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

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.

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CONDUCTIVE CRYSTALS

STEP 1

MATERIAL

Electric Paint 50ml
Jar
Boiling Water
Alum
Thread
Wooden Stick
Pipe Cleaner

CREDITS

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.

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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.