Grow Your Own Crystals

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Science related Art Week

Crystals are an awesome subject for photography. Snow crystals are of course the most common, but you don't want to limit yourself to winter season. So what about growing your own crystals ? It's in fact very easy.

Sugar Crystals


Some are far better than I am in explaining how to create sugar crystals, so here is a video tutorial:


Here are some photographs of sugar crystals.
c a n d i by fridaythe13th crystal cocktail - closeup by janbk

The process described in the video can be used with salts and other materials to create other kinds of crystals. If you want really big crystals all you need is a lot of patience. Single crystals of several centimetres may require several month and regular change of the solution.

For more tutorials for making crystals : chemistry.about.com/od/growing…

Snow


Just like sugar you can create your own snowflakes, the process is quite different and requires solid ice. I will not go into the details of the process, but this website can give you all the information to create your own snow :
www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/sn…

Citric Acid Crystals


If you have access to a microscope, citric acid crystals are probably the easiest to make, and the results are simply gorgeous. The process is very easy : create a solution of citric acid, put it on a glass slice, and wait. With evaporation, crystals will grow. You can play with the drying time or acid concentration to create variations.

Urus Micrographie 52 by Urus-28citric acid crystals 1 by loganmiracle

Here are some examples of citric crystals under microscopes :  www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/i…


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scuzzy5005's avatar
I want to grow some copper sulfate crystals or bismuth crystals again! I plan on doing an art project with them....if I get around to it!