TO MAKE A MUSEUM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 17 April 1926, Page 16

TO MAKE A MUSEUM.

Many children have collected pretty shells, and they will find them much more interesting if they start a minature museum with them. Arrange your sea shells, in some sort of order, in the bottom of a large shallow box, perhaps divided into compartments by little pieces of cardboard pasted upright. This is easily done by cutting strips of cardboard one and a quarter inches wide, then cutting the card, about half an inah up at intervals along one edge, and bending one ctit piece to one side, the next to the reverse side, to form a “stand,”- which can be pasted flat to the box. But to look their best, polish yorir shells so that they may be seen in their finest colourings. Rub each shell well with a wet rag dipped in powdered pumice-stone, then 'dip a soft pad of rag in oil and give the shells a good hard rub with this to complete the polishing. When nice and glossy, wash the shells thoroughly, and if you like, a few days afterwards, when,quite dry, paint them over with a thin coat of white varnish. If you want to add extra colour to your museum line the divisions with plain coloured paper, which throws up the pale shells wonderfully and makes many>of the dark ones more interesting.

Collectors of birds’ eggs, butterflies. coins, etc., will find a homemade museum very handy, for as specimens increase the best can be sorted out and arranged in better quarters.