Shell Collection: Pimp my Chiagra

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Pimp my Chiagra

An old post, but fun to post again.

On May 10th 2008 I was looking for a Lambis chiragra chiragra on the seminar in Antwerp. Unfortunately all specimens were too expensive or ugly. Then I found a small German stand who had a whole pile. All were coveren in lime. One of the shells immediately catch my attention. Unspite the thick layer of lime I could see it had to be a very nice specimen..

At home Meike and I cleaned the shell with a dental scraper, scourer and a bit of soap and see the result:

Regards,

Freek

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Welcome

Thank you for visiting my blog.

My name is Freek van der Kruk and I have been shelling since I'm 7 years old. It started with taking home buckets from the beach. After five years a big storm hit the Dutch shores and my collection was expanded with fossils, egg capsules and barnacles.

A few months after that I got my first shells that did not came from Dutch shores. The next summer I stayd with my grandmother. In my room I found a basket with all kind of shells. She said they were for me. The shells came from suthern Europe, Africa, Indo-Pacifics and Australia. She collected them on her travels.

From that moment my collection started to grow explosively. For Sinterklaas (the Dutch version of Saint Nick or Santa) I got a basket of tourist shells. On birthdays I got baskets, Family and Friends brought me shells and I scavenged flea markets looking for shells.

Some day I got a PC on my room (een 286, but I was very happy with it). In Windows 3.1 there was a programm "Kaartenbak" (some sort of cataloging programm). It helped me sort out my collection. During my schooling I got involved with programming in Access. It gave me much more possibilities. Now I could register my shells per specimen in stead of per species. I wanted to be able to look up the data and place of collection, who collected it, how I got it and much more. But I wanted more. My dream was to create a programm that would fit every collectors desire, maybe even international. After 10 years I had realized my dream. A working program that would fit every collector. It did have one problem. There was so much data to input, I was afraid I coulc never enjoy this treasure of data. I met other collectors and I learned that rarity isn't a constant factor. Stromus gigas used to be a very common shell, but is now off the market. Conus Gloria maris was very rare and expensive, but is now availabe for the common people. I realized I had to go back to the start. In 2008 we got a now computer with Office 2007. Access 2007 databases build themselves. You say: "I want a form!", and voila! Out of a few hundred data fields, a few dozen remained. I love it!

When I was 17 I showed my collection to my German aunt Dagmar. She asked me the name of the species, but I had to disappoint her. My only book was about European sealife with a hand full of shells. (I thought a Lambis chiragra was a REALLY BIG Pelican's foot... how naive). My aunt decided I needed a good book about shells. On my 18th birthday I found three boxes on the kitchen table. A big box, a medium box and a small box. I had to wait for my grandfather and -mother before I could open them. The big box was a color TV, the medium box a VCR and the small box was the Shell Encyclopedia by Kenneth Wye. The TV and VCR brought me much joy. The VCR was worn down through the years and I donated the TV to my brother when moving out, but I'm still using the book. Because it's a very well and clear organized book, it's still mu favorite.

In the end of 2006 I started the "Shelpenforum". It has grown to be the largest Dutch shelling bulletin board (http://schelpenforum.messageboard.nl/). Through this board I have met lots of other shellers.

In the mean time I have infecten my wife (Meike) also with the Shelling virus. In the beginning she liked everything, but had no favorite family. When she scrolled through my book she saw that Cypraea must be the biggest and prettiest family. She had found her favorite.

In 2008 I went to a professional shell shop for the first time. It was a selling day in Muzee (Sea museam) in Scheveningen. I used to think that many tropical shells would never end up in my collection, but here they were for sale.

In the weeks after that my hobby started to change shape. Single bivalves and damaged shells were thrown out of my collection and I started to favor Stromidae.

In May 2008 I went to my first seminar. It was in Antwerp and a large tennis hall was filled with rows of tables filled with shells. Allmost everything was for sale there. My plan to restict myself to Strombidae failed in moments. Meike kept faithfull to Cypraea, but I thougt all the other shells were to pretty...

In the months after we met a Dutch seller who has tought us very much about the hobby (and still does).

In October we went to another sale day at Muzee. Unfortunately this time it wasn't so great. Many damaged shells for high prices. I came home with only Cardiidae and Pectinidae (plus a Strombus given to me by a friend).

Two weeks later we visited the bi-annual seminar in Eindhoven. Here I bought many nice shells and my collection took it's current shape. I'm specializing in Cardiidae, Pectinidae (both Bivalves), Muricidae en Strombidae (both Gastropods). But when I find a pretty shell that does not meet these criteria, I also adopt it in my collection.

Kind regards,

Freek van der Kruk.

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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Pimp my Chiagra

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