I forget the name of the spray stuff. I'm sure I got it at a craft store, but I
had contacted taxidermists first to see if THEY would mount it for me - they made
the spray suggestion. The molt has faded some, but the lacquer stuff brings out
the color. I glue-gunned it to the stained plaque (put hanger on first or risk
crushing your stuff!).
I have not preserved soft tissue things, and don't know anything about
formalin-sorry.
I preserved some fossil mollusks and leaves, but forget what I did (another good
reason to keep a journal!) - I used a solution and toothbrush to pick away the
rock and then coated the fossils with something (maybe my husband will remember)!
Shireen Gonzaga wrote:
> Katrina said:
>
> > Keep that molt!
>
> Oh yes, I have all of Mr. Fuzzy's molts. :-)
>
> > I even started to put them in a mold with resin so they could be
> > "handled." They make nifty paperweights and conversation pieces -
> > and are a lot sturdier too
>
> How is that done? Can you buy kits at craft stores to do
> stuff like that? I have some shells and fragile horseshoe crab
> molts I'd like to preserve. And I guess it could also be useful
> for preserved fish and aquatic plant specimens, for use in
> classrooms and such--is such a thing possible?
>
> Tangent: Nature has been doing it with amber for millions of
> years. I remember working on a story around the time Jurassic
> Park came out--scientists were able to extract partial DNA
> strands from an amber-preserved insect aged at about 200
> million years, found in Lebanon. Amazing!
>
> A related question, how much color information can be
> preserved in formalin when preserving fish specimens? Does
> it depend on the species, or the pigments that cause the
> color?
>
> > I have a huge King Crab molt that my husband and I brought to WA
> > from Canada and I mounted it on a plaque and sprayed it with a
> > protective coat just like the taxidermy guys do and it is really cool!
>
> That sounds really neat! What kind of protective coat do you
> use? I have some fragile molluscan and fish vertebrae fossils
> from the Calvert Cliffs formation in MD that could benefit from
> a dose of that spray.
>
> > The other good thing about the resin stuff is that if you use
> > a curved mold it magnifies them and you can then compare all
> > kinds of features that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise!
>
> Cool! I have to try that!
>
> - shireen
>
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