Thursday 29 September 2011

Crystal Growing

Crystal growing is a long process.  We started this project in August and only this past week have we seen our crystals in detail.  So if you want to grow crystals be prepared to grow patience!

Here is our photo journal of growing crystals.

Rain water, and crystal growing kit.

Weighing the crystal formula to be mixed in water.

Adding the powder to the water and then mixing well.

Adding the stones to the base for the crystals to grow on.

Pouring the crystal growing mix into the container over the stones.

Adding some extra crystal growing powder this is the seed the crystals grow from.

From here the crystal bath was put in a warm room on a shelf not to be disturbed.  And the wait began.

After a week - no crystals

After two weeks I was a little upset and about to throw out the mix when .....


After a few more days of patiently waiting I took the lid off the crystal bath.  This turned out to be key as now evaporation of the fluid could take place at a faster rate and we could actually see crystals growing.





Once all the water had evaporated we touched the crystals
and were surprised that they were rock hard.

A few days after all the water had dried
It wasn't as pretty but still interesting.
We took a few crystals and had a look under the microscope.  That was fun :)  More about microscopes in a later post.

Looking at crystals

Crystals through the eye piece of the microscope. 
Have you grown crystals with your children ?

Blessings




2 comments:

  1. I'm impressed, we were always dismal failures at growing crystals.

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  2. I must confess Erin I was very surprised that this worked.

    I got the kit from ALDI and the instructions were simple and it worked.

    I think that key to it was I put it on a shelf and did not touch it at all. The instructions say if you touch it it stops growing. If I do this again I will leave the lid off the jar. It's second requirement is a warm spot so spring/summer is definately the time to grow crystals.

    Blessings.

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