Hormuz Island, Iran
• Skrova, Norway
• Falkland Islands
• Beirut and Byblos (Lebanon)
• Antarctica
My mailing address is:
8101 Boat Club Road
Suite 240 PMB 3127
Fort Worth, Texas 76179
How to Ship Sand
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If you've never mailed sands before, there are a lot of ways to do it. Here are a few tips I've learned both from experience and from other arenophiles.
Include the location of where the sand was collected. GPS coordinates are ideal, however just the nearest town or county is good enough.
Know the legality of collecting. Some locations prohibit the taking of sands; please be aware of any legal restrictions for the place you intend to collect from.
Be sure your sample is as dry and clean as possible. To dry, lay out the sand on a cookie sheet or tray for several days or longer. Many countries regulate sediments because they can contain microbes or invasive plant matter; depending on how dirty your sample is, you may want to take any/all of the precautions:
- pick out as much organic material as possible;
- soak in an ethanol (rubbing alcohol) bath;
- heat treat in an oven;
- submerge in water, sift off floating debris, and dry thoroughly.
Be sure to identify each bag/vial. There are many ways to do this: you can print a sticker with all the information and put it on the outside of each bag, or you can print a slip of paper and put it into the bag with the sand. I like to put a general location (or identifying number) on the bag and then include a separate paper withSometimes labels written in marker rub off, so covering it with a piece of transparent tape is a good idea. a list of more detailed information on each specimen.
Pack securely. The most common way people pack sands is to seal the baggies and tape them flattened on a piece of stiff paper or cardboard and mail in a padded envelope. I use slightly larger sample bags, so the sands lie flat, then use masking tape (which is easy to remove) and tape them in a stack onto a piece of cardboard before putting them into a cardboard box with additional packing papers/bubble wrap.
For international shipments, ask the person you are sending the sand to how they would like the customs formed filled out. Some countries preemptively flag certain words such as sand and soil because soil especially may carry biologic/microbial pests. Usually a description such as "clean geologic samples for decoration" or "clean, free geologic specimen for study" is most accurate. As well, declaring a customs value of $0, even if it is a gift, typically arouses suspicion if it is a heavy box. Within the box, I also often include a note in both English and the receiving country's language indicating precisely how the sample has been sanitized and that it is a gift for education or decoration only.