Can lovely smooth, shiny conkers be preserved or will they always shrivel up?

[piecesofeight]

I'm wondering if conkers can be dried out and at the same time retain their smooth, firm glossiness? I want to make nice Christmas things with them.

Thanks in anticipation of any tips.

not sure. have you tried freezing them before? anything lese will result in them drying out and so shrivalling, vinegar preservative and most other ways either dry out or change the colour from what I remember when I were T'lad!!

saying that though, last year my son collected some conkers still in the outer casing and I found them a few weeks back under the step by the front door, the casing was brown and dry but the conkers weren't too bad, so maybe try keeping whole cases unopened possibly?? if they were OK ish after 12 months a month or 2 maybe be better???

OOoo, good question.

DS & I hunted everywhere for a conker tree this week and when we finally found one he was decidedly unimpressed with the conkers. I, on the other hand, was thrilled and collected them anyway. But what should I do with them?

i have at least one conker on the windowsil in every room of the house - spiders hate them and tend not to bother comming in

they won't shrival by christmas, the ones i had from last year look fine and probably would be more shiney if they weren't covered in dust

We are going on a conker hunt this weekend so I can deter spiders. Spiders don't bother me per se but the cobwebs do!

No answer re OP though - sorry!

when we were kids, we used to varnish them. i seem to remember that kept them nice for longer

Thanks for these tips, all. Bonus spider-deterrant advice too.