Originally published at: DIY Spiderweb Preservation: Turn Nature into Art - Boing Boing
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Some people go to great lenghts to get a personalized web.
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By Popkin!
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At the summer camp that I worked at many years ago, there were plenty of abandoned spider webs, and the Crafts director had the kids do this. But rather than spraying the background with adhesive, they carefully sprayed the web with white spray paint before immediately swooping it (while the paint was still wet) with a piece of dark-colored card stock.
I would think that spraying the background with an adhesive would make it a real dust magnet if one were to display it without a glass cover…
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The study that led to the creation of this video…
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I’d think you’d want to have it covered with glass because otherwise it wouldn’t last very long - even without adhesive, dust would still collect, and you’d be unable to wipe it off without destroying it…
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I’m wondering if hairspray (or artists fixative spray, if you wanna get fancy) would be better than spraymount.
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What about spraying the spiderweb with adhesive - spray so it’s gently lofted up near the web and settles with gravity and air currents, then place the frame against the chosen part of the web? If you used a hardening adhesive it wouldn’t attract and hold dust once it fixes.
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I am sure it would.
Spray paint works, though I haven’t done it since I was a kid.
Every once in a while, my mother would have the end of a rattle can, and either let my sister or myself (or her if it was high up), spray an old spider web and we would then just run a piece of paper through it. We used the cheapest construction paper, card stock, old computer paper, what ever was at hand.
The spray painted web dried on the paper, as would artist fixative, and once dry it looked nice and wasn’t sticky.
This was back when my mother would take us out to make direct botanical prints. She also took us classes on fish printing and paper making. Those are all skills that I have used more than a few times.
There is a big old spider that has a large web outside our house, and it is going to lay its eggs soon, and hide in a little nook protecting them. Both my kids talk to it in the morning as we leave. Perhaps we will save her last web before wind, leaves and time erase all but the memory of it.
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Fish Printing? Well, after a quick Google, I’ve learned something new today.
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I’d think that whatever you use to adhere it, and however you treat the surface, you still have the same problem - it’s delicate enough that it wouldn’t survive even a gentle wiping to remove any dust (or stray cobwebs) that should collect on it. So it would have a limited lifespan if uncovered.
I have seen fish prints on display at quite a few homes and small mom-and-pop restaurant/bars (izakaya) in Japan. It seems to be a pretty common way to preserve a record of your catch, since in Japan the true reward of catching a big fish is then eating it!
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I like to use some high-contrast spray paint. Metallic silver against a black background looks really nice. The paint makes it sticky, and it dries hard. a little coating of fixative after the paint is fully dry, and it will last for years.
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