One more tip to add to these wonderful tips: Don't leave the jar with the leftover borax/water mixture on your art shelf above all your art supplies! The water eventually evaporates enough to start growing crystals in the bottom and up the sides of your jar and the glass cracks... all the remaining water leaks out and ruins everything next to and below it, lol! I will have to make more of these for some future geode pieces! Great tutorial video :-)
These crystals turn powder white over time. Don't use it in any project you want to last more than a couple of months. Glad I time tested this first before selling or gifting.
@@thefrugalresinista Food coloring is generally fugitive, it fades in light. Let us know if you try inks or other pigments to color the crystals, so we an see the results.
@@thefrugalresinista I was thinking of using them in my counter top and they would be sealed with resin. Instead of buying all the colors. I do just put a light coat of them on the top of the space not solid. Also, there is glow in the dark paint, water based that might be good to use. Water based paint may hold it's color. Not so much from tubes, it has a plastic tendency to it, but the water color kind. It comes in pots and is liquid like. It doesn't have that heavy plastic like acrylic does in house paints. If you can thin it out some. Try that and see what happens. Poster paint is what that kind is. Kids use it in school too. They make it in floresent too.
Oh WOW, so many questions (lol) Dose the color fade from food coloring, could one use alcohol ink or india ink instead or would that not work? Very cool I have to buy some borax and try this soon!!! Super cool thanks for sharing this project!
The color does fade unless you seal it as soon as it is dry. The green finished one that I show at the beginning of the video was sealed and held its color. I haven't tried alcohol or india ink. Try it! Maybe I will too. Sounds intriguing!
So neat. Going to get some borax today and try this with my 5 year old daughter. She is going to love this. I'm learning about the resin and making geodes with resin before I give it a go. I love art, any kind, and your videos have inspired me to want to learn a new medium with resin!! Thanks for sharing, you're so talented!!!
After you've had in the jar and got some crystals on it can you then move it to another jar with a different color mix and have more than one color crystals on it? Or would the newly formed crystals just cover up what was already there?
That's a good question. I don't know for sure. My thought would be that it would cover the other color but I could be wrong! I'll have to try it! Thanks so much for watching!
What a wonderful video! Keep up the good work. I think that it is a wonderful idea both for children and adults that do crafting. I know you kind of gave an example of how much to use but if you could be a little more specific in the measurements That would be so totally awesome
I know that you can grow them with Alum powder, Epsom salt and sugar. The sugar ones would be rock candy. I haven't done any of them but it would be fun to experiment and see if they work in resin! There are RU-vid tutorials for doing it with each of these. Maybe they would help? Bummer that you can't get Borax!
Hi, I am looking around for the post you mentioned where you finished the back of your geodes. I can’t seem to find it. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks.
I made crystal growing at school once ~ can’t remember what we used to make them ~ but they never turned out anywhere near as good as these have ~ 😂 ~ you should have been the Teacher!
Love the hello video gravy information well done that maybe just leave the words on the screen a little bit longer so that we can read it all I would get about halfway done and an become so love the video
you can also eat borax.. its just a simple mineral that is mined in California and Turkey, and is necessary for optimal health. It's not toxic at all. It doesn't unclog drains like Lye does... it works with soap to remove fats and oils that can clog drains or cause ring around the tub.
Thanks! I've heard from some people that their color is fading so I'm going to try it again with alcohol ink. Let me know how yours goes and if you use food coloring, just make sure to seal it when you are done!
Could you do a video to show us how you use them in the resin and the end project? Thanks. Really cool, by the way. I'm going to give this a try! Also, colored pipe cleaners co-ordinated to the color of the dye you use would keep any white from showing through the weaker crystal formations, I think.
OMG~ FABULOUSLY FUN! I ALWAYS SAY: ADDING SPARKLES TO YOUR DAY WILL CHASE THE BLUES AWAY! I could totally see attaching one or two or... on a painting, like a Dirty Pour. I'm excited to try this. And looking forward to seeing your other videos!
so the color stays vibrant with sealing? Can I then do anything with them or is putting it in resin the way to go? Thanks for this video I learned more. Yes my colors faded and I gave up. Ì thought why do this. My nephew will love this. I just subscribed. Ì usually pass them over cos mine never worked but now I know! 👍🏾
I finally made these last night. The instructions were difficult when you say to add Borax until no more will dissolve...I wound up with some on the bottom. (I now understand the instructions better!) But my crystals are stuck to the bottom of my glasses. ACK! Help - what do I do now? (And they. Are. STUCK.)
Oh no! I've totally done that before! You just have to really yank them out and let them break a bit but you can put them back in and grow more over the break.
Thank you for watching! If you want them to last a while, you will need to seal them as soon as they are dry. They can be sealed with resin or a thick layer of spray sealer.
Thanks so much for watching. I added a LOT of food coloring. My jars only held about two cups of water and I added between 10 and 20 drops of food coloring to each. Maybe just add more? I'm going to try this again soon with alcohol ink and see if the color is brighter.
Hi can i use boric acid instead of boric powder, or is that a complete no no. Im trying to get a hold of borax im in india. i love watching ur videos. Its awesome of you to share your creations.
These may sound like a kind of stupid questions, but, I've never tried making my own crystals before, so, I'm wanting to know about all of this. Would it be "feasible" to use a widemouth, quart - sized Mason jar so that the "geodes" would come out easier should they get big? Or, is the small jar somehow "required" to actually be able to *make* the geode crystals? Also, is it possible to put *too much" food coloring in the water mixture as to where crystals won't form? Thank you for answering my questions if you can.
Yep. Let me look back at it this evening to remember what I used! Also, I am going to re-create this video using some other supplies and see how it goes!
Not yet. I was trying to see how big I could grow the crystals and made them too fat. Ha ha ha! But I'm getting ready to do another crystal tutorial and will use those for a resin piece. Thanks for watching!
I have to spend extra time soaking my container with hot water to get rid of the crystals that grew on the sides and the bottom. Do you go through this too?
cool amazing stones! will mica powders or acrylic colour paints works instead of food colours ? what are other options to use in place of pipe cleaners if not available ? pls reply. this is good video.thanks.
Thanks for watching! I am actually getting ready to try this experiment again using a bunch of different products. I hadn't thought of mica powders. I will add that to the list!
At extreme quantities when mixed wrong. I make home made soap and mix borax water without gloves with no problems. It also isn't that caustic if it was it wouldn't mix right for soap.
I'm glad you're going to try them! Yes! I would actually use a wide mouth jar over the ones that I used. I really had to yank the white one out because it was stuck in the jar!
@what sealant do you use ? like a spray shellac ? or varnish ? Aren't they fun to Make !!! my next one im hoping to make a large one, i just have to find something big enough to hold all the liquid and yes the Grand children love making them to !!!
What a great idea! You are my new favorite subscription on RU-vid! Question - Can you break the crystals off the pipe cleaners and use them? Or do they disintegrate too much if you separate them from the pipe cleaners? Thanks so much for sharing this!
Oh my goodness. That is so nice of you to say. You can break them off. If you try to smash them up too much so that they are tiny, they will lose their shine and become powdery. I tend to do more breaking larger chunks off and then cutting the pipe cleaners they are stuck to with wire cutters as they separate. Then I still have bigger shiny chunks to use. Just make sure that you seal them well so that their color stays vibrant.
Thanks for watching. Sorry! I don't have a video for that one. It was the first large geode that I did and I wasn't making videos at the time. I can add it to my list of videos though! I'm slowly working through requests that people have for me.
My granddaughter will love doing this. She is a geode fan. please tell me what kind of food coloring you used. lately I have only been able to find gel food colors in not so nice shades.
Thanks so much! I haven't tried that yet but I bet you could just fill the glass part-way with all of the supplies and then flip the crystal and stick it in a different jar to have a different (or multiple different) color growing on the other side.
Ooohhh! That would be neat! You would just need to seal it REALLY well if you weren't going to put it in resin. Otherwise it will get powdery and the color will fade. Try it!
Thank you for watching! Borax is just a type of non-toxic soap base. People use it for making their own laundry detergent and dish soap. I know there are some other alternatives but they cost more so I have yet to try them. Here's the borax. It is pretty cheap and you get a LOT. Some grocery stores will also sell it, but not all. You could look for it with the household cleaners. amzn.to/2tGcWQY
Thank you so much for watching! Let me do my best... 1. Boil the water. 2. As soon as you finish boiling (while the water is really hot), add food coloring and mix Borax in until there is too much of it to dissolve and you can see some staying on the bottom. 3. Add your pipe cleaner as shown in the video (or whatever you are having the crystals grow on) Make sure the pipe cleaner is not touching the sides or bottom of the container. 4. Let sit for at least 8 hours. If you want the crystals to be bigger after 8 hours, you can take them out, re-boil the water, add more Borax and stick them back in and wait another 8 hours. 5. Seal them! Use a spray sealer or one that you paint on or the color will fade and the crystals will get powdery... Hope that helps! I'm actually getting ready to do another crystal video using other supplies. It should be done some time this week!
I would really like to try this. I do have a question and someone may have already asked and I missed it. When they are finished and you don’t want to use the whole thing, do you break the pieces off? I know that sounds simple but I get a little nervous when trying new things. BTW I absolutely love your tutorials. Thank you taking the time to teach others how to create the beautiful work that you do. I know I greatly appreciate it.
You can. It doesn't involve smashing them up as much as gently bending until they break (they are strong!) and then using small wire cutters to get the pipe cleaner apart in between your pieces. The one thing to watch is that you will need to seal all the new edges right away. When sealed, these look beautiful. But if you don't, they lose color fast! If you try to do more of a smash than a break, you will create a lot of disappointing borax powder.
Are these safe to sell I'm selling real geodes,crystals,and druzy but this seems convenient in just worried how they will be after a year if someone buys it from me
Well, I would say yes but I know that some people who have tried it have had the color fade. I'm getting ready to do another video and compare different ingredients and see what works best.
So I've done this method before and I find that any crystals I make come out looking great! And then a few days later they go all chalky and dry and start to get a white film over the surface. Do you know of a way to keep this from happening or do I need to be sealing the crystals as soon as they're dry or....?
I use the spray that I show at the end of my video and it seems to keep them looking shiny and nice. The green crystal that I show at the beginning was sprayed with it and seems to be holding up well. Hope that helps!
I am really excited about this! Have you tried any other ways of tinting the crystals? For instance, I want to make pink and its very challenging with standard food colors-the red has too much orange in it. Could you use high flow acrylic inks to tint the solution?
