I am one of those strange people who likes wintry January. New beginnings. Post-holiday breathing room in my schedule. I love to go tromping in the woods, knowing the ticks and snakes are all in hiding for winter. Indoors, when the Christmas decorations come down, the house suddenly seems much bigger. I like to give everything a good scrub and then put up a few decorations on a blue and white theme -- think winter's flawless sky above ice and snow. I tuck a few wee snowmen here and there then add snowflakes. On our mantel, I put up favorite pictures of Eli playing in snow.
Eli and I like doing crafts, and they are even more fun if based on seasons. It helps us appreciate where we are in the year. That in mind, I still cherish the snowflake candle lanterns we made a few years back. (Click HERE to see that post.) This year I thought we'd give Borax snowflakes a try...
We looked at a Martha Stewart video for help. (Click HERE to see it.)
Step One: Kenneth Libbrecht's book of snowflake photographs was inspiring, but we'll probably wait to do complex flakes until Eli's fingers are better able to twist wire. For our simple flakes, we cut a pipecleaner in three pieces (scissors or wire cutters), splayed the pieces like a mini campfire, and then twisted them to stay. We used mostly white chenille pipecleaners, but I also tried making snowflakes with fat blue chenille and thin metallic pipecleaners. All worked fine, although the colors became much more pale after the crystals coated them.
Step Two: To make the right proportion of snowflake solution, you mix three tablespoons of Borax powder into a cup of almost-boiling water. (Borax is a mineral compound used as a household cleaner and laundry detergent booster. It isn't something you want to eat, but it is safe for kids to work with.) How much solution you make depends on how big your snowflake is; it will need to be completely submerged in solution. Our small snowflakes each fit nicely in Brian's 24-ounce capacity stadium cups, so we made the snowflake solution all at one time in a big pot on the stove. (To make 6 snowflakes, we used about a third of a standard 76-ounce box of Borax that cost us $4.79.) If you want pastel snowflakes, you can add food coloring to your solution.
Step Three: You'll need to suspend your pipecleaner snowflake in the Borax solution. Bend a tiny loop at one of the ends and run thread or wire through it. We used thin strands from woven picture wire because we didn't want to have to tie any knots. Pencils or sticks can help you suspend your flakes, but we used large popsicle sticks.
Step Four: Wait! Within a hour or two, we saw crystals forming on our pipecleaners. After letting them soak overnight, they were about as coated as they were going to be. We then drained off the liquid, broke the stray crystals off the wire hangers, and let our snowflakes dry for a couple of hours. (The leftover solution or crystals can be used in your laundry.) In the picture below, the white snowflake has a white pipecleaner as its center. The blue flake on the right is from a blue pipecleaner.
The silvery snowflake on the left has a metallic pipecleaner at its center while the blue snowflake has a white pipecleaner but had food coloring added (about one drop per cup of water).
Step Five: The snowflakes would look nice on a Christmas tree or wreath, but those are put away for the year. Thus we ventured into the woods to hunt for a wintery-looking stick.
Step Six: The wire made it super easy to hang our snowflakes. We balanced them along our stick and then hung them mobile-style over our kitchen table.
I wish my photo could do our snowflakes justice. They sparkle so nicely. I've read they will last several years if stored in an air-tight container in a climate-controlled place. I'll pack these away to put on the Christmas tree come December and next year maybe we can make a string of snowflakes to hang in front of the window.
So what do you do with a partial box of leftover Borax? Stay tuned for more kid fun!
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