Back in March of this year, I purchased an E6 (slide film) home developing kit from the Film Photography Project so that I could try making my own slides from the box of RetroChrome film in my fridge. I'll be honest here, I started developing my own film a while ago because it is much less expensive than mail order. I gradually dipped my toe in home developing when I read about caffenol developing several years ago and have progressed to other types of developing. I previously had a reliable develop-only option available at the local CVS, but they stopped in-store processing last year. The other local option is Walmart, which no longer returns your negatives, which I would scan on my Epson V500 Photo.
After having success with caffenol, Kodak D-76, and a couple of Unicolor C-41 kits, I wanted to try E6 processing at home - the cost of 1 mail order roll of slide film processing is almost as much as the kit costs, but I would be able to develop more rolls myself with the kit. I was really excited when I pulled the first rolls of slide film out of the tank to see beautiful positive images and couldn't wait to get them into slide mounts and project them. I scoured Craigslist for an inexpensive slide projector, finding a Vivitar 3000AF model with two extra trays and an extra bulb for $25. The drive to get the projector was over an hour away, but with the assurance of the owner that it was fully functional, Brenda I drove to Marysville, PA for the purchase. I was a bit annoyed that the owner wouldn't stop talking about the projector, when I had already told her that I wanted to buy it. Just take my money already and let us be on our way!
Now that we had the projector and fresh slides, I invited a friend of mine up for a home slide show and asked her to bring along some slides of her artwork that she had made years ago. Everything was great with the projector and the slides, but our makeshift screen from a large piece of foam board left a little to be desired. So, that evening, I was back on Craigslist looking for a portable projection screen and found one for $20. We picked it up along our Sunday drive around Lancaster County the next day.
The last thing I needed was more slide mounts - I bought a box of 500 Hama DSR one piece plastic mounts, which are very easy to use. I will be able to mount about 20 rolls of film with those, and I plan to be on the lookout for old slides at yard sales and flea markets for future home slide shows.