Growing crystals from salt solutions. We grow crystals at home from salt. Easy to grow salt crystals

Many people admire the facets of a precious stone, peering at their intricate sparkle in the rays of light. A stone that nature itself has cut is a crystal, and in order to have this miracle at home, it is not at all necessary to go to a cave. It’s important to just know the secret of how to grow a crystal from salt or another mineral at home. There is nothing difficult in this art; you can really try yourself every time in creating new crystals, and even if the material chosen for them is the same, the result will be different and interesting. Growing crystals at home is a fun and easy activity.

What you need for work

To grow crystals at home, you will need exactly what is available for their growth in nature: water and salt. The most accessible material is table salt, but in chemistry there are also other substances called salts. This definition also fits copper sulfate, and sodium hyposulfite, which can also be used to grow wonderful crystals. Potassium permanganate, citric acid, burnt alum, beet sugar and many other substances used in everyday life are used.

The easiest option is to grow a crystal from finely ground, food-grade, non-iodized salt. The chemical formula of this salt is NaCl. Iodized salt has a more complex formula due to the inclusion of potassium or sodium iodates and iodides, so it should be left for later experiments.

Materials

In addition to salt, growing crystals requires water. It is best to use distilled water - for the purity of the experiment. If you don’t have one in your home, it’s good to use filtered water.

You will also need a container that is inert to aggressive chemicals, because this is what a saturated salt solution can be called. The easiest way is to use a glass jar, since it is good to observe the crystal growth process through it.

The basis or frame for the crystals can be an ordinary grain or crystal of salt, a thread, a twig, or a wire. It is convenient to twist a shaped frame from a wire, on which several transparent cubes of salt will settle, the thread will similarly become overgrown with several crystals, but from one grain it is possible to get a single beautiful crystal, but there is a high risk that this base will dissolve before the crystallization process begins. This can happen if the salt solution is not saturated enough.

You can get colored salt crystals by adding food coloring to them. You can preserve your masterpiece with colorless nail polish.

Tool

Tools for growing crystals include a spoon or stick for stirring the solution, a container for preparing it, gauze for filtering, paper for blotting the finished masterpiece when it is removed from the water. It is better to choose the wire used for the frame with a varnish coating so that a chemical reaction does not occur with the metal.

You can make an amazing transparent stone or a scattering of small stones from ordinary salt, which is used for food. The main thing is to correctly calculate the proportions of the saturated solution so that the crystallization process begins.

From table salt and water

To make the solution of these ingredients saturated, you need to take 40 g of salt per 100 ml of water. It is recommended to filter and heat the water, then add salt and mix. If foreign inclusions are found that will not dissolve, the liquid will have to be passed through the filter a second time.

Everything is poured into a jar, where the base for the crystal is lowered:

a grain of salt;
thread;
wire, etc.

Next, you need to carefully place the container with the solution and base in a place where there will be no shocks and vibrations, sudden changes in temperature and humidity. All these requirements are within reasonable limits: many people manage to grow crystals from salt in the kitchen, and this is where both humidity and temperature most often change.

You will have to wait several days for the result. For a salt crystal base, this will be a large transparent cube. A garland of small cubes will appear on a thread or wire. If the solution is oversaturated, then at the bottom of the jar something like a fantastic landscape is formed, shimmering with “icy” edges.

From sea salt

You can also grow crystals from sea salt. Since we do not know what exactly is included in the salt purchased at the pharmacy, we will prepare the saturated solution gradually. Salt should be added to a measured amount of water in portions, for example, with a spoon and mixed with it. You need to add salt until it stops dissolving. Next, everything is done in the same way as the previous point.

Colored crystal

To get colored crystals, you can go in two ways: change the substance with table salt, copper sulfate or potassium permanganate. If you use salt, then you should add food coloring to it. When this is not available, a transparent varnish with a tint comes to the rescue, which covers the crystal that has already been removed from the solution and dried with paper.

Methods for growing crystals from salt

It is possible to obtain different crystals from the same substance, although salt produces “stones” in the form of cubes, finished work may give unexpected results. Crystals consisting of a pile of cubes of different sizes look interesting. Growing such a “structure” is quite possible. It is much more difficult to even obtain a single crystal without additional growths appearing on the surface.

Crystal with many facets

A multifaceted salt crystal can be grown on a wire or thread. Similarly, you can grow a crystal from salt, using several grains of it as a basis. Each will have its own crystal growing, and if they are nearby, their edges can intersect in a bizarre way. Such a magical picture will remind you of the amazing nuggets of precious minerals that lucky geologists came across in caves and during exploratory excavations.

One big crystal

This task is somewhat more difficult. Here, growing a crystal will require caring for its surface. If you manage to introduce the base in the form of a grain of salt, and it does not dissolve, this is already success. It is better to break off a crystal from a wire or thread from a previous experience and place it as a base for growing a large cube. Due to contamination in the raw material, individual small crystals may form on the edges. They will have to be cleaned off.

What to cover and how to store the product

If you managed to grow a crystal from salt, someday the time will come to take it out. Be sure to dry it from any moisture. Salt crystals are afraid of it, since their material dissolves well in water. Can save you from unwanted effects protective covering, for example, colorless transparent nail polish.

Salt crystals are fragile, so they should be protected from impacts and other strong mechanical influences.

Video: salt crystal

How to properly grow a crystal from salt, how to further decorate it and protect it from the effects of time, you can learn from the video materials. You can also admire the beautiful specimens grown by lovers of such an interesting art, and be inspired for similar feats.

Crystal... This word really reeks of magic. I don’t know about the magical properties of crystals, but the various useful physical properties they definitely have. Crystals are widely used in modern electronics, optics and other fields of technology. And, of course, the crystals are simply beautiful. They attract the eye with their regular shape and natural symmetry. Moreover, this applies not only to precious crystals, but also to crystals grown from improvised means.

We already know something about the crystalline state of matter from the article on. It's time to move on to practical exercises :)

The crystal growth experiment has a number of features. One of these features is the duration of the experiment. The point is that a good and beautiful, and, most importantly, large crystal cannot be grown quickly. This takes time. That is why the experience of growing crystals over nine days was developed in the section where you could observe the progress of the process and, perhaps, even conduct your own experiment in parallel. This article is a generalization of the information obtained during the experiment. So, instructions for those who want to grow a crystal themselves.

For this we will need:

The container in which the crystal will grow. It is best if the container is transparent, for example, glass jar. In this case, it will be convenient to monitor the progress of the process.
A small piece of cardboard to cut out the lid for the container
Funnel
Filter paper or any material with which you can filter the solution. You can use a napkin.
Thread. It is better to take a thinner and smoother thread, for example, silk.
And, of course, the substance from which we will grow the crystal. Copper sulfate is used in the experiment. The crystal from it should turn out to be a beautiful blue color. In addition, it is quite easy to get copper sulfate - it is usually sold at any gardening store. If you were unable to find copper sulfate or are simply too lazy to go to the store, then you can use any crystalline substance, for example, ordinary table salt or sugar.

Before starting the experiment, I must warn you, in case you want to repeat it, about personal safety measures. You will be working with chemicals that may be harmful to you. Do not use food containers for your experiment, use protective equipment (gloves, goggles), and wash your laboratory glassware thoroughly. If chemicals come into contact with your skin or eyes, rinse thoroughly with water. If ingested, consult a doctor.

Well, the formalities are over, let's get started.

Day 1.

As I already said, growing crystals is a procedure that has some peculiarities. Another feature of this experiment, in addition to its duration, is the need to grow the so-called seed, i.e. a small crystal from which a larger crystal will grow. You can do without a seed, but in this case it is difficult to grow a beautiful single crystal. Therefore, it is better to grow the seed, especially since there is nothing complicated about it.

Let's prepare a saturated solution.

Let's pour a little copper sulfate into a glass container (hereinafter I will talk about copper sulfate, since it is what is involved in the experiment; you use the substance that you managed to find).

Pour the salt (copper sulfate is sulfur-copper salt) with a small amount of hot water. The use of hot water is mandatory, because... At elevated temperatures, the solubility of salts increases.

It is better to place the container on water bath so that the solution does not cool ahead of time.

Stir the salt until it dissolves, then add more salt and stir again. We repeat this until the salt stops dissolving in the water.

Thus, we have obtained a saturated salt solution.

Now the resulting solution needs to be filtered. This must be done so that no foreign particles, such as dust or impurities, remain in the solution. Foreign particles may serve additional centers crystallization, i.e. other crystals will begin to form around them, but we don’t need that. At this stage of the experiment this is not very critical, but later the purity of the solution will be very important.

After filtering, you need to throw a few salt crystals into the solution - seeds will begin to form on them.

Now the container needs to be placed in a place where a more or less constant temperature regime will be ensured (a window sill is great for this), and covered with something to prevent foreign impurities from entering.

The solution will begin to cool and become supersaturated, i.e. salt will begin to become more in solution than it can dissolve at a given temperature. The salt will begin to crystallize, and the crystallization centers will be those grains of salt that we added to the saturated solution. You will need to wait 2-3 days. After this, we will proceed to the next stage of the experiment.

Day 2.

It can be seen that crystals began to form at the bottom of the vessel.

Day 3.

The crystals have grown. In principle, they are large enough to use as seeds, but I will try to keep them for another day.

Day 4.

Well, enough time has already passed, and we have formed good material for seeding. All that remains is to choose a suitable candidate.

Already quite beautiful, isn't it? But we will not stop there and will continue our experiment.

At first glance, it seems that the resulting mass of crystals is a monolith, but in fact, separating the crystals is not particularly difficult.

Try to choose a crystal of the most correct shape. I chose not the largest one available, but I liked its shape the most. The more correct the shape of the seed, the more correct the crystal shape will be in the future. To make the size of the seed more clear, I put a match next to it.

Now you need to tie a thread to the seed. As I wrote at the beginning of the article, it is better to take a thread that is less fluffy so that side crystals do not form on its protruding fibers. Do not use wire as a hanger.

Now the thread with the seed needs to be threaded through the lid of the container and secured on the back side. You need to secure it in such a way that you can adjust the height of the suspension at any time. For example, you can wind excess thread onto a match from the reverse side or secure the thread with a paper clip.

Now we need to prepare a fresh salt solution. It is done in the same way as for seeding: dissolving salt in hot water until it stops dissolving, filtering the solution. We place our seed in this fresh solution. Make sure that the seed does not touch the bottom and walls of the container, otherwise the crystal will begin to grow in an irregular shape.

And now we have two options. The first one is more complex. It requires more attention and effort. The fact is that the most beautiful and regular crystals are obtained when the crystallization process is slow. Therefore, we need to ensure smooth cooling of the salt solution. To do this, we need to place our container with the seed in thermal vessels and constantly monitor the temperature of the solution. Speaking in simple language, quite a lot of fuss. But the reward for such efforts is worthwhile - the crystal will be as pure and correct in shape as possible.

The second way is much simpler. You placed the seed in a hot solution and can forget about it for a while, leaving the crystallization process to chance. With this method, the growing crystal may not have an ideal shape, but the growth process will be faster.

I chose the second path. In the end, having followed a simpler path and gained some experience, I can always do a more complex version of the experiment. In addition, you need to keep in mind that quick option experience - this does not mean that it can be completed in a couple of hours. Even with accelerated experimentation, the crystal will grow for several days. In the case of a long-term option, the experiment can last for 1 – 2 months.

But in both cases, you need to monitor the growth of the crystal. There is no need to take out the crystal and touch it again - this may affect its shape. If side crystals begin to form on a crystal or thread, they must be carefully removed so that they do not spoil the shape of the main crystal.

And one moment. If you put a seed into the solution, and it does not begin to increase, but quite the opposite, it dissolves, then this means that you have prepared an unsaturated solution. The solution preparation procedure will have to be repeated.

So we continue to monitor the growth of the crystal. If you have any questions, you can contact me in the comments or through the form.

Day 5.

Over the course of a day, the crystal grew significantly. The photo shows a crystal in comparison with a match and a crystal - a duplicate seed, which I left yesterday just in case.

However, as you can see, the crystal shape is not ideal; there are many defects. This is the result of rapid crystal growth. But I still like him :)

I refreshed the solution as I had done before and dropped the crystal into it again. Since the dimensions of the crystal increased significantly compared to the previous day, an adjustment to the height of the seed suspension was required. The experiment continues.

Day 6.

Crystal has grown up. I renewed the copper sulfate solution again.

Day 7.

The crystal barely fits into my glass! Don’t forget to clean the thread from growing small crystals.

Day 8.

Day 9.

Well, here comes, I believe, the last day of the experiment. The latter is not because the crystal will not be able to grow further, but because it has become a little cramped in my laboratory glassware. We take out the crystal, cut the thread to the very root and blot it with napkins. We are one step away from admiring our work of art. The fact is that if you leave the crystal as is, it will soon collapse. To prevent this from happening, it needs to be “dressed” in a protective shell. The best option is to cover it with clear varnish. You can also place it in a hermetically sealed container, for example, a jar. But it seems to me that best option- this is still to cover it with varnish. This will give it additional shine, and it will be possible to observe it, as they say, live, and not through glass.

Now you can take a good look at the crystal. Of course, its shape was not ideal. But I deliberately chose the fast path of crystal growth instead of the high-quality one. In any case, I was pleased with the result. In nine days, the crystal grew more than seven centimeters in length - quite a good result!

I even wanted to give it a name. They give it large and unique precious stones names. For example, how the famous diamond was given the name “Count Orlov”. My crystal, of course, is far from a diamond, but it is dear to me in its own way :) Therefore, not without a bit of humor, I decided to call the resulting seven-centimeter pebble Baby.

Good luck with your experiments!

Growing crystals at home is a very exciting process, but quite lengthy. In this article we will tell you how to grow a large and beautiful crystal from ordinary table salt.

How to grow a crystal from salt

You can grow a crystal from different salts (from a chemical point of view), but the easiest way to grow a crystal at home is from ordinary table salt (its chemical name sodium chloride NaCl).
Important note! You should not paint the solution from which your crystal grows with any paints. This will only ruin everything, and the crystal will still not be colored.

The process of growing a crystal from salt at home does not require any special knowledge or chemical reagents or preparations. Every family has table salt that we use for food. If we look at salt under magnification, we will see that it consists of transparent cubes. These are salt crystals. Our task is only to give these crystals a beautiful shape.

Growing a crystal from salt at home

Let's move on directly to growing a crystal from salt. First, let's make a salt solution. To do this, pour water (preferably distilled) into any small container and place it in a larger container, which also contains water, but warm, 50-60 degrees. This temperature can be easily set on some models of electric kettles. For those who do not have such a miracle kettle, we can recommend mixing one part of the required volume of just boiled water and two parts of water at room temperature. This will be approximately 50-60 degrees. Then pour the salt into a small container and, stirring, leave for about 5 minutes. During this time, the container with water will heat up and the salt will completely dissolve. Then add more salt, mix again and leave until completely dissolved. This procedure must be continued until the salt stops dissolving in the water. What we got is called brine. Carefully pour the saturated solution into a container of the same volume. Make sure that undissolved salt does not fall into the new container.
Now select a larger crystal from the bag of salt and carefully place it on the bottom of the container with a saturated saline solution. The main work is finished - now just wait! After a couple of days you will notice the growth of the crystal, and our crystal will get bigger and bigger every day!

Advice! To speed up the process, after a few days, remove the enlarged crystal from the solution. Prepare a saturated salt solution again and lower our crystal into it. This way it will grow much faster!

This is how easy it is to grow a crystal from salt at home. Send us photos of your crystals, and we will be happy to publish them on the pages of our website.

What do you need to grow crystals at home?

It will take from 1 to 7 months to grow a crystal, depending on the desired dimensions. Before starting its manufacture, care must be taken to create suitable conditions. There should be no humidity or significant temperature changes in the room. You also need to prepare equipment for creating a solution:

an enamel or glass container of the required volume;
stirring stick made of wood, enamel or glass;
filter paper or high-quality napkins.

To make the stone you will need water and the ingredients specified in the selected recipe. You can use a ready-made kit for producing stones, which is commercially available. During the process of creating a stone, you must wear rubber gloves and a hat (scarf, medical cap). Following these measures will prevent hair from getting into the liquid and protect your hands from exposure to the concentrate. When the solution is exposed to inflamed or wounded skin, pain and condition occur. skin will get worse.

How to grow crystals yourself from ordinary table salt and water?

How to grow a crystal using salt? Crystals are obtained from both table salt and sea salt. Many people prefer the latter option, because stones made from sea salt are more durable, and the maturation time is slightly reduced.

Salt crystal

Growing a crystal step by step (see video):

take a clean container, pour water that has undergone the distillation process into it;
add a lot of salt (you will have to make an effort when stirring);
after the salt has been mixed, the solution must be kept in a steam bath;
Cool the salty liquid and pass through filter paper to separate the sediment;
take a crystal of salt, tie it to the end of a thread and place it in the strained solution (instead of a salt crystal, you can use a small plastic ball or cube, previously soaked in the solution and dried);
tie the opposite edge of the thread to a stick or pencil, the length of which exceeds the diameter of the neck of the container;
place a stick with a thread on the neck of the dish so that the crystal hangs over the solution;
cover the container with paper or breathable fabric;
place in a place not subject to temperature changes.

Salt crystal

Within a month, the magic crystal will increase to the size of a bean. After 3 months, its diameter will reach 3.5 cm. Then the salt stone will continue to grow. It is convenient to observe the process of growing a crystal if it is in a transparent container. When it increases to the desired size, the crystal is slowly removed and wiped with a napkin. To give your pebble strength, you should coat it with non-colored manicure varnish.

Even a child can make such crystals with his own hands. Children's stores sell kits for growing artificial stones of various colors.

How to create a crystal from citric acid

The citric acid method of making stone requires more time and effort. To create a crystal yourself, you need to take 100 ml of water at a temperature of 20°C and dissolve 130 g of citric acid in it. The temperature of the liquid must remain the same, so the solution must be heated during the preparation process. For this purpose, use a container of hot water, lowering the container with the solution into it and monitoring the heating of the liquid using a thermometer.

Citric acid crystal

Citric acid should be periodically added to the liquid throughout the week until it stops dissolving. The consistency is reminiscent of jelly, and small crystals will settle at the bottom of the dish. The resulting mixture must be poured into a jar through filter paper. One of the crystals that has settled to the bottom must be wrapped with a thread or fishing line and placed in the liquid.

After 12 days, the crystal will reach about 11 cm in diameter. It can be carefully removed and coated with clear manicure polish. If you are planning to grow your own stone bigger size, leave it in the container to continue growing. Growing a crystal from citric acid is presented in the video.

Instructions for growing sweet crystals from sugar

Sugar crystals are edible. To prepare the treat you will need 5 cups of sugar, 2 cups of water, a few drops of food coloring (optional), wooden sticks, paper napkins.

Sugar crystal

To make sweets correctly, you must follow the instructions:

Heat ¼ cup of water in an enamel bowl and dissolve 2.5 tbsp. l. granulated sugar;
pour a couple of spoons of sugar onto a napkin, immerse wooden sticks dipped in the prepared syrup into it (it is important that the sugar covers the stick evenly so that the crystal comes out symmetrical);
let the sticks dry completely;
in a saucepan, mix 1.75 cups of water with 1.8 cups of sugar;
After the sugar has completely dissolved, pour out the remaining granulated sugar into syrup, keep on fire for another 15 minutes;
take several square napkins and pierce them in the center with chopsticks;
quickly pour the syrup into glasses, add a little dye to each and place sticks there, which should not come into contact with the bottom and edges of the containers.

The napkins will not only serve as a holder for the sticks, but also protect the syrup from dust and foreign substances. The sugar solution must be kept for about 14 days, after which you can remove the homemade crystals and treat your family and guests. If you plan to give treats to children, it is better not to add dyes or use natural juices of fruits and berries instead.

Sugar crystal

From copper sulfate

Magic blue crystals can be made at home from copper sulfate. To make artificial stones, you will need distilled water and copper sulfate, which is sold in a gardening store. It is important that the copper powder is uniform in consistency and has an even blue color without any inclusions.

Vitriol crystal

Before starting cultivation, you need to prepare a solution of 100 g of vitriol and hot water. It is important to pour in the liquid gradually, carefully stirring the solution. The result should be a bright liquid in which the copper sulfate can no longer dissolve. The resulting mixture must be cooled, strained and placed in a cool place.

The next day, crystals will appear at the bottom. It is necessary to select the largest one, tie it with a thread and hang it, immersing it in the solution. The jar needs to be covered with paper and the stone needs to grow for several weeks. The copper sulfate crystal is slowly removed, washed in cold water, dried and covered with transparent manicure varnish (see photo). There are kits for growing crystals based on copper sulfate.

Copper sulfate crystal

Beautiful and colorful crystals

How to grow a beautiful crystal? To do this, it is necessary to use aluminum alum. This substance is sold through pharmacies and is sold at a low price.

Alum (6 tbsp) should be mixed with 0.5 liters of boiled water until it is completely dissolved. After this, the mixture should be left for several days. At this time, you cannot shake the jar or mix the solution: the liquid must be at rest.

After a week, crystals form at the bottom of the jar. You need to select the largest one, make a hole in it and hang it on a thread. The crystal is placed in the strained solution, and the container is covered thick paper. After 2 weeks the stone beautiful shape will grow several times. It looks very attractive and has smooth edges.

To make colored crystals, you can use not only food coloring and copper sulfate. To create a red stone, you need a substance called hexacyanoferrate III (red blood salt). For 100 g of powder, take 170 ml of water at a temperature of 95°C and mix the components.

To make a single stone, you need to take a crystal of table salt hanging on a thread and send it into the solution. To grow a garden of ruby crystals, you need to place a granite stone in a container. The red crystal takes about a month to mature. When its top appears above the surface of the water, the pebble is removed.

To get a magical colored crystal from sugar, salt or other ingredients, you can use colored manicure polish. Dyes for Easter eggs are also added to the solution.

Business idea: how to grow ruby, sapphire and other artificial stones?

Making stones can be a good business idea. Crystals are not precious, so a corresponding license is not required.

Ruby crystals

For mass cultivation artificial crystals you need a special apparatus with which you can make durable stones of various colors. The Verneuil apparatus, named after its inventor, will help in growing ruby, sapphire, emerald, topaz, and diamond crystals up to 30 carats in a matter of hours. To grow crystals of different shades, you need to select the type and composition of salts - this comes with experience. The resulting stones are distinguished by their transparency and beautiful tints. They lend themselves well to grinding and cutting. The apparatus for growing crystals consists of:

funnels into which powder mixed with Al₂O₃ and Cr₂O₃ is placed;
oxygen-hydrogen burner;
iron stand on which the crystal grows.

Processing artificial sapphire boules

The business of manufacturing gems, including rubies, is very profitable. Why? To produce a 30-carat ruby, you will need only 3 hours of time, 9 kW of electricity, 0.2 g of chromium oxide and 6 g of aluminum oxide. In total, the cost for one large stone will be about $3. In a couple of months of work, you can recoup the starting costs for the device (36 thousand rubles) and containers (4 thousand rubles). It is not necessary to rent a room, because it is possible to grow crystals at home.

It is important to find regular customers and identify a sales market for yourself. You can sell your products to jewelry companies, specialized stores and private customers. The entrepreneur will calculate how many units of goods need to be produced per day after developing a customer base.

Sometimes you want to do something interesting at home, for example, do a simple chemical experiment. Surely each of us is interested in how to make a crystal at home. This activity will definitely appeal not only to small children, but also to adults. Growing a crystal from salt does not require much effort, and the result will certainly please and delight everyone in the household.

What is needed to grow a crystal?

In order to grow a crystal from salt at home, you need to stock up necessary materials. Some of them are in any home, and some may have to be purchased in the store. It is also important to remember that salt microlith will not grow in a few hours. You may have to wait about 3-4 weeks, or even more.

Materials:

1. Salt.

This material is the basis for home-grown microlith. The formula for table salt is NaCl. Salt usually dissolves in warm water. In our case, it will react with water, forming compactions that will turn into microlites. It is better to use pure salt without impurities, which will ensure the success of the experiment.

It is best to use distilled water, which is used in chemical experiments for the purity of the experiment. If this is not possible, you can use filtered water. This way there will be no unnecessary impurities in it that could interfere with the growth of the crystal.

3. Capacity.

It is important to consider the material from which, for example, a cup is made. The crystal will grow in it, so the choice of container should be taken with special responsibility. The glass must be non-metallic so that the metal does not react with the salt. The glass must first be rinsed and washed from foreign debris or grains of sand, because they can contribute to the growth of small microlites.

4. Thread, wire or a thick piece of table salt.

These elements are the most important part of the chemical experiment. A thread with wire or a piece of salt will become the basis for the future crystal, the “core” around which the salt seal will grow. You can choose a piece of table salt close to the shape of a parallelepiped, which can easily be found at the bottom of a half-empty salt shaker.

5. Wooden skewer.

A wooden stick will also work. It is necessary for stirring the finished solution.

6. Napkins.

Paper napkins are needed to remove excess liquid. Suitable for this purpose toilet paper or paper tissues.

7. Filter paper.

Such paper is a necessary component of almost any chemical experiment.

8. Clear nail polish.

To add shine to the finished microlite, you need to cover it with transparent nail polish.

All materials for creating a crystal can also be found in craft stores. There are special boxes with ready-made ingredients for growing microliths at home.

Determination of the crystal base

To grow a beautiful crystal, It is important to decide on the basis:

if you use a piece of salt as a base, the microlith will turn out traditional;
if you take a thread with wire, you can get unique and original crystal shapes;
If you simply take a thread and lower it into the prepared solution so that it floats freely in it without touching the bottom and walls of the container, you will get an elongated microlith.

Following step by step instructions, you can get an original microlite grown at home:

To make the crystal grow faster, you can cheat and add a new salt-saturated solution once a week. This way it will form much faster and will be larger in size. A microlith can grow in a completely unusual shape - growing over an object (wire or piece of salt) in different directions. This is the beauty of a home crystal. A properly grown crystal will have clearly visible edges and protrusions.

The prepared solution should be stored in a cool place where there are no drafts. You should not choose a bathroom with high humidity for your “home” container. It is better to place the microlith on the windowsill with the window closed. Do not expose the crystal to sharp influences - no need to shake, tilt or push the container. It is important to remember that the crystal we are growing is very fragile and brittle, and any mechanical impact on it can lead to unpleasant consequences for growth.

If you want experiment with the structure and color of microlite, you should pay attention to the following components:

copper sulfate, which will make the crystal deep blue;
sea salt colored with food coloring;
colored varnish instead of clear varnish to cover the crystal.

Experimenting with growing crystals from salt at home is interesting and exciting, especially if you control the process of chemical experiment yourself. A microlith made with your own hands will definitely bring a lot of positive emotions, and the waiting time will definitely be worth it.