Sodium Silicate for Crystal Garden

At the risk of seeming difficult, who's project is this?

How about the two of you doing a search of the web and then let him find the information and determine the course of action.

Instructables is a good place to start.

DIY Instructables - Share What You Make

Don't be a helicopter parent. Let the kid do it them selves. Put him on the keyboard, and someone here will help him.

Good luck, and learn.

We have sat for a while searching for sodium silicate - almost all the hits have been for the liquid form which she has for herself discovered needs to mixed at at ratio of 60% silicate solution and 40% water.

What I couldn't find was a source of dry powder and any information on how concentrated the ideal solution should be. I kind of took this bit of the project on myself (daughter doesn't really care if its liquid, solid or pink with blue spots - just wants "Sodium Silicate").

Will let you know if we find the answer.

Dry powder?

You need liquid Sodium Silicate for this.

The solids you need are metal salts, that "grow" in different colors, depending on the salt used.

Look at this: Magic Salt Crystal Garden using Mrs. Stewart's Bluing

Good luck.

You've done it again.

Iron chloride is available as etchant for PC boards at Radio Shack.

Just get some aqueous solution and try it. It's less that 20 bucks. I've been shopping for it lately and read up on it in Wikipedia. It's available in all sorts of ways because it is useful for all sorts of things.

I intend to use it for a hardener in casting sand. It will harden up when exposed to CO2. It is used for seal cement on wood stove gaskets and glass, and it is the main ingredient in the stop leak used to seal up a head gasket. It is used in cement as a hardening agent, and refractory sand for casting metals.

It is also used in TSP substitute so you might try the Hardware store.

It is also called waterglass.

Suggest you check out the educational site called About.com, check out the sub topic of chemistry. There is one column that they published that even tells you how to make sodium silicate from silica gel dehydrator packets and drain cleaner. They cover magic rocks in another article. This is an excellent free site for all sorts of chemistry experiments aimed at the non expert. You can also refer to PQ Corporation's website for a lot of information about sodium silicate. I would think type "N" would probably work for you.