Friday 4 July 2014

Growing Crystals at College: Day 2

More crystal growth progress!
This project was produced for the BA Fine Arts unit, Art Project.

The copper sulfate crystals below are photographed at two days old. 


I expanded the growing setup from the first day. I found some ceramic saucers and glass ash trays in the op shop for fifty cents each and decided to start farming seed crystals with them.

The main task of the day was to refresh the copper sulfate mixture in each tray.  

Closeup of the new glass ash trays. I set some seed crystals from the plastic plates into each bowl to promote crystal growth.

The balsa to the top left was removed from the copper sulfate solution as a physical growth record. 

Balsa wood soaked in copper sulfate solution. 

Detail view of the removed copper sulfate soaked balsa wood. 

Detail view of copper sulfate soaked balsa wood. Two pieces were isolated into glass jars to promote stronger crystal growth. 

Seeded copper sulfate solution in a glass. 

The copper sulfate solution had begun to grow out beneath the cockroach. 

Ceramic plate with copper sulfate solution- no seed crystal. 


Ceramic plate with copper sulfate solution- small, flat seed crystal. 


Ceramic plate with copper sulfate solution- larger, flat seed crystal. 


Ceramic plate with copper sulfate solution- loose cluster of seed crystals.


Ceramic plate with copper sulfate solution- bonded cluster seed crystal. 


Copper sulfate crystal growth progress of the plastic plates. 

Copper sulfate solution only- small, scattered seed crystals have grown. 

Copper sulfate solution with fibre glass- small, scattered seed crystals have grown, but have formed predominantly on the fibre glass. 

Detail view of the edge of the crystal covered fibre glass. 

Detail view of a plastic plate, filled with copper sulfate solution only. I clustered the seed crystals together to see if they would, in the coming days, bond together into a single, larger crystal. 













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