Let's start a thread about preservation of papercraft and

So far I've just tried modpodge puzzle saver, works pretty good if the model doesn't have a lot of recesses, say a butterfly

>>533065
nice ! do you think it's possible to make an even and thin coating with some plastidip or something ? it looks good on that crane but on a more complex model it'll blur all the details, hence my question.

As for myself i don't do anything particular, just give them away (which often lead to quick deterioration...) or put them on a shelf.

>>533077
OP here, the picture isn't mine, grabbed it from some diy site. I never tried plastidip myself yet. Conserved a few tiny items in resin as a kid, but I don't even know what kind of resin we used there. Now I have a little assortment of origami I'd like to give away the next weeks, and wonder what's a cheap way to make them a little bit more sturdy.

Right now I'm waiting for some home-made coating made from potato starch, salt and a little sugar to cool down so I got bored.

>>533065
I tried with resins of 2 kind, once was polyester and the other I think was based in PVsomething, the first one worked really good, the other type worked well too but after a few years, the coat became yellow and appeared some cracks.

>>533080
oh you mean pvc for the second one, its good for durability but pvc was meant for plumbing pipes so it tends to yellow after a while

>>533081
There's also PVA which is fabric stiffener and should work great on paper. But when we're talking about coating/sealing it might as well have been PVC too.

As I said, yesterday night I tried glue from potato starch. First try with the 'real' stuff (extracted from leftovers from making potato pancakes) produced a dull milky glue with lots of fine particles and uneven consistency so I discarded that batch. Made another one from commercial starch powder which worked much better and gave a crystal clear jelly which is great to work with.

The test coating hasn't completely dried yet, but it seems that it creates a glossy effect which I've seen a lot in origami photos and thought it's expensive paper hehe.

>>533111
when you're done experimentating could you post some photos ?

>>533119
Certainly, but I'm not sure if my phone cam is good enough to capture the surface in appropriate detail. So I might have to put that off until I can borrow a real camera.

>>533111
How do you apply that stuff to paper? Do you dip the model in it, spray it or rub it?

>>533156
I'm using a brush to spread the paste, it's too thick to dip or spray (like pudding/jelly, probably you could apply more water, but I didn't want to soak the model too much).

>>533159
.. and I still don't have a decent cam. Tried my cheap windows phone and it is not satisfying at all because you can't see any details in the surface texture created by the coating. So sorry for the guy(s) who might be interested, it might take another few days or so.