2. Continuing from Last Year

Last year, my project was based around nature and growth.

I experimented briefly with the growth of crystals on leaves, but as it did not correlate with the sculptures I was creating at the time, I did not have the opportunity to fully explore the potential of crystal growing.








This year, I would like to return to crystal growing and follow the paths that were not open to me until this point.

Last Year: I experimented with using natural and fake (plastic) leaves. I let them sit in a saturated solution of copper sulphate for several days. These were the results.

Both leaves formed crystals, but slightly differently. I find that the natural leaves were much more successful at growing geometric crystals whereas the plastic leaf did not accommodate as many. The plastic leaf seemed to grow strange round crystal clumps instead. I prefer the geometric shapes.

Natural Leaf

Plastic Leaf

I wondered if the difference was to do with the surface of the leaves. I imagine that the natural leaves would be much more porous (which would allow the solution to penetrate) whereas the manufactured leaf is smooth and solid.




Because of this, I abandoned fake materials and sourced more natural ones. I experimented with another form of crystal growing that was safe to do in my kitchen: Borax crystals

I took a generously sized, healthy rose and suspended it in a saturated borax solution. Then, I left it for several days to "marinate" and let the crystals form.

The crystal forming was a complete success - the entire rose was covered in crystals, but the rose itself had been weakened by the soaking and fell apart very easily from the inside out.

I also soaked one of the roses leaves. That also formed crystals beautifully, but unfortunately I don't have photo evidence. (These experiments were around 8 months ago, so some photos are lost.)

This is the extent of the crystal growing that I did last year. Everything that I post from this point is current.

See the next post for developments.