Borax Snowflakes

Do you know what Mormons excel at?  Among other things, they excel at creating sign-up sheets and handouts.  Go to church on a regular Sunday and you might feel bombarded with papers being passed to you from every which way.  Luckily, some of these handouts and sign-up sheets are actually relevant; otherwise I might just rip them all up and storm around the room muttering about killing trees and interrupting the learning process.

I actually was the recipient of one of these splendid handouts entitled "Borax Snowflakes."  It contained a "recipe" for making them.  My mother-in-law leaned over and asked where she could find Borax-at the regular grocery store in the laundry detergent aisle of course!  For your pleasure I have included the recipe here (with my additions) so that you can try it on your own. 

Ingredients:
Boiling hot water
1/3 cup Borax
1 pint mason jar
pencil
pipe cleaner
string or yarn
wire cutters

1. Form your pipe cleaner(s) into a snowflake or shape of your choosing.  Make sure the shape is small enough to go through the opening of your jar. 

2. Put water on to boil or microwave
3. Figure out a way to attach string or yarn to your shape to hang it from the pencil.  Make sure your shape won't touch the bottom of the jar.
4. Add water to your mason jar.  I found that the water level only slightly changed through the entire process so just make sure your shape will be entirely submerged and will not touch any sides.
5. Mix in Borax.  Stir it but don't worry if it isn't completely dissolved.
6. Submerge your shape in the jar

7. Leave it overnight.  The next morning it should be a nice, pretty snowflake.  It will be very rigid. 

About 4 hours after I did it.  You can see some build up. 

The finished product in the morning.  The star was too big and it was touching the bottom; I had to break it a little to get it out of the jar.  They also needed to dry a little bit but not too much.  You'll probably be surprised by the result. 

 
Here is the finished, finished product.  The strings I used weren't going to work out for me because I didn't like them.  In the future I would make a separate loop out of a small pipe cleaner piece to thread the string through.  That way it would look more like it was intended to be there.  I ended up cutting the string off and a person can just place these on the tree branches and they will still be pretty.

Note: I'm not sure I liked using the mason jar.  It really limited the size of the snowflake.  Maybe using a glass two cup measuring cup would work better.  Also, the jar will have chunks of Borax at the bottom; just stab them to remove.

Remember!  Borax is toxic.  Do not consume!