Dying Crystals

After quite a long hiatus, I return. Recently getting back from a much-needed vacation has gotten me back on track and ready to get back into the swing of things.

Thus, I bring you one of my more recent experiments. Over the summer I visited a local crystal mine with my little brother and came home with a nice bucket full of crystals to play with.

One of the first things I wanted to do was to change the colors of some of them. All of the crystals from this mine are yellow-colored calcite crystals. But people dye quartz and other such crystals all the time. So why couldn't I? Needless to say, my experiment didn't work.

I first decided to try food coloring. Mind you, I didn't have very high hopes with the food coloring, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. So, I mixed some purple and pink coloring and put some of my crystals in it--then I let them dry for a good month. Today I finally decided to take them out. Just as I suspected! No go! As the food coloring came off, either by rubbing or water, I was left with still-yellow crystals.

A few of the crystals retained some coloring. Where there was a crack or fracture in the crystal, the coloring got into that and stayed. For those I'm currently soaking them in water.

I also tried heating the crystals with a heat gun. Rather than this helping or changing the color, it simply made the crystals even more fragile and broke them. So heat was a no-go as well. I'm guessing I'll need some sort of chemical dye in order to actually dye them. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Although the experience did allow me to get a really neat shot with my camera:

Today's feature is A.A.E. Artglass, a store that I've been wanting to feature for a long time now. I generally love glass art anyway, but this artist is simply amazing and unique in what she does.

The images she puts onto the glass (like in the picture I present here) are simply fantastically done. Not only are they interesting to look at because of the glass work, but also these images that she somehow gets onto them. The images are so crisp and clear--as I look back through her gallery I'm wondering why I still haven't bought any of her fantastic work? Yet, I see that as I write this she no longer has any of the dragon-fly pendants I had previously fallen in love with. Nonetheless, I would happily take and proudly wear any of her other work as well.

Definitely a store to check out.