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Crystal Geode Science Lab

Kit Overview

Create gorgeous ‘Amethyst Geode’, ‘Citrine Heart’ and ‘Emerald Crystals’ for your crystal collection. Loads of tools, moulds and ingredients and two fabulous display cases

  • Age Group: 8+
  • Branches of Science: Earth Sciences
  • Kit Code: WES/95L
  • Crystal Geode Science Lab Details & FAQS

In a few days you can create the most gorgeous ‘Amethyst’ and ‘Citrines’ to display in your very own Crystal Collection. They look totally real – but you don’t have to wait a few million years! This kit contains casting plaster, special moulds, safe crystal chemical, special dyes, fabulous display cases and more. You’ll learn about gemology, crystallography, geology and chemistry. All while having HUGE amount of fun. And its not over yet – lastly you can create beautiful Emerald Seed Crystals.

See Crystal Geode Science Lab FAQ's
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Crystal Geode Science Lab help

Crystal Geode Science Lab FAQ's

Could be your water quality, or adding a bit too much water to the mix, or making it on a very humid day and/or leaving the plaster powder open to the air for too long.

Leave it for an hour or two. If it is still soft, dig out the mix, and just add a bit more dry plaster powder* and stir until it is really really thick. Then smooth it back into the mould with a spoon or knife. If it sets OK, when you make the geode, reduce liquid amounts to make a very stiff mixture to put in the mould.

* BTW we use regular good quality ‘craft shop’ plaster-of-paris powder.

Sorry to hear you have ‘crystallised your carpet’.

The base chemical is ammonium monophosphate which is itself colourless and harmless. ( It is also an agricultural fertilizer.)

1 If it is this alone that you have spilled, just use a sponge in cold or room temp water to repeatedly and alternately to soak, dissolve and then re-absorb the chemical in the wrung out sponge. Try not to let the patch spread out too far.

2 If the weather is very dry, you could also wait until it has dried out totally and you have white powdery crystals showing up, then vacuum thoroughly. If you have a beater-head on the cleaner, all the better. Then, just to finish off, try the sponge treatment too.

3 If you have spilled the chemical with the (food) colourant in it, best start with strategy 2. After vacuuming then use a carpet stain remover liquid and sponge on and off. That should do it. If some stain still remains, use ‘Napisan’ or another non-chlorine based clothes stain remover.

4 If some stain still remains – sorry, you just have to wait. The colourant is food grade and biodegradable and will loose colour with time and wear.

In nearly all cases the cascading of small crystals is due to tiny impurities: extra ‘nucleation’ points in the water or the dish or the air or the cup or spoon etc. This will starve the ball or geode of material – so yes they will take much longer to form up on the ball, if at all. Sorry, we cannot control water quality or air quality.

A Fix: ‘Mum’ tips the solution with all the tiny crystals into a clean pan and reheats and stirs them with a clean spoon until all are dissolved. Do not boil. And please do not boil in the Microwave. WARNING: a solution like this if boiled can get hotter than boiling water – so an ADULT MUST DO IT! (If the bath was covered continuously before, the solution might now have too much water in relation to crystals if some crystals did form on the ball or geode. So keep the solution hot e.g: for about 10 minutes to steam off some of the water to re-saturate or strengthen the solution.) Cool it to just ‘hot to touch’ temperature = about 50° C. Then tip it into the very clean bath and put the Ball or geode in … and cover. You may need to lower the Ball to be just under the liquid. This will not get rid of dust there from the start but the Ball ( geode) will have crystals already formed which are the preferred nucleation sites 2nd time round.

Crystallization rate depends largely on temperature and humidity in the home, no matter what we specify in the booklets. Temperature and humidity play a great part in the speed of crystal formation. Crystals form – but slowly and usually they are bigger. But it may take a week or more. We suggest re saturating your liquids with more chemical in very hot solution. Hotter than hand warm – which is the safe temperature for children. So try putting the bottle in a bath of newly boiled water, until more dissolves. Carefully decant the very hot saturated liquid into the well. Let the saturated liquid to cool in a dust-free place. You will get crystals growing as it cools unless the laws of solubility and temperature are broken. Then as the liquid evaporates the crystals will enlarge. Dusty air or impure water can also lead to extraneous nucleation points leading to cascades of smaller crystals. So clean water and clean air for best results.

If you dissolve lots of small crystals in water until no more will dissolve, you have made a SATURATED solution. The hotter the water, the more chemical crystals you can dissolve before it gets saturated. The solution is usually a lot denser ( or heavier) than plain water, so our Magic Rocks ( in some kits only) will float when the solution is saturated. It is one scientific way of knowing if a liquid is plain water or has dissolved chemical in it. Then as the solution cools or dries out, the water just can’t hold that much chemical in solution. So crystals start to form. And they are usually a LOT bigger than the ones you put in.

Squish a spoonful of regular white crystals from the jar into the wet plaster. If possible, try and find the biggest crystals you can to do this. The bigger the seed crystals, the better they work, and the crystals from the Citrine Heart are ideal. But you should still get a nice looking Emerald Geode even using small crystals.