Sweet Potato Carving

[Mike Sorenson]

Anyone know what kind of finish I could put on a sweet potato I carved?
Mike's Carving Corner

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Butter? Salt & Pepper?

[JJireh]

Wood...
Nothing can preserve the potato for long.

[brent from mb]

Hi Mike,

I did one last year and didn't put a finish on it all. It has a bit of black in spots, but hey ... it adds to the character.

I will try to take a photo tonight and post it.

Brent

[motleyjust]

It helps if you put some kind of coating on it, to keep the sweet potato from re-hydrating.

I made some sweet potato kazoos. After they were completely dry, I coated the inside with beeswax and the outside with a mixture of beeswax and turpentine. I used beeswax to protect and form the mouth piece and to stick the membrane on.
Pictures01

They are about a year old. I need to give the outside another coat and add more beeswax to the mouth and resonator hole, because it has worn off from handling.

[Terry Vance]

Originally Posted by Lynn O. Doughty

Butter? Salt & Pepper?

good answer. I got a good laugh out of that reply....

[kjarvis]

I carved a Santa and dried it in the material you get from the craft store. It works wonderful. You use a container just sized to fit the potato then pour the crystals over, cover and let sit for a week. Then use acrylic paints and when dry spray with a clear gloss finish. Perfect!

[motleyjust]

Originally Posted by kjarvis

I carved a Santa and dried it in the material you get from the craft store. It works wonderful. You use a container just sized to fit the potato then pour the crystals over, cover and let sit for a week. Then use acrylic paints and when dry spray with a clear gloss finish. Perfect!

I believe you are referring to silica gel. I never thought of that. It would speed up the process a lot.
I have tried accelerating the drying process on some by using a very low oven with the door propped open. I'm not sure, but it may have affected it adversely.
I'll have to get to a hobby shop and get some.

[motleyjust]

I made a special trip to Micheal's yesterday to get some silica gel. When I got home and opened it, it was the kind with an indicator added. I might use it if I do some just carvings, but since it is a skin and eye irritant and harmful if swallowed, I obviously can't use it on kazoos. I did look on the package before buying, but there is so much writing, in several languages, in several bright colors, I couldn't find the part that said that.
I will have to try to find some plain silica gel.
I wonder if a carving dried with the indicator kind is even safe to be handled.

[Robson Valley]

Place the carving on a piece of screen just above the silica gel in a jar with a tight fitting lid.
Let it sit. When the gel changes color, replace it. Rejuvenate the hydrated gel in a very low oven, it will change color back to indicate "dry" .

Oddly, there is still enough water in the gelatin of analog photographic films to raise Hello in a high vacuum situation. So, we had dessicators all over the lab with boxes of film over silica gel. After that, the film boxes went into a vacuum dessicator which was pumped out. In the bottom for a drying agent was phosphorous pentoxide (and that really was nasty.)