Hey! So I have a friend who just lost her dog last week. Before the dog died, she got their foot print on a piece of white bark from her property. She saw online to use polyurethane to preserve it. Unfortunately, it started to make the white turn brown. The bark is also drying and starting to curl.
Is there a way to clean up the brown in the picture? And what would be the best way to preserve the bark to stop the curling & save the foot print? She’s in the Northeast and does not have access to use cactus juice to stabilize things.
What about slow cure clear epoxy? - make a box about the size of the piece, cut the piece down a bit, put shiny tape on the inside of the box to prevent the epoxy from leaking and making it easy to release. Pour, wait for it to cure. Sand/polish. Test on a small cut out first.
Or find a person in their area that makes epoxy cutting boards/serving trays and have them do it for a fee.
I can’t guarantee this will work … but here are some ideas.
Put the bark between (at least) two paper towels. Press this sandwich under something heavy (a couple tiles, a book, etc.) Let this dry for a very long time. Weeks probably. This should reduce curling as it dries. It may shrink just a tiny bit while drying so dry it before gluing.
When it is dry, glue it to a substrate like 1/8" ply. She could laser engrave the pet’s name or whatever on this substrate before gluing on the bark. Use contact cement if possible because that’s going to be the least likely of curling it (since it’s solvent-based and not water-based). YES Paste is also a good solution here. Now put waxed paper above the bark and again press while drying.
GENTLY brush it with (or pour) water-based Minwax Polycrylic. Brushing will take many, many coats and she’ll have to be careful about strokes/bubbles. She can possibly pour a thin coat of the Polycrylic, esp. if she makes a little lip around the outside (which she could later cut off). If poured, allow several weeks to dry, preferably in a dust free place.
The benefit of Polycrylic is that it barely yellows. In this side-by-side comparison you can see two pieces of similar Birch plywood that were each coated a little over 20 years ago. The yellow side is “regular” polyurethane. The other side is Polycrylic.
