Crystal Snow Flake {Tutorial}

A few years ago my son and I tried to grow crystals at home with a science kit.  While this was a fun activity it was a very long drawn out process. 

Recently on my travels on Pinterest I discovered a pin on growing borax snow flake crystals. These were so much easier to do than our science kit and we could almost watch them grow! My one tip is to pour the mix over the snow flake first thing in the morning so you can watch the crystals grow through out the day.

I followed the directions found on What will we do today ?

 You will need

• Jars for your crystals to grow in
• Borax (Please be aware Borax is  toxic. There are conflicting reports on it's safety so please do your own research before using this substance in your experiment.) Sugar is a great alternative.
• Pip Cleaners
• Pencil, stick or kebab skewer
• Boiling Water (to be done by an adult)
• Food colouring if you want your crystals to be colored.

Method

 You will need three long pieces of pipe cleaner and six small pieces of pipe cleaner.  Be sure to check the width of your cross section in relation to your jar before adding the smaller bits. The completed star needs to easily lower into your jar without touching the sides.

 Attach a piece of string to your shape and then onto your pencil.  Test it in your jar to make certain that the snow flake does not touch the base or the sides of your jar.

The Mix

• 1 cup boiling water
• 3 table spoons of Borax
• Mix well and pour into your snowflake jar.

• Place the jar in a safe visible place. Pour in the hot borax / water mix.  Make sure that your snow flake is totally submerged.  
• Do NOT move your jar or snow flake after it is in the jar or your crystals will stop growing.
• Observe the crystals forming over the day as the mixture cools down.
• Leave in the jar for 24 hours.
• Hang in an empty jar to dry.
• Enjoy your crystals.

 We made a number of different shapes.  One of the things I found was that by adding food colouring the crystals did not grow as well.

Have you grown crystals?  If so what shapes were your favourite ? For those of you who love Snow Flakes the Twisted Sifter has the most amazing macro photographs of snowflakes to look over.

Blessings
Chareen 

**This post origianlly appeared as a guest post on To The Moon and Back and I recently found they have deleted all their online content.  So I've shared this information here.