How to Grow a Crystal Wedding Bouquet

Growing a crystal wedding bouquet is a fun, easy and cheap way to create a unique wedding bouquet. If you are interested in doing this for your wedding then it is a good idea to practice the technique for growing crystals on forms to master the process before trying to create a crystal wedding bouquet. Below are the basic instructions for growing crystals on a flower form.

Selecting Your Chemicals

The chemicals that you select will determine the size, shape and color of the crystals that you will be able to grow. The chemicals that you select will also impact how much work will be involved in growing your crystals and how long it will take for the crystals to grow. There are many chemicals that you can use to grow crystals including copper sulfate, nickel sulfate, potassium chromate, potassium dichromate, alum, boric acid and salt.

If you are interested in growing blue crystals then work with copper sulfate. If you want green crystals then work with nickel sulfate. If you want yellow crystals then work with potassium chromate. If you want orange crystals then work with potassium dichromate. If you are interested in producing clear crystals then you can work with salt or alum. Finally, if you want to grow crystals that you can color then work with boric acid.

Creating Forms for Your Crystal Flowers

Pipe cleaners are a great material to use when building the forms for your crystal flowers. To create the form you have two options. Your first option is to form the flower shapes just using your hands. This is called a free form style. The second option is to draw a simple flower shape on a piece of paper and then to bend the pipe cleaner on top of the paper following the lines. It is a good idea to start with simple shapes and to work your way up to more complex shapes.

Growing Crystals on a Form

Growing crystals from a solution is pretty easy. All you do is create a solution by mixing water and a powdered chemical. Usually you will need to heat the water to encourage the chemical to dissolve into the water at a high saturation rate. After the solution has been created you will pour it into a large container and hang your pipe cleaner form from a bamboo skewer in the solution. Cover the jar to prevent evaporation. Some solutions will need to be kept in a heated water bath while others will not.

Recipes for Crystal Solutions

Copper sulfate: ½ cup copper sulfate in 1 cup water

Nickel sulfate: eight ounces (wt) of nickel sulfate in one cup of water

Potassium chromate: three tablespoons of potassium chromate in ½ cup water

Potassium dichromate: 1.5 teaspoons of potassium dichromate in ½ cup water

***Practice crystal growing techniques with inexpensive chemicals like salt, sugar, boric acid and alum before moving on to the more costly chemicals listed above.