Tuesday 18 December 2012

Borax Crystal Pine Cone - result! (and failure?)

pine cone, Borax crystals, crystal, Christmas decoration, craft
The brown bit is the pine
cone
Hurray! It worked better than I expected. I opened the jar with the greatest of ease and the aid of some hot water. The picture over there on the left is what I saw when I opened it - solid crystals with the pine cone embedded. 

pine cone, Borax crystals, crystal, Christmas decoration, craft
Borax crystal pinecone on
the Christmas tree 
Here, on the right, is a photo of the pine cone on the tree taken using the flash. It doesn't do it justice...neither does the below photo without the flash. It's a twinkly, sparkly, possibly toxic, beautiful, crystally piece of nature.







pine cone, Borax crystals, crystal, Christmas decoration, craft
The flat bit from where it
was against the side of the jar
(also what it looked like
without flash)

Useful information: Apparently "Borax" is no longer available in shops in the UK because of EU regulations. Borax substitute can be used for this (and the other similar projects) but yields less impressive crystals, I am told. 

Other points to note: I do feel this is kind of cheating as it was not a craft we did today and the Zeds were not involved at all. Z1 had a plan to make candy canes out of paper but we got distracted by Elfing ourselves and then it was pretty much time for bed. You may judge whether I can consider myself to have failed in my aim to conquer Christmas. I think I am going to let myself off the hook and say I have continued in the spirit of the project.





19 comments:

  1. Ha - this is brilliant - and no you can't got borax over here - I tried for a similar experiment Blue wanted to do - I forget what it was now. Your pine cones look great - perhaps you can send me some borax over and beat the EU embargo that way...

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    Replies
    1. Erm, not sure if I'll be sending fine white powder through the post! I did read of someone who got some on eBay though...

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  2. Total success! I've loved reading about your crafty adventures! So excited to see you all soon, xxx

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  3. لاشك ان شركه الحورس تعد افضل شركه خدمات منزليه التي منها (التنظيف/رش مبيدات/مكافحه حشرات/تسليك مجاري/كشف تسربات المياه/تنظيف خزانات..)وعديد من الخدمات التي تلزم البيت او الفله نحن بخدمتك عزيزي العميل.
    شركه نقل اثاث وعفش بالطائف
    شركه تنظيف بالطائف
    افضل شركه مكافحة حشرات بالطائف
    شركه كشف تسربات المياه بالطائف
    حيث شركتنا تتميز باداء الخدمه علي افضل وجهه حيث نعد شركه رش مبيدات بالطائف
    شركه تنظيف خزانات بالطائف

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