Snowflakes: Grow Your Own

The cold weather is clearly here, but where is the snow? I don't mind the cold weather so much as long as there is snow, but I feel cheated when it's just cold! If you feel the same way, you may want to try making your own snowflakes. These are much longer lasting indoors and can be used to decorate windows. It's not the real thing, but for now, it's the next best thing!

To make your snowflakes you will need the following:

• string
• wide mouth pint jar
• white pipe cleaners, additional blue ones might be nice to try also
• blue food coloring (optional)
• boiling water (with adult help)
• borax (available at grocery stores in the laundry soap section, as 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster - NOT Boraxo soap)
• pencil

First, a warning for little folk: if you want to try this be sure to have an adult help you with the boiling water!

The first thing to do is make the frame for your snowflake. Take a pipe cleaner and cut it into three equal sections and then twist them together in the middle so you have a six pointed star. Trim the ends of any sides that stick out further than the others. Now tie the piece of string along the outer edges of each of the pipe cleaner ends.

Next, tie a piece of string to the end of one of the pipe cleaner sides and attach it to the pencil so that your snowflake frame can hang freely. You will want it long enough that the frame can hang down inside the jar when you lay the pencil along the mouth of the jar It shouldn't be so long that it touches the bottom of the jar. Don't leave the frame in the jar yet.

Now you boil the water and add it to the jar. Stir in the borax a tablespoon at a time until you have 3 or 4 tablespoons per cup of water stirred in well. Mix it well but don't worry if there is a bit of powder settling to the bottom of the jar. If you want to add a few drops of food colouring, now is the time.

The last thing to do is suspend your snowflake frame in the jar of borax solution and let it sit overnight. By morning you should have a lovely crystal snowflake which you can use to decorate your windows or tree. You can experiment with variations with shape and colour and really have some fun.

Now, the science behind all this is rather simple. Borax is a crystal with a flat side and symmetrical shape. The crystals may vary in size, but they all have the same shape. We use boiling water because it can hold more borax crystals than cold or warm water. We saturated the hot water with borax crystals until it could hold no more. As the water cools and evaporates, the crystals can no longer stay suspended in the water. We gave them a nice snowflake shape to deposit on. Crystals begin to form and build on one another as the water lets go of the excess borax and evaporates.

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