I received my first shells from my cousin when I was five years old. They were interesting to me, even though they were quite common species. When I was nine years old, I received some more shells from my school assistant as a birthday present. Those included many interesting shells for me, some Cypraeas, Murexes, Lambis and Trochids. Of course, back then I didn't know anything about their Finnish or Latin names.

I found amazing shapes and textures which I had never touched before; it was like a whole new world of shapes for me, and after that I really became interested in shells and started collecting them.

I tried to get more shells, but in Finland it's very difficult to obtain any shells at all; I only found some shell baskets in local shops. But when I traveled to Gran Canary Island, my collection increased a lot. There were shells that I had never seen, very big surprises for me. I returned several times to the Canary Islands and I bought more and more new shells for my collection.

Six years later, I visited Rhodes in Greece and again obtained many different species. I had not imagined how many different species from other countries I could find. I mean special and more expensive species, specially prepared for collectors. I bought some real nice shells there: Cypraea aurantium, Cypraea hesitata, Haliotis rufescens and Syrinx aruanus.

I also found many new species from Fortaleza, Brazil during two trips I made, in 2005 and in January 2006 when I visited Femorale, which was the first real shell store I have been to.

I have moved my preferred families to a big wooden cabinet.
These species are ordered alphabetically by genus in the phyllogenetic order as much it's possible.