Crystals in a Bottle

My husband and I collect minerals. One day while we were browsing in a rock shop we saw this cool old bottle full of crystals. Apparently someone had left a liquid in the bottle for too long and it evaporated, forming crystals. We though it was really neat but way too expensive so I decided to try to replicate it.

We found a packet of crystal growing powder (available at places like Hobby Lobby) and an inexpensive bottle from an antique store. The crystal growing powder was fairly simple to use, though it is poisonous and requires use of the stove so adult supervision is needed.

 We mixed up the solution, poured it in the bottle and let it sit for several days.

When we poured out the remaining solution, we had a nice blanket of crystals at the bottom. They were pretty small so we repeated the procedure a few times.

I wish the crystals were different sizes; I'd like some longer ones mixed in with the short ones. Actually, we accidentally grew some long crystals at the bottom of the pot we were using to store the extra solution. Maybe if we try again with a new bottle we can grow some long crystals in the pot first, then place them in the bottle and grow the short crystals around them.

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

My husband and love to collect rocks and minerals, so instead of buying flowers and candy for Valentine's Day we spend our money at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show! Here's a couple of things we purchased this year:

Chrysocolla with Druzy Quartz from Chile

A tiny sample of Wulfenite from the Rowley Mine in Arizona

And a couple of things we've purchased at other shows:

Wulfenite with Druzy Quartz from the Finch Mine in Arizona (my favorite wulfenite locality - doesn't it look yummy?)

Some purple Fluorite on Calcite from Illinois

This year we also purchased two fantastic prints from paintings of minerals by artist Fred Wilda. One was of rhodocrosite and the other was wulfenite. We liked them so much that we're thinking of buying one more, maybe a fluorite.

This year our mineral haul was a little disappointing as we had trouble finding specimens that we liked at a reasonable price. The satellite shows at the hotels in Tucson generally had good prices but they all seemed to have the same stuff. The best selection was probably at the Inn Suites hotel. But the biggest disappointment this year was at the main show at the convention center - the prices were RIDICULOUS! I would say that out of the hundreds of booths present there were only 4 or 5 that sold minerals at a reasonable price. For us a reasonable price would be up to $20 for a decent display sample and up to $50 for something super nice. The minimum prices at most of the mineral booths were in the $100s and some had nothing under $1000. I would understand the prices if the minerals were actually spectacular, but we saw many examples of specimens similar in quality and size to ones we had purchased elsewhere for under $20 that were selling there for over $100. Next year we may skip the convention center and spend all our time at the hotels!