**PLACE**: Onl'Fait, Geneva\\
**DATE**: 16/11\\
**PEOPLE**: Cristina
CRYSTALS ON LEDS
STEP 1
**PROCESS**
I prepared a simple circuit by sewing with conductive thread 4 blue LEDs on a small square of felt. I painted them carefully with transparent polish nail to protect them from corrosion due to the cristal bath. I then checked that the circuit was still working by connecting a coin battery.
**CREDITS**
[[http://www.instructables.com/id/Growing-Crystals-on-LEDs-and-ETextiles/|Growing crystals on LEDs]]
STEP 2
**MATERIAL**
70 gr Alun for 100 ml water
small transparent container
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**PROCESS**
I completely dissolved the Alun in the hot water and poured the saturated solution in a small jar. I attached a thread to a toothpick and put it in the solution: after 15 minutes the first crystals were already growing on the thread. The next day I attached some of the bigger starter crystals on the LEDs with hot glue and put the felt square in a new solution. I made sure the felt didn't touch the bottom of the container by adding some threads attached to the container.
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**ISSUES**
It's better to use strong glue rather than hot glue which is quite messy.
STEP3
After less than 1 day the felt and LEDs were covered with crystals. I attached a battery and the LEDs were nicely glowing through the transparent crystals.
**ISSUES**
The LEDs were not completely covered and therefore I attached some further starter crystals and put the felt back in the solution for an extra day.
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After 2 days, the felt was beautifully covered by crystals. To light up 4 blue crystals, I used 2 coin batteries.
{{ :fabricademy2017:students:cristina.olivotto:img_20171122_183614.jpg?nolink&500x375 |img_20171122_183614.jpg}}
CONDUCTIVE CRYSTALS
STEP 1
**MATERIAL **
Electric Paint 50ml\\
Jar\\
Boiling Water\\
Alum\\
Thread\\
Wooden Stick\\
Pipe Cleaner
**CREDITS**
[[http://https://www.bareconductive.com/make/dark-diamond-mining-with-electric-paint//|Conductive crystals]]
STEP 2
**PROCESS **
I boiled 100ml water, added 70g of alum and stirred the solution until the powder is dissolved in water. I put the solution in a small jar and then added a teaspoon of Electric Paint, stirred again and dip the pipe cleaner into jar. Wait 12 hours.
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After 2 days of bath the crystals look nice but the resistance was still very high, they were almost no conductive.
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I warmed up the remaining solution, added more paint and Alun and put the crystal back into the bath. I repeated the procedure 4 times for a total of 4 days
STEP 3
**RESULTS**
The crystal looks nice on one side and less on the other and it is slightly conductive. In order to fully light up a green LED, I used 2 x 4,5 V batteries.
{{ :fabricademy2017:students:cristina.olivotto:img_20171129_184533.jpg?nolink&700x525 |img_20171129_184533.jpg}}
{{ :fabricademy2017:students:cristina.olivotto:img_20171129_184759.jpg?nolink&700x525 |img_20171129_184759.jpg}}
**ISSUES**
The crystal is not very conductive. The next time I will try to change the solution bath every 2 days to see if bigger crystals conductive electricity better and embed conductive thread in the crystal.