Make a Crystal Egg 1

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Make a Crystal Egg
Make a real crystal egg for Easter or just because!
Crystal Egg
This is how my egg looked after one hour.

Anyone can dye Easter eggs, but you could add crystals to your eggs in about an hour. It’s really easy and produces a beautiful sparkling egg. Plus, you can color the egg at the same time you crystallize it. Use hollowed eggs for decorations or crystallize hard boiled eggs for Easter baskets.

Materials

You only need a few basic materials for this project:

  • eggs (real eggs, hardboiled or hollowed)
  • food coloring
  • salt
  • boiling water
  • small bowl large enough to fit the egg

Crystallize the Egg

I used salt for this project because it results in an edible egg, but for crystal decorations you could use borax or Epsom salt just fine.

  1. Double check to make sure your bowl is the right size. You are going to fill the bowl with liquid and want the egg to be completely covered. It will probably float, but only a small portion of egg will remain exposed.
  2. Remove the egg from the bowl and fill the bowl with boiling water. The solubility of salt is highly dependent on temperature, so make sure the water is as hot as possible.
  3. Add a few drops of food coloring, if desired. Food coloring colors the egg shell more than it colors the crystals.
  4. Stir in salt until it stops dissolving. I used table salt, but rock salt or whatever you have handy is just fine. You want a saturated salt solution for quick results, so keep stirring in salt until you see crystals on your spoon. One tip for getting the most salt dissolved is to (carefully) place the bowl in a microwave and heat it for another minute. If all your salt dissolved, see if you can add a bit more.
  5. Drop the egg into the hot salt solution and let it sit somewhere for at least an hour. Overnight works, too. Don’t disturb the bowl too much, but if you want to turn the egg every now and then to make sure the floating bit gets covered, it’s fine.
  6. When you are pleased with the crystals, remove the egg and set it on a paper towel or in an egg carton to dry. If you want even more crystals (covering the entire surface), you can put the crystal egg into a fresh batch of salt solution to build on what you have.

You don’t even have to find a packet of salt when you eat the egg. Enjoy!