Steps:
Cut one pipe cleaner into three equal sections.
Twist together the three sections of pipe cleaner at their centers to form a six-pointed star.
Cut the ends of the pipe cleaners, so it can go through the opening of the jar. Make sure the snowflake can fit through the jar without any squeezing.
Cut a 10 inch (25cm) piece of string.
Tie one end of the string to the center of the pipe cleaner snowflake.
Lay the pencil across the opening of the container and lower the pipe cleaners into the jar. Don’t let the snowflake touch the bottom of the jar.
Tie the other end of the string to the pencil,, so the snowflake hangs freely in the jar. Take the pencil with the snowflake out of the jar and set it aside when you are done.
Pour a pot of boiling water into the jar and fill it ¾ of the way.
Add 3 tablespoons of borax powder into the jar of water. Stir the solution carefully since it’s hot and get all the borax to dissolve. If there are no borax pieces on the bottom of the container, add another tablespoon and stir. Keep adding and stirring borax until none will dissolve into the water anymore. It’s OK if some borax settles to the bottom of the container.
Add food coloring if you prefer some color. More coloring is better than a few. Lower the snowflake into the hot solution and let it sit undisturbed overnight. It’s not a good idea to bump into it or move it, so make sure to put it in a out-of-the-way place.
The next day, lift the pencil out carefully.
Untie/cut the string from the pencil and you’ve got a beautiful crystal snowflake!
The science behind it:
When you mixed the borax and water, you created a suspension—a mixture that contains solid particles large enough to make the liquid appear cloudy or murky—of borax. By mixing the borax into hot water, instead of room temperature or cold water, the borax can stay suspended much longer. Very hot water can hold much more dissolved borax than cold water. Hot water molecules are moving very fast and are spread way out which makes space available for more borax to dissolve into it. As the mixture cools, the water molecules slow down and move closer together. That means there’s less room for the dissolved borax and it begins to fall out of the water.
As the borax settles out out of the cooling suspension due to gravity, it bonds with other borax on nucleation sites (bumps, tiny cracks, impurities, etc. in the container) and begins to form seeds for further crystallization. Crystals come together in specific, repeated patterns due to the shape of the molecules forming them. You’ll see this crystallization on the bottom and sides of the container, on the string hanging from the pencil, and on the pipe cleaner arms of the snowflake. The borax continues to fall and crystalize on top of the snowflake and on top of other borax crystals until you pull it out of the water the next morning.
What’s winter without snow or snowflakes? The only downside is that they usually melt very quickly. A borax crystal snowflake can prevent that from happening. Moreover, this project is perfect to add a wintery look to your room or use it as an ornament to decorate your Christmas tree. To achieve a stunning snowflake follow the directions below:
Materials:
- Pipe cleaners (white, if possible)
- Ball of String
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Glass Jar (safe for boiling water)
- Borax
- Food coloring (optional)
- Boiling water
- Stick for stirring
Winter’s Best Crafting Recipe: Borax Crystal Snowflake
by: Connie Tan