Preserving Fruit

[Barewolf]

Hi,

Ok this may sound strange but....

Have you seen the plastic fruit you put in bowls for ornamental purposes? Well I want to try and preserve some real fruit but I cant seem to find anything on google when I try, it just comes up with preserving foods like Jam

Anyway, I have some Liquid Polymer here which I assumed would coat the fruit and harden to preserve it, but nothing has come up for this either on google.

Does anyone know if it is possible and perhaps where I could find more info?

I could just try it as a test but would rather find out the facts first and perhaps the techniques also.

Thanks.

[Graham M]

I would imagine unless you dry it out it's gonna rot no matter what you do to it, but if you dry it out obviously it's never going to look the same again.

[Barewolf]

I thought that Graham but im sure ive seen this somewhere where you can coat veg and fruit in a kind of resin, i just cant think where and i dont know the special name of this type of hobby.

[Kymmy]

It's just a simple clear resin... the fruit will eventually discolor but the lack of air and sealed enviroment will stop it from shrinking..

My brother used to do it as a kid with spiders, insects and scorpions he would catch in the fields

[alferret]

Originally Posted by Barewolf

Hi,

Ok this may sound strange but....

Have you seen the plastic fruit you put in bowls for ornamental purposes? Well I want to try and preserve some real fruit but I cant seem to find anything on google when I try, it just comes up with preserving foods like Jam

Anyway, I have some Liquid Polymer here which I assumed would coat the fruit and harden to preserve it, but nothing has come up for this either on google.

Does anyone know if it is possible and perhaps where I could find more info?

I could just try it as a test but would rather find out the facts first and perhaps the techniques also.

Thanks.

You have to much time on your hands my friend

[Barewolf]

Originally Posted by alferret

You have to much time on your hands my friend

LOL, indeed

[Ravenheart]

You could try contacting a local museum, I know taxidermy is used with animals but they might be able to give you some pointers in the right direction.

I know the Victorians used beeswax to preserve flowers.

[Kymmy]

Here's an article on insects in resin which might give you an idea or two

http://www.atshq.org/articles/rhysresin.pdf

[joglynne]

Not fruit but I experimented with fresh flowers some years ago as a client wanted some of her wedding bouquet included on a painting. I tried coating them in a thin layer of acrylic medium but their colour deteriorated quite quickly and I ended up drying some of her flowers and using them that way.
I remember flowers and things like harder items such as conkers embedded in clear resin blocks and I seem to remember you could buy craft kits to do it yourself. So you could see if there is anything you could use on the crafting sites baring in mind that the heat from anything that has to be melted, or generates heat as it hardens, will have a detrimental effect on anything organic.

[fireman328]

If it goes wrong you will have an awful smell and a lot of flies