[BCMA] Preserving Cedar Boughs?

Tue Mar 20 08:19:13 PDT 2012

It might, I’ve never done this. The problems with branches like pine, spruce, cedar etc. is stopping the needles from falling off. The sprayed on caulking glues everything together. You could try to freeze dry the branch, but you still need to deal with the falling needles problem.
Colin

From: bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com] On Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 1:45 PM
To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
Subject: Re: [BCMA] Preserving Cedar Boughs?

Colin,
What about freeze-drying?  Would this work?
Lynn Maranda

________________________________
From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. <bcma at lists.vvv.com<mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com>>
To: "'bcma at lists.vvv.com'" <bcma at lists.vvv.com<mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com>>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 11:00:40 AM
Subject: Re: [BCMA] Preserving Cedar Boughs?

I have not found a way to actually preserve the branches as this usually involves chemicals and a large cooking tank of some kind. But I have learned of a way to keep the branches from falling apart. It involves spraying the branches with a mixture of water and clear caulking. It does not preserve the branch but rather ‘glues’ it together to keep the branches and needles from falling apart. You can do this for large or small branches. The mixture goes on white but will dry clear. If you need to make large branches, collect your large branch and cut off each small branch close to the main branch (make sense?). the large main branch does not need to be sprayed with the glue mixture, but each small branch does. Once you have finished the small branches, you can re-attach these to the main branch by drilling a hole where you cut it off and insert with some white wood glue.
The branch will turn dark brown so you will need to paint the branch. Use an airbrush or some other small paint sprayer to coat the glued branches green, then touch up with artists paints.
You may find larger heavier branches want to curl, it is important that the branches have time to dry properly, this may take several weeks. Be sure the branches are hung or stacked in layers so as to form the final shape. I would suggest several branches be layered with paper in between and a piece of thin plywood on top. Cedar branches are kind of flat naturally and once they are installed in your exhibit would probably start to droop in a natural looking way.

You will need:
•         DAP Dynaflex 230 clear. (this can be found in your local hardware store, it is a caulking compound in a tube).
•         Spritzer bottles
•         A piece of stucco wire or chicken wire big enough to lay your branches on.
•         Artists paints (I have used ordinary latex house paint for the base color, just thin it a bit so you can spray it)
•         Poly film
•         Electric drill and mixer paddle

Build a frame with the chicken wire and set this over a sheet of poly to keep your floor clean.
Cut the end off of the tube and force the contents out into a bucket.
Add an equal amount of water.
Mix the two together and add water if needed to make the mixture the consistency of milk.
Pour this into the spritzer bottles
Lay your freshly cut cedar branches onto the wire frame and spray with the water/ DAP mix just enough to wet the entire branch. You don’t want to soak your floor with it, just the branch.
Allow the branch to dry by hanging it by its stem on a clothes line.
Each branch should be re-coated at least 6 times and up to 10 times.

If you have any questions please contact me at 250-818-6386 or at clongpre at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca<mailto:clongpre at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca>
Colin Longpre

From: bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com<mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com> [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com]<mailto:[mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com]> On Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2012 11:52 PM
To: bcma at lists.vvv.com<mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com>
Subject: Re: [BCMA] Preserving Cedar Boughs?

They are a fire hazard. We used them for Christmas decorations at various historic sites I worked at. After a month they were dry as tinder and shedding. At BVM went with synthetic as I recall. Design crew now deceased I believe so no lead on replicas unless current design crew have files etc. can also try Internet search.

Preservation or synthetic? Try RBCM people who worked with Jean Andre. They created artificial forest when Jean was Chief Designer.

Colin Stevens
Richmond BC

Sent from my iPhone

On 2012-03-08, at 12:33 PM, "Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv." <bcma at lists.vvv.com<mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com>> wrote:
Hello,

I am wondering if anyone out there has had any success preserving cedar boughs for long term use in exhibits. If so, any instruction would be kindly appreciated.

Thank you,
Erin Wright
Quatse Salmon Stewardship Centre
Port Hardy, BC
www.thesalmoncentre.org<http://www.thesalmoncentre.org>

_______________________________________________
BCMA mailing list
BCMA at lists.vvv.com<mailto:BCMA at lists.vvv.com>
http://lists.vvv.com/mailman/listinfo/bcma

_______________________________________________
BCMA mailing list
BCMA at lists.vvv.com<mailto:BCMA at lists.vvv.com>
http://lists.vvv.com/mailman/listinfo/bcma

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20120320/98b06105/attachment.htm 