Tie the other end of the fishing line to a pencil, then set the pencil across the top of the jar so the seed crystal is suspended in the alum solution without touching the sides or bottom of the jar. This can be tricky a pair of tweezers will help! If you need to, you can score a groove in the crystal to hold the line in place.Ħ. Get someone to help you tie the fishing line to the seed crystal. Remove the biggest and best-looking of the small crystals from the saucer to use as your seed crystal.ĥ. Pour the solution into a clean beaker or jar avoid pouring any undissolved material.Ĥ. Make another saturated alum solution with about 1/2 cup of hot water. When they look to be a good size, carefully pour off the solution.ģ. The next day you should see small crystals growing in the dish. (You can pour it through a coffee filter if necessary.)Ģ. Make sure you only pour the clear solution, not any of the undissolved material. Pour a little bit of this solution into a shallow dish or saucer and let it sit undisturbed overnight. Keep adding the alum until no more will dissolve: this is a saturated solution. In one 250 ml beaker, slowly add alum to 1/4 cup of very hot tap water, stirring to dissolve.
Saucer or shallow dish ( plastic petri dishes works, too)ġ.Alum (you can often find this in the spice aisle of the grocery store).You can grow single, large crystals that look like gems by using a seed crystal. To grow large single crystals, you’ll need to follow the evaporation procedure in the next project. Crystals grown this way will be small, thin, and numerous. As the solution cools, the magnesium sulfate atoms run into each other and join together in a crystal structure. Cooling the solution rapidly encourages fast crystal growth, since there is less room for the dissolved salt in the cooler, denser solution. The temperature of the water determines how much magnesium sulfate it can hold it will dissolve more when it is hotter. Epsom salt is another name for the chemical magnesium sulfate.
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