Here's a fun project for Christmas, but you'll need to start right after Thanksgiving, as the crystals take about 3 weeks to grow large enough for this project. As this requires boiling water, adult supervision is highly recommended.
You'll need:
* Box
of Epson Salts, usually found at a pharmacy
* Colorful pipe cleaners
* Straight-sided,
container that can hold about 2 cups liquid
* Old pencil or stick long enough
to go over the container
While stirring a cup of boiling water, slowly
pour in Epson Salts, adding about 1/4 cup at a time. It will hold quite
a lot.
As soon as the solution won't turn clear with stirring, it is time to stop.
Take one or two pretty, colorful pipe cleaners. Bend it into some holiday
shape at one end, leaving the other for a "hanger."
Hang it over a pencil
suspended over a STRAIGHT SIDED container, or you won't be able to get your
crystal out. (Learned the hard way, obviously.)
Pour the Epson
Salt solution over the pipe cleaner in the container. Set it in the warmest
room in your home where it won't be disturbed. In about 3 weeks, the water
will have evaporated, leaving long, lovely crystals behind on the pipe cleaner,
just in time to hang up as an ornament.
Don't try to save for next year:
this is very fragile, and moisture in the air will dissolve it over time.
Note the sizes and shape of the crystals. The shape is similar to the shape
of the molecule of the salt. Computer chips are made from slices (wafers)
of huge silicon crystals.
Another project using Epsom salt to grow crystals
You need:
* Epsom Salt
* a tablespoon
* a cup of water
* a paper circle or shape
* a jar lid or straight sided container
Do This:
1. Cut out a paper circle the same size as your container. Put it in the
container.
2. Get a jar or something to mix your 'recipe'. Something with a lid so
you can shake it is good.
3.
Measure 4 big tablespoons of Epsom salt into your mixing jar. Don't
worry if you get a bit too much.
4. Add your cup of water
and stir the mixture really well. You want the Epsom salt to dissolve.
5. Pour the mixture into the jar lid where you have your shape. Put it
in a place where it won't be disturbed or get bumped. It will take a few
days, but as the water evaporates, the Epsom salt that is left behind will
grow into its own unique crystal shape.
You can make a miniature rock garden
this way. This is the same way stalactites and stalagnites in caves grow,
except they start with natural salts found in the earth and water that
drips into the cave.
Magic Salt Crystal Garden: this is one of the oldest and best ways to grow crystals. This recipe has been around over 60 years! You can even buy kits and supplies if you click on the picture above.
In a glass or plastic bowl, put some pieces
of coal, coke (charcoal-like substance, charcoal, porous brick, tile, cement
or sponge.
Day 1: Over the base material, pour two tablespoons
of water, two of table salt (iodized or plain) and two of Mrs.
Stewart's Bluing.
Day 2: Add two more tablespoons of salt.
Day 3: Pour into the bottom of the bowl (not directly
on the base material) two tablespoons each of salt, water, and Mrs.
Stewart's Bluing, and then add a few drops of
mercurochrome, vegetable coloring or ink to each piece.
By this time a beautiful flower-like growth should have
appeared. If all the conditions are not ideal, it may be necessary to add
two tablespoons of household ammonia to aid the growth. A free circulation
of air is necessary, and these formations will develop better where the
air is dry.
To keep it growing: Add more MSB,
salt and water from time to time. It will "bloom" indefinitely into beautiful
rosebuds, coral and crystal. Try it!