Tim,
I've never used cotton gloves for shells, but it probably is a good idea.
Be careful with cowries though......slippery little devils ....

I use shot from a shotgun shell to orient shells for photography.  The
plasticine clay does leave an oily residue and should probably be avoided.
#7 or #8 shot works best......

Kurt

At 10:51 AM 1/24/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Mollusca,
>   We are evaluating our specimen conservation practices and environment at
>the Delaware Museum of Natural History. The subject of cotton gloves has
>arisen. Wearing cotton gloves has already been encouraged for handling old
>library materials and for handling vertebrate mounts and study skins. Cotton
>gloves helps conserve the materials by keeping oils from the hands off the
>books and specimens. A conservator recently suggested we should wear cotton
>gloves when handling mollusk shells.
>   Do museum staff at other institutions wear gloves or other hand
>protection when handling mollusk specimens? If not, do you think you (they)
>should?
>   On a related subject, on the subject of oil, I sometimes mount mollusk
>specimens on plasticine (oil clay) when I need them in a particular
>orientation for photography or drawing. Is this oil a concern to the
>specimen conservation? If so, what is a better method for mounting
>specimens?
>   Thank you very much,
>
>Timothy A. Pearce, Ph.D., Curator of Mollusks
>Delaware Museum of Natural History
>Box 3937, 4840 Kennett Pike        302-658-9111 x319
>Wilmington, DE 19807-0937, USA    [log in to unmask]
>