Liquid Blueing Crystals

I got quite a lot requests regarding a recipe for crystals made out of "liquid blueing", charcoal, ammonia and table salt.
However as I live in Germany I did not not have the slightest clue what "blueing" is, as its not used and not available in my country. So I did not have any chance to grow some by myself.

Now I can give you the following recipe :

Making A Chemical Crystal Garden

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What You Need:
90 mL salt
90 mL liquid blueing
15 mL ammonia
An old pan
Vaseline
Pieces of coal or charcoal briquettes
Food colouring
What To Do:
Find an old pan and grease the edges with Vaseline (this prevents the mixture from going over the edge).
Place a few pieces of coal or charcoal briquettes in the pan.
Mix the salt, liquid blueing, and ammonia together.
Pour the salt mixture over the coal.
Dab drops of food colouring on top of the coal (you can use a variety of colours).
Watch your garden grow. Be patient!
What's Going On?
The crystals are formed by salt molecules joining together as the liquid evaporates into the air. The ammonia helps to speed the rate of evaporation.

What Else You Can Do:
You can grow crystals of rock candy by dissolving sugar in boiling water. Pour the hot water into a glass and dangle a piece of string into the liquid. As the liquid cools, sugar crystals appear on the string.

BE CAREFUL!
If you are making the sugar crystals, be sure to get an adult to help, as boiling water can be dangerous.

Believe it or not there is a complete website about liquid blueing and its US manufacturer and they have a department about the crystals. Also if you can not find their product in your local store, you can find out where to buy it or order it direct. They even have a complete crystal growing kit for sale.

Just check out
Mrs. Stewarts Liquid Blueing
at

http://www.mrsstewart.com

Here is some additional information which Richard Beckham sent in recently :

The manufacturer's link on your web page describes the liquid blueing as
"extremely minute particles of blue powder (Ferric Hexacyanoferrate)".
Translation: prussian blue (the stuff that makes blue prints blue).
To make your own, add aqueous ferrous sulphate - Fe(II)SO4 - to aqueous
potassium ferricyanide - K3Fe(III)(CN)6. The insoluble blue precipitate (an
inorganic polymer of complex ions) will drop out immediately. The principle
by-product will be aqueous potassium sulphate. Its a pretty cool experiment
(I've performed it in the lab many times), worth trying even if you don't
plan to make a crystal garden. The ammonia in the recipe is required to
break the complex, allowing the iron salts to be incorporated in the
resulting crystals. If you decide to try the crystal garden, please let me
know how it turns out.
By the way, the blue color comes from the complex between the ferrous and
ferric ion. On breaking the complex, the blue color is lost. Hence, the
garden will have yellow and red colors typical of the initial iron compounds
(as seen in the example picture on the manufacturer's web page). Prussian
blue is considered a hazardous waste here in the States (not very toxic to
humans, though).

If you have any information about the crystal garden, experiences or may be even pictures to share, please contact me under mr.bismuth@crystalgrowing.com !