Creating Bismuth Crystals - An Easy to Melt Metal
Bismuth, a metal that is used to make some bullets and fishing weights, is also a beautiful metallic crystal! What makes this even better is the fact that bismuth will melt in a pan on a standard kitchen stove. This is by far the quickest crystals I have ever done, but not the cheapest or easiest.
Initial Attempt
I bought one pound of bismuth in chunks on eBay. The smallest pan I had at the time was heart shaped and rather shallow.
Melting the left overs
Once the bismuth was melted, I turned the stove off and let it cool for a little bit. Once the metal began to harden along the edges, and you could visibly see this, I poured the liquid metal into a different pan. Once all of the metal was hardened, the crystals could be removed, and leftovers reused.
The crystal
This time I didn't end up with many crystals. Turned out that the pan was a bit too shallow. However, for this being a first time, I feel like I it was a success. Once I get a better container, there will be more attempts.
