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Crystal Recipes

Here's a collection of recipes and instructions for growing your own crystals.
Quick Crystal Growing Projects
Grow crystals quickly and easily with these top crystal growing projects.
Rock Candy Instructions
Rock candy is candy made by crystallizing sugar. You can grow sugar crystals yourself, plus add color and flavor to make rock candy that you can eat.
Seed Crystal Instructions
A seed crystal is a small single crystal that you use to grow a much larger crystal from a saturated crystal solution. This is how you can grow a seed crystal yourself.
Ammonium Phosphate Crystals (Easy)
Monoammonium phosphate crystals are among the quickest, easiest, and safest crystals you can grow. Learn how to grow these crystals yourself.
Big Alum Crystal
Do you want to grow a big single crystal instead of a mass of crystals? Then try out these instructions for growing a big alum crystal. You can apply the techniques used here to grow big single crystals of other substances, too.
Borax Snowflake
Do real snowflakes melt too quickly? Grow a borax snowflake, color it blue if you like, and enjoy the sparkle all year long!
Calcium Copper Acetate Hexahydrate Crystals
Grow blue tetragonal crystals of calcium copper acetate hexahydrate.
Charcoal Crystal Garden
Make delicate, colorful crystals! This is a great classic crystal-growing project. You use charcoal briquettes (or other porous materials), ammonia, salt, bluing, and food coloring to grow a sort of crystal garden.
Copper Acetate Monohydrate Crystals
Grow your own blue-green monoclinic crystals of copper acetate monohydrate.
Crystal Spikes in the Sun
Most crystals take days or weeks to form. Use this technique if you have a sunny day and want crystals FAST!
Cup of Quick Crystal Needles
Grow a cupful of epsom salt crystal needles in your refrigerator. It's quick, easy, and safe.
Epsom Salt Crystals
Epsom salt crystals are easy to grow and form quickly. Here's what you need to know to make your own magnesium sulfate crystals.
Geode of Copper Sulfate Crystals
Geodes are rocks that contain crystals. Normally, millions of years are required for flowing water and minerals to deposit crystals, but you can make your own 'geode' in only a few days. Grow blue copper sulfate crystals inside an egg shell to make your own geode.
Glow in the Dark Crystal Geode
It's very easy to make a glow in the dark crystal geode. The rock is a natural mineral (eggshell). You can use one of several common household chemicals to grow the crystals. The glow comes from phosphorescent paint, which you can get from a craft store.
Glow-in-the-Dark Crystal Snowflake
Learn how to make a glow-in-the-dark crystal snowflake or other glowing holiday ornament. This is a safe and easy project that's great for kids and kids-at-heart. The crystal decorations are light-weight and inexpensive to make.
Magic Rocks - Chemical Garden
Learn about the chemistry behind magic rocks and make your own chemical crystal garden.
Orange Potassium Dichromate Crystals
Do you want crystals that are naturally bright and colorful? Grow orange crystals of potassium dichromate.
Patio Table Crystals
Turn the surface of your glass patio table into a safe place for kids to explore crystals. Here's an easy crystal project you can do on any warm, sunny day using ingredients from your kitchen.
Purple Chromium Alum Crystals
Learn how to grow purple chromium alum crystals and how to grow clear crystals over a core of colored crystals.
Quick Sheet Crystals
If you don't have the time or patience to grow crystals over hours, days, or longer, try growing these sheet crystals. You'll get results in seconds!
Red Potassium Ferricyanide Crystals
These are instructions for growing easy red monoclinic crystals. Don't let the 'cyanide' part of the chemical name put you off -- these crystals aren't edible, but neither are they more toxic than most other compounds.
Silver Crystals
All it takes is silver nitrate and either copper wire or mercury to grow these sparkling metal crystals.
Snow Globe Using Benzoic Acid
Snow made from water crystals melts at room temperature, but snow made from benzoic acid crystals will still be decorating your snow globe when the weather warms up. Here's how to make a snow globe by precipitating benzoic acid to make the 'snow'.
Sugar Crystals - Make Your Own Rock Candy
Sugar crystals are also known as rock candy since the crystallized sucrose resembles rock crystals and because you can eat your finished product. You can grow clear sugar crystals with sugar and water or you can add food coloring to get colored crystals. It's simple, safe, and fun.
Table Salt or Sodium Chloride Crystals
It's easy to grow your own table salt or sodium chloride crystals. All it takes is salt and boiling water. One method even yields crystals within a few hours. Here's what you need to know.
Tin Crystal Growing Instructions
It's easy to grow crystals of tin metal using a simple replacement reaction. You can see the crystals in an hour or so, or leave them overnight for more/larger crystals.

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