Make a Salt Crystal Painting
You will need:
bowl
spoon
hot water (1/8 - 1/4 cup)
epsom salts
paint brush
black paper
Photo of snowflake
by Rick Doble.
Put the hot water into the bowl. (The hotter the water is - the better the painting turns out.) Stir in a heaping spoonful of epsom salts. Stir until all of the salts have dissolved.
Stir in more epsom salts, a spoonful at a time. After each spoonful, stir until all of the salts have dissolved. When no more salts will dissolve in the water, stop adding salts. (More salts will dissolve in hot water than in warm or cold water.)
Using the epsom salt solution as "paint," paint a picture on the black paper. Be sure to leave areas unpainted.
Set aside to dry. As the "paint" dries, the water evaporates, leaving white crystals of epsom salts on the paper.
You can use other colors of paper, but the crystals will show best on darker colors.
You can also try with other crystals, such as table salt, sugar, or alum. Each crystal will look a little different as it forms on the paper.
