
Monkey Sporeprinting Examples
#1
Posted 02 March 2005 - 02:13 PM
So you have clean latex gloves on and you cut the stems close to the cap, right? How do you get a reasonably clean print? Here is one way. Just put the cap down on pristine post office Tyvek in a closed space!
The first pic is of those little 6 quart shoeboxes that I tend to use for damn near everything. New USPS Tyvek (inside box, non-printed side up) cut to fit. Lid keeps random stuff from dropping on it and keeps just a touch of humidity in that seems to help the printing process. There are some Texan caps from a straw log hanging out in the boxes shown here. Most of them have printed 2 or 3 nice prints, moving them every 5 to 10 hours until they stop dropping spores or until the cap shows any signs of bacterial infection (slimey wet, or black and the last print from a cap showing contams should be marked and quarantined in the agar-needed pile, or tossed since you have TONS of prints this way!)...Most caps will shrivel up and dry after 2 or 3 prints and stop dropping prints. Some strains will give only one print, some you will have to fight for two. Z and Texan seem to want to print 3-4 times IME. :) Once a sheet is filled, let it dry a day or two (Tyvek breathes well) and then store in your preferred method (ziplock, envelope, sealed box, impusle sealed foodsaver bag, cold-laminated into a bookmark, whatever rocks your world).
Here is an A-Typical example. The second picture is the first big cap from the second flush of Penis Envy on BRF cakes. Note that it has printed 3 reasonable prints in about 30 hours --YES, all from the same cap! --(moved in 10 hours or so per). It is starting to drop it's FOURTH print. Ya, I know I'm braggin, but that's what this forum is for!
The third pic is the remaining mushies in the second PE flush, maturing. The lighting is making the nice dark brown look black, but they are very healthy and still growing. There is even one on the bottom of the cake (I will name Atlas) that is pushing the cake up!
Okay, to get back on topic, for a single cap you can should use a small jar or cup to cover only a single print because a shoebox is too much volume for one cap and will dry out way too fast. You can even print in the bottom of a clean jar if you want. Tyvek is my preferred media, but foil, glass slides, acid free plastic, and even normal typing paper all work (with their own pros and cons).
Printing is easy. Most important DO NOT TOUCH CAPS WITH BARE HANDS. Use gloves or a sterilized pushpin or toothpick, but NEVER bare hands. Even washed hands will have way too many contaminants and may infect your cap before it can drop its load. :) If the cap looks a little dry at the start you can drip a drop or two of distilled water on it to boost the humidity a little. Keep it covered to keep crap from the air falling on it.
#2
Posted 02 March 2005 - 03:01 PM
#3
Guest_dial8_*
Posted 02 March 2005 - 03:09 PM
#4
Posted 03 March 2005 - 12:21 AM
now when you open your tyvek envelope are you wiping down with alky or do they come already ready to print on? and when you are allowing your prints to dry out in the chamber, are you leaving the lid of the tupperware on tightly, or slightly agar?
the pics are great to help explain your techniques. i like it a lot.
#5
Posted 03 March 2005 - 12:29 AM
#6
Posted 03 March 2005 - 01:01 AM
Stearlite shoeboxes don't have perfect seals so they let a little airflow and the prints dry very quickly when you take the caps out. More important I think is the lid keeps the crap in the air from settling on the prints. Keep them covered and they pretty well stay clean.
#7
Posted 03 March 2005 - 10:25 AM
from shoe box to storage what is your method?
do you cut the paper to fit ziplocks or do you fold the paper in half and store it?
once you open your shoe box don't contams fall into how do you keep your prints sterile during transfer?
#8
Posted 03 March 2005 - 11:06 AM
Yes a few contams definately fall in whenever the box is opened. So I try to minimize that by just keeping it closed as much as possible.
So, after I get a sheet of prints done, it gets transferred to my box of full sheets (after marking the strain with a sharpie on a corner) and I will wait till I get 15 to 20 sheets of dry prints just sitting. Then I like to make bookmarks out of them. I will take one sheet out, and on a clean card table, with gloves on, will cut the sheet into individual prints. Then I take a sheet of new baseball card holders (9 pockets per sheet) and start cuting that up, carefully using the already sealed edges of the pockets to make a little custom plastic envelope. I put each print into it's respective clear envelope and then when I have a pile of those, I will grab some of my pre-printed bookmark stock, either cartoon, or the Mrs. likes to draw flower stems and use the prints for "Dandilion looking flowers". I will then carefully position the print-in-clear-pocket onto the paper sheet and roll it into the cold laminating machine with a hand crank (they are at Wallmart but beware-- this method is expensive and I do it just for fun and permanence of sealing the prints-- complete overkill for most people). I roll several bookmarks through and then take a paper cutter and slice the excess plastic laminate off the bookmark to bring it to it's final form. Here is a pic of the final product.
Most SANE people will just keep them in baggies or a paper envelope...I guess...
Actually, EVERYBODY?? How do you keep your prints long term? Please post methods below. :)
#9
Guest_Peter Cottontail_*
Posted 03 March 2005 - 02:31 PM
#10
Posted 03 March 2005 - 02:58 PM
I would NOT recommend a heat based laminator.
You might take a look next time you visit the Evil Empire near the stationary and mini file cabinets...seek and you will find. Might be cheaper and definately thinner than using glass.
Oh, and yes, I have used several prints done up this way...you just have to take clean scissors and cut right next to the print so you can slide the print out of the clear envelope. No damage. No air. I don't have proof of how long they would last this way but I would bet with no air for any decomposition shenannigans (excluding that most plastics are mildly permiable over time) these should be good for years if not decades. Several other Mycos have also used the bookmarks with good results. I am surprised that I haven't had a single complaint of contamination or whatever. Chalk it up to not big enough data set. Sooner or later one will be bad. So far tho, all is well. I was expecting someone to have a bad time as I have only been printing for about six months. However I have been printing every wild mushie I come across too for practice so maybe I got it down okay. ;)
#11
Posted 03 March 2005 - 06:25 PM
I would like to nominate this as coolest idea so far this month....
yes, indeed
kudos
#12
Posted 04 March 2005 - 06:17 AM
i will be printing confidently in a day or two thanks to you :)
#13
Posted 04 March 2005 - 05:28 PM
much thanks !!!
#14
Posted 05 March 2005 - 10:26 AM
Peace...
#15
Posted 06 March 2005 - 07:41 AM
#16
Posted 15 March 2005 - 02:27 AM
#17
Guest_Peter Cottontail_*
Posted 15 March 2005 - 02:36 AM
#18
Guest_dial8_*
Posted 15 March 2005 - 12:48 PM
#19
Posted 16 April 2005 - 11:09 AM
I've tried a limited experiment with a hot laminator, and that appears to have worked fine, too.
#20
Posted 16 April 2005 - 11:23 AM