Mold again!

[Elisabeth_M]

Are you using the original jar or transferring to another container? I transfer a workable amount to a dinky dip or a small jam jar and add distilled water to that. I've never had mold grow on me and I'm embarrassed to say I do all sorts of things that would be an open invitation for mold. Do you keep it tightly covered/sealed?

What does the mold look like? Do you have a pic? 

Well, I made this batch probably 3 or 4 weeks ago and my recollection is I either took out a new jar or being the frugal person I am, completely washed out the old jar to reuse it. It is tightly sealed - I used the larger size equivalent of dinky dips (I get too impatient have to refill the dinky's too often!). It never happened until recently. The ink in it's Dr. Martin's jar is about 12 years old but I can't imagine that has anything to do with it as it looks fine in there. It's just when I mix up a batch that it starts to mold. It's just too mysterious!

I suspect it is your stock bottle that is contaminated.  Mold can form inert spores that hang around until they are in the right environment for growth.  For whatever reason, the environment in the stock bottle is not conducive to growth for that mold, but once you dilute it with water, the conditions are right and the mold starts growing.  (My doctoral project used yeast as a model system and this would happen from time to time with our stock cultures)

[Sharon]

Are you using the original jar or transferring to another container? I transfer a workable amount to a dinky dip or a small jam jar and add distilled water to that. I've never had mold grow on me and I'm embarrassed to say I do all sorts of things that would be an open invitation for mold. Do you keep it tightly covered/sealed?

What does the mold look like? Do you have a pic? 

Well, I made this batch probably 3 or 4 weeks ago and my recollection is I either took out a new jar or being the frugal person I am, completely washed out the old jar to reuse it. It is tightly sealed - I used the larger size equivalent of dinky dips (I get too impatient have to refill the dinky's too often!). It never happened until recently. The ink in it's Dr. Martin's jar is about 12 years old but I can't imagine that has anything to do with it as it looks fine in there. It's just when I mix up a batch that it starts to mold. It's just too mysterious!

I suspect it is your stock bottle that is contaminated.  Mold can form inert spores that hang around until they are in the right environment for growth.  For whatever reason, the environment in the stock bottle is not conducive to growth for that mold, but once you dilute it with water, the conditions are right and the mold starts growing.  (My doctoral project used yeast as a model system and this would happen from time to time with our stock cultures)

This makes total sense, Elisabeth. Thanks so much for your thoughts on this.  Your doctoral project has come in handy once again I suspect! :-)

[Elisabeth_M]

It has surprisingly come in handy in everyday life more than I would have thought, considering the actual subject of my dissertation is rather esoteric.   

[Elizabeth O.]

I'm not going to lie Elisabeth...I totally had to look up the meaning of esoteric.

And, now that I have, I feel like part of the in-crowd! 

[Elisabeth_M]

I'm not going to lie Elisabeth...I totally had to look up the meaning of esoteric.

And, now that I have, I feel like part of the in-crowd! 

Lol!  Welcome to the in-crowd! 

[Meredith S]

Coming late to this topic, sorry. Not sure if this will work, but what if you left the jar open while you're not using it? The water would evaporate, but you could just add more when you're going to use it again. I haven't had this problem with BPW, but it's what I do when I mix up too much Pearl Ex and don't want to throw it out, and it works every time.

[Sharon]

Coming late to this topic, sorry. Not sure if this will work, but what if you left the jar open while you're not using it? The water would evaporate, but you could just add more when you're going to use it again. I haven't had this problem with BPW, but it's what I do when I mix up too much Pearl Ex and don't want to throw it out, and it works every time.

Hi Meredith,

I've also done that with my gouache but the BPW jar is to big and full of ink, I'm not sure that would work. However, at IAMPETH this week, Michael Sull mentioned he uses it in its original jar, just adding tap water of about 1/4" at the top and mixing up a bit that sits on the top. He doesn't even use distilled water! So I'm giving up distilled water and just bought a new jar to start with but I have to say that when I scraped off the mold and stirred it up, it was still usable. Thanks for your thoughts about this!

[Elisabeth_M]

I have to say that when I scraped off the mold and stirred it up, it was still usable. Thanks for your thoughts about this!

I sometimes do this with cheese (minus the stirring bit, of course).