How to Preserve Flower Dandelion Specimen for Decoration

A lot of individuals do not think dandelions can be cultivated into specimens. Is this truly not feasible? I recently gave it a try, and now I will use writing and images to share my experience and lessons learned. After consulting with some acquaintances at the specimen workshop, they prepared dandelion specimens by following these five steps:

• Picking dandelions
• Fixative spay liquid curing or hairspray
• Put the dandelion into the mold
• Pouring and letting it set
• Demoulding

A beautiful dandelion specimen was born!

You should be careful to pick only those dandelions with immature hair balls; one way to do this is to gently blow on the weeds with your mouth to keep them loose. Since it is hard to explain, you can choose how hard you blow.

The most basic principle in selecting plants is that they should be complete and have dense velvet. After discovering the plants you want to collect. Spray the dandelions with fixative or hairspray from a distance, spraying as much as possible. Wait for about 5 minutes for the fixing liquid to solidify. Pick the dandelion from the root. Please leave the stem longer. At this time, you have two options. If you live within walking distance of the place where dandelions are collected, please keep the dandelion stems and take them home carefully. If it’s a car ride away, cut the stems slightly shorter and put them into a container of similar size. Fixing liquid is similar to a transparent spray-type glue that can greatly reduce the probability of dandelion fluff falling off during transportation. Please be sure to spray it.

To create the specimen, I employed polyester resin. This resin is not the same as epoxy resin, often known as crystal glue. Polyester resin can be used to create specimens in the same way as epoxy resin, but it is a simpler and more efficient process—just be cautious. Anyone looking to purchase this type of resin can go online, as I purchased mine polyester resin from a website.

Epoxy Resin is two-component and inconvenient to operate, and it is difficult to completely eliminate bubbles during the production process (unless you use a vacuum chamber). Epoxy Resin will be obviously layered when poured in layers, so it is not suitable for all-round display specimens. But the application of Epoxy Resin in time gemstones is very prominent. In other words, Epoxy Resin is suitable for pouring very thin things, but is not suitable for plastic sealing. Simply put, this resin is a single component that is cured by adding a catalyst. It has the characteristics of high transparency. And as long as it is left naturally, the bubbles will disappear completely (the finished product is basically bubble-free). But the main problem is that this resin is very toxic. Wear gloves when operating in a ventilated environment. I strongly recommend that you wear gloves, goggles and a gas mask if you want to use this resin.

Be sure to pay attention to the pouring route not to pass through the fluff, and pour from the open corners of the mold. When the resin liquid level is about to cover the fluff, slow down the speed, and pause the pouring every 3mm or so when the liquid level rises, so that the resin has enough time to soak into the fluff. The time is about 10 seconds. You can observe it by yourself (pay attention here, during the pause process If the humidity in the workspace is high, you may need to drop a drop of ethanol to dissolve the film that has condensed on the surface of the resin due to the pause in pouring. Not too much, otherwise it will affect the transparency. I skipped this step because Shenyang was already a little dry.) After finishing, seal the mold mouth and wait for solidification. When I was making this, the tweezers got a little caught on the fluff when I placed the dandelions, and a few fell off. Fortunately, it felt like they were blown by the wind. Wow~ The only drawback is that the resin is a little aging yellow!

If crafting your own specimen seems too daunting, you can purchase a professionally made dandelion specimen directly from the FICA Lab store. These specimens are crafted with precision and care, making them perfect for educational purposes or as unique decorative pieces.