How do you find crystals?

[womble]

I've got my DD come home from school where she has seen some kids have got crystals and you can get them inside rocks.
Now I have a vague feeling I found some pebbles as a kid and we used to do something to them so they used to polish up nicely.
I'm pretty clueless about this though, is it a question of smashing open various rocks until you find something.

I sort of promised we could find some and now I'm wondering ....... how

[shirlthegirl43]

geode, Collectables, Jewellery Watches, Pottery, Porcelain Glass items at low prices on eBay.co.uk

Or you may have a shop near you that sells them - usually goes along with healing or indian sort of stuff.

[womble]

I think she was more desperate to try and find some in the wild sort of thing.

[di]

I might be wrong,but I think the majority of "proper" crystals you'd be lucky to find naturally in this country.
Also,I think a lot that are sold in shops now haven't been found,but instead mountains dynamited to release them.

I know it's not the same,but you can get crystal making kits...probably lots of nasty chemicals(?)but I can remember doing them with my dad as a kid & still have memories of awe as to how they formed.
Some round stones are worth breaking in two to find small crystals inside.

[Lottieval]

I know of a beach near us that has a bit of a cave where you can find natural crystals, I can't remember what they were, but they're like milky glass. It's a long way from you to us though, but our county is a great place to spend a holiday.

From what I remember as a child the ones you found if you broke open a stone were amethysts, and they were found in Cornwall, that always fascinated me.

[Alice]

I've asked my husband Womble. He knows a bit about Geology. He reckons Cambridgeshire is not a good prospect for finding igneous rock (volcanic rock like granite) in which you could find crystals. But you could be lucky in Exmoor, Dartmoor, Lake District, Wales and large part of Highland Scotland.
I'm sure it's not the answer you were looking for but a great excuse to go travelling.

Another method is to make some yourself. Make a solution of potassium permangate and leave it to evaporate and you'll get some purple crystals.
Or make a very strong salt solution, leave to evapotate and get some white crystals.

If you decide to go looking for the rocks with crystals you're looking for a geod - a stone that looks like a potato, it can be big or small and when it's opened it is hollow with crystals all round the inside, but they're hard to find.

Alternatively you can buy some, they're not expensive.

If your daughter is interested in polished stones the beach is the best place to look. If she maintains her interest you can buy a little tumbling machine that you put the stones in and it polishes them up to semi precious stone - quartz, agate, etc.

Here endeth the lesson.

Hope you find some way to maintain your daughters interest in the subject. Good luck.

[lizzylemon]

I was gonna suggest the salt crystal myself, you can make it multi coloured with food dye.
You need lots of cheap salt in a little water (enough to disolve the salt)
Split the liquid into X amounts of jam jar type containers and then add as much / little dye as you like in each jar
Across each rim place a pencil / pen type instrument with cotton tide around middle but long enough to hang in the salt solution and touch the bottom of the jar at the same time
Place all the jars on a hot windowsill and wait for the evaperation to happen.
The salt crystals will grow quite quickly

[Alice]

I think you've cracked it Lizzylemon.

[bramble]

Hi Alice, as your hubby knows a bit about crystals and where to find them, would he have any information on beaches in Ireland.
have to display my ignorance and say I did'nt know crystals could be found inside certain stones.
Any more info please?

[Polly Fouracre]

Hi Alice, as your hubby knows a bit about crystals and where to find them, would he have any information on beaches in Ireland.
have to display my ignorance and say I did'nt know crystals could be found inside certain stones.
Any more info please?

I think Achill Island- or is that quartz? I was always told that a crystal finds you, not the other way round.

[Alice]

Sorry Bramble, darling husband doesn't know too much about the geology of Ireland but says you won't find them in the Giants Causeway - that's Basalt, or in central Ireland - that's limestone. And wherever they are they take a bit of finding.
If the subject has you all fired up you could Google for it - try volcanic rock Ireland.
Good luck with the quest.