Friday, April 08, 2011

Amethyst

Last Summer, we bought this crystal-growing kit in Oxfam. It contains ingredients and instructions to grow several types of crystals. Those nicknamed “quartz” and “emerald” in fact are monoammonium phosphate, NH4H2PO4, while “amethyst” and “fluorite” are grown from a solution of potassium aluminium sulphate, KAl(SO4)2. Our latest experiment was to grow an “amethyst” crystal cluster. Timur and I prepared the solution, poured it over two stones from our garden and left to grow for a week. Here’s the result.

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