[Nhcoll-l] Clear Acrylic Blocks

[Steve Halford]

Here's a reply I got from a friend who uses embedded insects in her jewelry
designs:




Here’s a few things that might be helpful to this team.

-make certain the insects are fully dried before embedding.  I used to air
dry them for a few weeks to make sure they were free of moisture.  This
will be difficult with soft bodied insects of course but  in that case I
would keep them in an alcohol solution and then dry them out on a paper
towel right before embedding.

-I used polyester resin.  The upside of this is that you can shape and sand
the material to a high polish.  This type of resin is better for large
pours as you can control the amount of catalyst and resulting heat.  The
downside is it’s toxicity and trickiness to work with (amounts of catalyst
are very important-if you cure too quickly you can get cracking and air
bubbles).  I would pour a catalyzed layer of resin in the bottom of a
container, wait for the resin to get to a gel state, place my insect on
that layer and wait for it to cure for about an hour.  Once the insect was
stuck in that layer I would pour the top layer so there were no concerns
about the insect floating away.  I’d wait 24hrs for the resin to fully cure
and then draw a shape out, grind and sand the piece.  I ground on a disc
grinder, then used various layers of sandpaper by hand and finally Brasso
(brass polish) to achieve a high polish on the final piece.

-a vacuum chamber set up is ideal for removing any air bubbles from the
resin/insect.  I used a more diy method and just tapped and the container
so that the air bubbles would rise to the surface.  This is sort of a
gamble though and air bubbles may end up in the finished product.

I hope this helps.  If they have any further questions, don’t hesitate to
contact me and I’ll try to help.  It’s been years and years since I’ve done
this so my memory might not be the best;)

Cheers,
Mikel

Steve Halford (halford at sfu.ca)
Museum Technician (Retired)
Department of Biological Sciences
Simon Fraser University


On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 10:17 AM, Lena Hernandez <LHernandez at themosh.org>
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>
>
> I had a question come in from our education folks. They would like use
> some of those insects preserved in clear acrylic for a program. The issue
> is they are having difficulty finding the exact species they need, so they
> decided to try making their own with the help of our exhibits team. Has
> anyone done this before? The few instructions that they have found online
> did not result in the nicest looking finished product.
>
>
>
> If anyone has any pointers or links to references on how to make these, it
> would be most appreciated!
>
>
>
> Lena
>
>
>
> Lena Hernandez
>
> Collections Manager & Registrar
>
>
>
> Museum of Science & History
>
> 1025 Museum Circle
>
> Jacksonville, FL 32207
>
> (904)396-6674 x212 <(904)%20396-6674>
>
> lhernandez at themosh.org
>
>
>
> [image: MOSH Logo-FULLC_Email]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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