More fun with crystals!
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Believe it or not, my crystal project appears to be attracting more visits to my blog site then I would have imagined. So I thought I’d include an update! Again, the key here is to keep a super saturated sugar to water solution. I’ve read so many instructions on other sites saying how you have to be careful with this project. They indicate failure if crystals grow across the top of the surface (saying that it ruins the process because it blocks evaporation). My solution? Just get a spoon and scrape the crystals off of the top. How hard is that? There are actually some advantages to letting some crystals form across the top. If they do, evaporation will slow down and you’ll get bigger crystals! Now… is that bad? |
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If I get too many crystals growing on the bottom and sides of the glass, I pull my crystals out of solution, hang them over an empty glass, and then pour the saturation solution through a strainer. Once drained I thoroughly clean the glass and remove all attached crystals. I then pour the strained solution back into the glass and submerge my crystals for more growing. It’s easy! |
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I wasn’t particularly happy with this shot because the lighting made the crystals look opaque and they are fairly translucent. But it did show up some of the nicely forming (and classic) crystal structures growing. Hard to believe this is a natural occurrence in nature. Amazing! I’ll try to get a better shot of this later. Click on it to get the full view. Better Image (Click to see full sized view)  |
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I’m just constantly amazed at how these structures grow naturally in nature. My parents were down to visit this weekend and my crystals were a big hit. (I think my father now wants to give it a try based on all the questions he asked). Personally, I just like having these on display, growing a big larger every day. Again… Please view the full sized image by clicking on the above thumbnail view. It’s worth it. Brother John |
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March 25th, 2008
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My next little crystal experiment was to break off two pieces of crystal from the above “Mother” cluster. I found two that looked pretty nice and snapped them off. Taking a single piece of dental floss, I looped it around each of the crystals giving them enough space to grow. I actually had a slight misgiving about using two, because the idea is to prevent competition when growing a large crystal. I had not, as of yet poured in my super saturated solution since it was cooling down in my kitchen. |
Supposedly, Dental Floss is smooth enough to prevent natural crystallization and by looping it around a seed crystal it should permit only the seed to attract the crystallization process. It should theoretically be possible to grow a very large single sugar crystal.
I’m a 6′4″ 300 pound 52 year old married man and miraculous survivor of a hematological (blood based) cancer. The cancer pretty much destroyed my left hip and upper left femur. As a result, I needed three major operations that eventually led to a total hip replacement. I’ve been married to a severely disabled (muscular dystrophy) woman for 32 years. I am Senior Software Developer (medical systems) for 
One thing I would warn against. If your solution starts to evaporate too much and you’d like to “top it off”, make certain that what you add is super saturated. If it is diluted, your crystals will begin to un-grow (yeah I know it’s not a word). Yes. They will shrink away until nothing is left but the string! Had that happen to me once. So… ensure proper saturation! I’m just saying.
I just looked at the crystals again this morning (03/05/200
and they become even more defined than is depicted in the above image. I’m really starting to see some elongated crystals emerging with that classic prism shape. I’ll post another picture in a week.
I didn’t love the quality of my latest picture, but I DO love the classic sugar crystal structure I captured.
The clarity of crystals I’m starting to see is amazing. I have the glass they are growing in sitting on my fireplace mantel. At night I light a bunch of candles all around it and the light shines through the crystals making a nice display.
Very cool, who knew? I guess scientists, and students of science and professors, and teachers and so on….
I want to try it with salt and see what happens. Can you make sulphur crystals? How about dilithium?
tBONEbANJO, It works very well with salt and table salt will be different from something like Epsom Salts. Believe it or not there are metals that will form crystals! In fact, I’m leaning that lots of elements will do that after being turned into a solution. If you want to give this a try I have a lot more information I can share with you. My next experiment will be to try growing a single crystal of Alum. The trick to large single crystals is to get a good seed crystal to start with and then keep the competition away from everything else. Certain dyes and colorings can also make neat conversation pieces. I have a bunch of info so let me know if you plan to do it and I can get you a good head start.
Brother John
Lansdowne, Pennsylvania USA
I have just read the first apart from with crystals. Its has me fasinated … Think I may give it a try.. Have you tried it with any thing else yet… Keep us informed
Look forward to your reply
Colleen (Witchypoo)
Colleen, The mother cluster of crystals just keeps getting better and better. You read that I broke two of the nicer crystals off of the cluster and used a piece of dental floss to loop them in place. One fell off and I retrieved it, and… uh… ate it, the other one is now suspended in a saturated sugar solution. Crystals won’t stick to the dental floss so they are only growing on the seed crystal. It’s getting bigger and bigger! I’ll be showing some pictures of that soon.
Brother John
Lansdowne, Pennsylvania USA