Description
Create beautiful borax crystal flowers using simple household materials. This fun and educational craft project involves shaping pipe cleaners into flower forms and growing sparkling crystals overnight in a borax solution. Perfect for kids and adults alike, these decorative crystal flowers make unique DIY decor while demonstrating basic principles of crystallization.
Ingredients
Scale
Materials
- 3 tablespoons borax powder
- 1 cup boiling water
- Pipe cleaners (shaped into flowers)
- String
- Pencil or stick
- Wide-mouth glass jars or containers
- Optional: Food coloring
Instructions
- Shape Pipe Cleaners: Twist pipe cleaners securely into flower shapes, ensuring they hold together firmly for the crystal growth process.
- Prepare Suspension: Tie a piece of string to each pipe cleaner flower, then tie the other end to a pencil or stick. This setup allows the flower to hang freely when the pencil rests across the top of a jar.
- Make Borax Solution: In a heat-safe container, dissolve 3 tablespoons of borax powder into 1 cup of boiling water by stirring until fully dissolved. Add a few drops of food coloring if you want tinted crystals.
- Submerge Flowers: Pour the hot borax solution into wide-mouth jars, then suspend the pipe cleaner flowers in the solution ensuring they do not touch the sides or bottom.
- Crystal Growth: Leave the jars undisturbed overnight to allow crystals to form and grow on the flowers.
- Dry and Display: Next morning, remove the crystal-covered flowers gently and place them on paper towels to dry. Once dry, you can display or hang your sparkling crystal flowers as decorations.
Notes
- Adult supervision is recommended, especially when handling boiling water.
- The more saturated the solution (adding extra borax), the larger and more abundant the crystals will be.
- Crystals stop forming once the solution cools completely and becomes saturated.
- These crystal flowers are decorative only and not safe to eat.
- Using food coloring is optional and can add vibrant hues to your crystals.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Craft
- Method: No-Cook
- Cuisine: Not applicable
