Keeping my cowries in a good condition

[shelley]

I haven't had my cowries long and I've read about how sunlight and dust can ruin them. Is it okay if I keep them sitting on a silk or cotton cloth of some kind which I can then fold over to cover them (so they are wrapped up in bed!) Then I could just whip the top of the cloth off to reveal my pretty rows of shells. I would keep this on my wooden bookcase (but the shells would be touching the cloth not the wood and I live in England so it's not too humid). If they get dust on them is it okay to just use a microfiber cloth that you use to clean camera lenses? If you have any other ideas about how I can keep my 20 very large cowrie please let me know. I found those display boxes but they would work out ridiculously expensive for me! Thanks for any help.

[dave r]

Hi again, that sounds fine. As to dusting, any soft cloth will do.
The other alternative is to keep them in a set of drawers, when I first started collecting I used to buy second-hand bedside cabinet or wooden office type sets of drawers and keep them in those. Now there are way too many so they are all in steel Bisley filing cabinets or wooden display cases, the light levels are quite low in my study so fading is not too bad a problem. BTW I am not far from London, in N.W. Kent.
Dave

[dave r]

Just certain types like Oak that have a lot of acid in them.

[dave r]

Oak is fine as long as it is very old, all the acid vapours will have gone after about 20 years. Other things <u>not</u> to use are hardboard, chipboard or MDF (medium density fibreboard)all have acid residues from the glues used in their manufacturing. The best wood is good old fashioned pine!
Dave

[cheriluvs_shells]

The few seashells I have I keep in sealed plastic containers. This seems to work well.

[marlo]

I would suggest you review the several discussions about storage, woods, plastic boxes, etc. at:

<a href="http://z14.invisionfree.com/Conchologist_Forum/index.php?showforum=31" target="_blank"><!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://z14.invisionfree.com/Conchologist_Forum/index.php?showforum=31">http://z14.invisionfree.com/Conchologis ... owforum=31</a><!-- m --></a>

If your shells are dear to you and you hope to have and display them for many, many years, it would be worth the investment to acquire appropriate, glass covered display boxes.  Protects from damage too.  I keep a decorative cloth over my cases to protect from sunlight.  And, there's even a few items displayed on the cloth.  Just remove when you want to show them off.  If you've got a bit of gold invested in your collection, it's worth a little more to protect and preserve.