 A World of Sand www.aworldofsand.com Atelier NL To see a world in a grain of sand Explore the world in 348 samples of sand On a website, a white and pale blue map of the world is dotted by a growing number of digital pins Many are clustered in Europe but other locations are marked as well including Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Southeast Africa the Canary Islands, Iceland, Australia and the Americas Two text boxes at our upper left read About this project and Submit your sample We begin to navigate the website by zooming in on the Netherlands and activating a pin A sidebar opens revealing a photo of two women shoveling beach sand into a bucket under the title SampleLoonObsand-0001 More pins are activated providing sidebar photos and stories from Albania, Egypt, Croatia, Thailand, Spain, Iceland, Morocco and Kenya The story accompanying the Kenyan sample is typed out This is the most special place on earth to us as it is the place we call home Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake at the highest elevation of the Kenyan Great Rift Valley It is a very fertile volcanic area dominated by Mount Longanaut The lake is fed by the Malwa and Gilgill rivers and home to over 400 different species of birds and a population of hippos A magnified sand sample features brown, tan and translucent grains We flip through samples from Morocco, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, France and New Zealand The story accompanying the New Zealand sample is shared This black sand is really heavy because it contains iron I like the beauty of the variation of colors Blue, purplish, black, beige especially when there's a lot of wind it becomes a moving painting In summertime it's almost impossible to walk bare feet as the sand gets extremely boiling Small waves roll onto a dark sandy beach leaving behind small white shell fragments A magnified sample shows smooth, black, beige and translucent grains of sand We scan more samples from Thailand, the Netherlands, Tanzania, Indonesia, Morocco, Germany, Spain and Iceland The story in the Iceland sidebar reads This sand was collected in a beach near Vic in the south coast of Iceland Here everything seems like another planet Literally you will drive from grass fields to rocky mountains from sulfuric chimneys to endless field of volcanic ash from pristine springs to gigantic glaciers all along an endless coastline of black sand shaped by the force of the ocean A long, flat concrete bridge crosses a shallow river with wide banks of black sand A dark mountain looms nearby A magnified sample reveals glossy black grains of sand Since 2010, Atelier NL has been collecting wild sand from dunes, beaches, rivers, mountains and pories to melt into glass This way they'll reveal the unique colors and textures of the world and share the origins and stories of both sand and people from all corners of the globe A blonde woman with a bucket and shovel approaches a large conical sandpile being built by a raised excavation conveyor belt She begins to dig Another woman helps her shovel sand into a sealable bucket Labeled plastic bottles full of sand line two orderly shelves Every bottle is different and each sample is a different color A flag planted in a sand dune flaps in the wind Nearby, people approach three converted shipping containers on a vast sandy beach A sand sample is collected from a grassy dune Dozens of small white bowls containing sand samples line a table One bowl is weighed and sifted sand is added to another White powder is stirred into a sample The blonde woman and several colleagues work with and discuss the samples White bowls contain clear and dark glass We scan pins on the website from Kenya, the United Kingdom Aruba, Croatia, Sri Lanka and Belgium The story from Belgium reads Following an ancient Roman glass and sand trade route a sand collection journey that spans several countries in western Europe Using sand from quarries, beaches and other sandy areas we combine scientific documentation with storytelling revealing the complexity, temporal layers and the unique materials that characterize each type of sand Each sand has a story to tell lush trees surround a sandy valley floor The sun rises over the treeline bathing sandy trails and beds of wildflowers and beams of hazy light An intricate spiderweb stretches between the branches of an evergreen A magnified sample features translucent beige, brown and black grains of sand We scan the website again and open sidebars from the United Kingdom the Netherlands, Thailand, Morocco Spain and Mexico The story from Mexico reads This sand was collected outside of my mother's house in Mexico The beach here is constantly changing due to a heavy current from the Pacific that brings a big surf making the sea a dangerous yet powerful place Each day the tide brings in new sands and takes others away to a new and distant place The accompanying photo shows people strolling past open beach umbrellas A sample shows grains of sand in a variety of shapes, sizes and earthen tones Scanning the website we open sidebars from the Netherlands France, Italy, Thailand, Brazil and Sri Lanka The Sri Lankan story reads This is sand from a terrific laid back beach on the south side of Sri Lanka Big waves roll in but break on a reef Therefore you can safely stand in the warm water and sense the atmosphere When you overlook the waves you know that there is nothing between this beach and Antarctica some ships perhaps The accompanying photo shows piles of green seaweed on a narrow sandy beach The sand sample contains tiny grains and larger pebbles in a tan and light grey palette www.aworldofsand.com Atelier NL Movie Blikfanger Website Hey Hey De Haas