09-21-2007, 03:41 PM
I have a question regarding the direct sunlight thing. 5 months ago I began doing a test on some pieces of a mask that I had trimmed down. I took 3 pieces about an inch and a half long each. One was a thin piece that was painted., one was a thick piece that was also painted and finally a thin unpainted piece. I've set them in my kids bedroom window which is exposed to direct sunlight for the bulk of the day. They have no been moved from there this entire time. Today I picked them up and began stretching them to see if they would break easier, or if they had become gummy and to my surprise, nothing had happened to them whatsoever, other than the paint on two of the pieces becoming faded. Now while I would never expose any of my masks to direct sunlight, I was curious to know...is this normal? How long does it take for direct sunlight to begin breaking down the latex?I only ask because a while back my dad had packed up some of my stuff at home, one of which was a myers mask that I had for years. It was actually my very first horror piece. When i pulled it out of the box it had began melting around the base of the neck and was so bad that it had actually stuck to pieces of the mask that it was laying against. Needless to say, that mask is completely destroyed with no hope of restoration. While I'm not looking for the cause of the mask breaking down, I am curious to know if anyone has any ideas on how long it takes sunlight to break down the latex. As I said, I've been conducting this test for 5 months to the day now and it's been in the worst possible conditions. A very hot window sil with blinds pulled down behind it to keep the heat and light from escaping, and natural air born dust. Please let me know what you guys think as I'm really curious to find this out. Thanks all!-Joseph