Cleaning Mold Off a Dough Ornament- can it be done?
December 7, 2015 7:06 AM   Subscribe

A handmade dough ornament from last year has grown mold in storage. I want to try to clean it instead of just tossing it because it has sentimental value. How could I try to clean it?

It's a "baby's first handprint" ornament made at daycare. It looks to be made out of dough, and probably air-dried. It is flat with the handprint impressed into one side. It has spots of light green mold on top and bottom.

I'm pretty sentimental and this is my baby's handprint, so I really do not want to just toss it. I'd like to try to disinfect it and clean it. But how should I clean it? Anything too damp or rough, like spritzing it with bleach and scrubbing at it, would destroy the handprint impression.

It was wrapped in tissue paper and stored with other Christmas ornaments in the garage for the last year. None of the other ornaments have any signs of mold, nor does anything else in storage. I don't know what happened.
posted by aabbbiee to Home & Garden (7 answers total)
 
You could try white vinegar and sunlight - both are supposed to help with mold. I would, of course, seal it somehow if you can get the mold off.
posted by needlegrrl at 7:15 AM on December 7, 2015


I wouldn't scrub at it, but I'd consider spritzing it with bleach. If the bleach gets rid of the stain effect, then your problem is prevention of recurrence.
Bake it again at about 200 degrees - cool enough to not cause browning of the flour dough, but hot enough to kill live molds. Leave it in for an hour (check periodically to make sure no browning) The spores will still be present but inactive. They'll need moisture to start growing, but you can cover the ornament with a strong sealant to keep moisture out, and the spores shouldn't start reproducing. (as to what happened, it could be that the ornament wasn't baked quite as dry as it should have been initially, or got slightly damp when it was put away)
posted by aimedwander at 7:44 AM on December 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


My mother (who made a tremendous pile of dough ornaments about 45 years ago and aside from a few that broke still has them all) asks if you can sand the discoloration with fine-grit sanding cloth, almost a wiping motion just to take the discoloration off?

But her dough ornaments (most made with impression cookie cutters and painted with acrylic paint) could survive a scrub, so you may be dealing with something really different than what she and I are thinking of.

She actually has a bucket of desiccant sand, which most people don't, but unless you've got that she's unsure if she'd put it in the oven or just put it on a rack (or hang it) in front of a fan for a day. Then varnish or shellac.

If it's too delicate to scrape off just the discoloration, try touching it with a q-tip of bleach just to one of the spots, to see how much help it will be.

Her last-ditch suggestion, if there's just no way to touch it without ruining the handprint, is to just dry it in front of a fan, and reseal it heavily with varnish or shellac, and let the spots stay.

If you can put up a picture I may be able to offer more suggestions.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:30 AM on December 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


Can you make a mold of it and keep that instead? If all else fails and you don't want to keep a bit of mouldy dough that way you could keep the handprint itself?

Probably not the easiest option, but as something last ditch?
posted by GilvearSt at 9:34 AM on December 7, 2015


If you find that you can't get the stains out, you could always paint it. Acrylic paint should work well.
Would silver or gold be too cheesy? Up to you!
posted by Too-Ticky at 9:43 AM on December 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


I don't know what happened.

Your daycare made an ornament out of food. Now a life form has found it and is trying to eat it.

I'd like to try to disinfect it and clean it. But how should I clean it?

First thing is to kill the thing that's eating it. Ultraviolet light will do that, given time, and will also bleach it; try putting it outdoors on bright sunny days until the spots fade. Just make sure you protect it from wildlife. Birds are not fussy about mold on their feed cakes.

In between times, keep it as dry as you can possibly get it: personally I'd seal it up in a metal biscuit tin packed with the cheap silica gel granules that are sold as "crystal" cat litter, and keep it somewhere warm.

Once it's thoroughly and completely dry, I'd be tempted to soak it in a solvent-based clear lacquer for long enough that the lacquer penetrated deep into the dough, then let it cure. That should render it pretty much inedible. But before doing that, I'd make up some similarly-sized samples of similarly constituted dough with no sentimental value, and try the lacquer treatment on those to make sure I could live with any resulting discolouration.
posted by flabdablet at 9:59 AM on December 7, 2015


You could probably try baking it after cleaning it. That should kill off anything growing and help preserve it for the future by drying it out.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:17 PM on December 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


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