These borax crystals are so beautiful and so fun to make! Made with pipe cleaners, water and borax, these borax crystal gems are a great science experiment.
Bend 2 to 3 pipe cleaners around each other to form your crystal's shape.
Choose whatever shape you'd like for your crystal! Make sure there aren't any gaps or holes between the pipe cleaners.
Cut an 8 inch piece of thread.
Tie the thread onto one of the pipe cleaners.
Tie the other end of thread to a popsicle stick. Suspend the pipe cleaners in the mason jar, testing to make sure they don't touch the bottom or sides of the jar.
Step 2: Prepare borax solution
Pour 3/4 cup of borax into 2 cups of boiling water.
Stir the borax and water together until the borax is fully dissolved. If the borax isn't dissolving, microwave the jar for 30 seconds at a time until it's dissolved.
Pour the borax solution into the empty mason jar.
Drop in your pipe cleaners, resting the popsicle stick on the mouth of the jar.
Step 3: Wait for the crystals to form
Let the pipe cleaners sit in the borax solution for 8 to 24 hours. Watch the crystals grow!
Lift up the popsicle stick to remove the crystal from the borax solution. Cut off the thread as close to the crystal as possible. Set the crystal on a paper towel to dry.
Your borax crystal is complete!
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Notes
You can microwave your borax solution after it is stirred to get it really hot. The hotter the better!When you're done with the borax solution you can pour the remaining liquid into a load of laundry or down the drain with more hot water to dilute it.If you can't get the crystals off the bottom of the jar, fill the jar with hot water to cover the residue and microwave until the crystals have dissolved again.