"Steve Firth" wrote in message
...
Gary Cavie wrote:
Hi all,

As a youngster I made a crystal garden, using chemicals which I could
easily obtain at the local chemists (Copper Sulphate, Cobalt Chloride
etc). These were dropped into a solution of waterglass.

I've now suggested to my eldest son that we make one of these - and have
realised how hard these things are to come by these days! Can anybody
suggest a supplier of these various chemicals, and the waterglass
itself - Unichem pharmacies don't tend to stock the same stuff that my
local did 30 years ago!

Look he

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A4044845

and here for a company selling waterglass (sodium silicate):

http://www.potterycrafts.co.uk/Potte...celist2006.pdf

It's relatively cheap, about £3 per Kg, and it's used in pottery glazes so
you should find it anywhere supplying pottery materials.

since heavy metals such as copper and cobalt are also used in glazes they
may be able to help, the salts need to be soluble and I don't know if that
is needed in glazes so getting the toxic soluble salts of things like cobalt
may be harder (cobalt oxide + hydrochoric acid - filter - evaporate to
crystals would woulk though)

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