Care For Your Pine Needle Basket or Memory Catcher Care for your pine needle basket is easy. You should treat it as you would a fine piece of clear wooden furniture. Use a good furniture polish (available at most reputable Antique Stores), Neatsfoot Oil, or softened bees wax and polish with a soft lint free cloth (do not use bath towels or terry cloth).
You may use a damp cloth to remove dust or dirt, just not dripping wet, then be sure to use Bees Wax, a Premium Furniture Polish or Neatsfoot Oil immediately after. If you choose to use Bees Wax you will need to place the basket in the oven on 150 to 200 for a few minutes until the bees wax is melted, then polish/wipe off excess bees wax. Do not use Bees Wax on Baskets or Memory Catchers that have paintings on them as it will melt and blister the Acrylic Paint. Do not use Bees Wax on Baskets or Memory Catchers that have natural stones and/or feathers as it will ruin both of these items (stones may change color and feathers will just become icky and sticky).
If there are any snags when polishing the basket, this is from the ends of the pine needles. You can just snap off the offending point (they are single and small).
Be careful when polishing so that you do not poke a finger on any pine needle tips. The tips will tend to break off under the skin and should be treated just like you would a sliver of wood, when removing.
The baskets are made of all natural products, except the artificial sinew (thread). Obsidian arrow heads are SHARP and should be treated accordingly. The natural stones may change color when oiled/polished. Bone beads may turn odd colors when oiled/polished.
All baskets and memory catchers are treated with Neatsfoot Oil before sale.
FEATHERS WILL BE RUINED IF OILED. Feathers: you should avoid getting polish and/or bees wax on feathers as it will make them really icky, sticky and matted. I am not advocating the use of Linseed Oil at this time as it appears that the manufactures have changed the formula and I ruined about 10 lbs of pine needles recently with a new can of Linseed Oil.
You should not let your basket accumulate dust as it will deteriorate the basket.
Do not WET your basket. Do not WASH your basket, especially in water. Do not use Murphy’s Oil Soap on your basket or memory catcher. Do not use any Old English products on your basket or memory catcher. Do not use SPRAY furniture polish on your basket or memory catcher. Do not use alcohol on your basket or memory catcher. Do not use anything on your basket that you would not use on your fine and/or antique wooden furniture. I Do Not recommend using shellac as it does not allow the basket to breath or absorb wax/oil and the basket/memory catcher will dry out and crack and/or break.
Care for your Out Door Paintings
All of your plank paintings are suitable for Out Door hanging. These are all sealed with a clear UV protectant and are painted exclusively with Acrylic Paints. These pictures will last for years outside with a little bit of care.
About every 6 months you should evaluate your painting (especially if it hangs in direct sun light) to see if it has any hairline cracks. If so you may purchase a good Clear Acrylic UV protectant (either spray or brush on) and give your painting another coat of clear. Do not sand as you may remove some of the color beneath the original clear coating, which is not good. If you accidentally do this give me a call and I'll help you out by either (if local) coming by and touching up or having you ship it to me with return postage paid and I'll touch it up and give it another coat of clear coat for a nominal price. I would quote a touch-up price when you let me know which piece of artwork you have and remind of the dimensions, also a picture of the piece would be great.
Just to give you an idea my address painting on the front fence (direct sun and full weather) has not been recoated or touched up in 5 years and still looks great. My niece's address painting on her front fence (direct sun and full weather) is about the same age and we are just now giving it it's second coat of clear. However I recommend checking your painting sooner than every 5 years.
Care for your Gourd Art
If you have a gourd that is embellished with Pine Needles; they are NOT suitable to hang out in the weather. Nor are they suitable to have hanging plants put in them.
Gourds that are not sealed inside are NOT suitable to hang out in the weather. Nor are they suitable to have hanging plants put in them.
If you would like to put hanging plants into the gourds you would need to seal them on the inside so that the water will not soak into the gourd. If water soaks into a gourd it will pop off any paint that is on the outside of the gourd.
Gourds that are used to hang outside or to have water put into them are not guaranteed to retain any embellishments (paintings) on them.
Gourds that are embellished with Pine Needles, Natural Stones and/or Feathers should receive the same care as Pine Needle Baskets or Pine Needle Memory Catchers.
ENJOY your art work from Jensen Studios Carolie C Jensen