Monday, December 16, 2013

Borax Crystal Snowflakes

My friend pinned this Snowflake crystal-growing project and I thought it looked fun, so I slotted it into our day about Avalanches and Ice Storms. (If you think that's a stretch, wait till you see me fit the Ice Castle in as a field trip! :)) We have grown a lot of crystals but we've never tried borax crystals before, and they are great! Fast-growing and beautiful. And I do love a project that's well-explained! We made a bunch of these for our own Christmas tree, and to give away as gifts to the boys' choir director, Primary teachers, etc. They were really fun to make!

Oh---also---we found you can reuse the borax solution to make more snowflakes. We used ours three times before it seemed like it wasn't working as well anymore. You just heat up the jar in the microwave until the water is hot enough to dissolve the crystals stuck to the bottom of the jar (3-5 min). Stir, and when the solution is clear again, put a new snowflake in and begin again. You can refresh it with a bit more water and another tablespoon of borax, if desired.
We used brown pipe-cleaner for our first batch, and they were pretty, but I think we liked the white pipe-cleaner better

And here they are on the tree! So pretty.

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