Where to Sell Rocks?

This is the briefest blog ever. I am in the process of setting up an Etsy shop as a switch from Ebay (whose fees are making selling rocks a little pointless).

If you came here to look at rocks then head to Etsy by following this link. If not - carry on. Forget I said anything. Also, I highly recommend reading the one about Wilsontown. It's a nice place. Bit windy though.

Please enjoy this discarded book cover photo while you are here.

The Online Content Writer's Handbook - Isolation, Quarantine, and Advice for Budding Writers

That time I gave up.

Hi Guys!

I am just as stuck inside (and going slowly mad) as everyone else is. The bonus for me is that I was already stuck inside working from home. I've been busy though and I absolutely advise all of you to do the same.

Now is the time. For a revolution? If you like. Just stay 6 feet apart. No, now is the time to write that thing that you always wanted to write - but never had the time to do. Now is the time to start writing every day... To pick up the pen and paper and create.

Writing is like magic! You are conjuring something out of nothing. You have the power to make someone laugh or cry using words that already exist. Give it a go. It doesn't matter if it is rubbish - do you think Shakespeare knew how to write perfect Iambic Pentameter from his first play? Hell - it wasn't even written down! You don't get better by looking at a blank page.

With that in mind... I refer you back to this earlier blog post about writing a novel. There is good stuff in there about idea generating. Read it, generate some random ideas and start writing your own story. Once done, type "Short story competitions and submissions for (your genre)" into Google. Find somewhere to submit it and follow their instructions.

I don't know if I have told you this before but you can find an industry standard short story format template courtesy of William Shunn. Honestly? That's all there is to it. All the publishing houses are bored stiff right now. Send them something. The worst that could happen is that they say no.

If they do say no, send your story somewhere else.

Now...if you are interested in making the full time career switch to writing for a living, you need to go a step farther. After you have had a published short story is when you will start to get the itch. Step two is fairly easy as well. Get yourself on a site like Fiverr, put up an add with links to your past work, and wait...

Then there is formatting. Online content writing is a little like novel writing in that it is all about how you format it. You also get to be creative enough that you can give firms really excellent 'About Us' pages or blog posts. You learn loads about random subjects and as your knowledge grows, so does your client base.

Easy, right? I can offer you more cheats to working from home as an online content writer inside my new book. I've had this in the works since October last year and really, really wanted to have a book release party. Unfortunately Coronavirus means social distancing and I am reduced to digital advertising.

So if you're a budding writer that wants to learn how to do what I do, then here is the link to The Online Content Writer's Handbook. If you don't want to do it for a living, but still want to write your first short story, then pick up a pen or sit at your keyboard. A half hour a day adds up to quarantine entertainment with something wonderful to show for it in the end... your own little piece of magic.

And you never know who has been waiting for you to tell your story.

Happy New Year! (and the Best Bits of 2019)

Jan 2019 - First Jasper Ever!

So it's New Year once again. I have to admit this one snuck up on me and I was unprepared. I've learned a lot, seen a lot, done a lot, and lost a lot this year.Those close to my family will be able to tell you how hard it has been to keep everything together and moving forward... but this is not the place for personal madness!

What has 2019 brought then? Mainly travel, writing, and learning. I found out in June that my job in catering was finishing up. Since I had only been there 6 months and my previous place had also closed down I took it as a bit of a sign. I quit the kitchen entirely and have been full time freelance writing since October. So far, so good.

I wanted to take this quiet winter time to reflect on all the best bits of this year. Like a reminder to myself to keep my chin up, or inspiration for you guys to go explore.So I went through my Social Media pictures and pulled out the best bits. If you don't already, you can follow me on Facebook here, or add Katriona Writes on Instagram.

One of the first things I did this year was take a trip up to the Campsie Fells and hunt down some Jasper. I now have a few Jasper sources for both red and yellow jasper... I can hardly believe how much I struggled to find it before!

After the Jasper hunt I took a trip out to Wilsontown. This was one of the few things I actually managed to blog about. Wilsontown is a former mining village near the area in Scotland where I live. It was famous during the industrial era for inventing some essential smelting supplies. Unfortunately, I forgot to add the stone markers into the post. The one opposite was the funniest.It reads:

"William Wilson owned a double-barrelled shotgun and called me Buffoon, villain, and rascal!"

Signed by Alexander Gunn.


Next came a trip to the Southern Highlands. This is just a second home for me now. I'm there all the time. It had been my intention to go camping up there but I never managed it this year. There is always this summer, I hope.

If I ever get rich enough you will see me in a Landrover or a Jeep... you can keep your ferrari. I want to get around!

an old mine working

Of course, all of this was interspersed with trips to Dumfriesshire. If I don't have the petrol to go all the way to Perthshire then I stick to the Central Lowlands. I have been up and down to Dumfries this year - and even had a trip to the exemplary Creetown Gem and Rock Museum. They have a great collection...






 

Anyway: this is perhaps the best find from the year's trips to this area. Don't get me wrong, there have been some great pieces (see the Cauliflower Quartz below) - but this one is my favourite. I believe it is copper under quartz but I'm no expert on the green minerals yet. I'll get there.

Asides from finding quartz druse shaped like Cauliflower (shout out to whoever bought this, I loved it and hope it brings you great happiness) what else happened this year?

Well next I found out what I looked like as a boy. I dd this by discovering Snapchat. I also know what I look like as an old witch woman, a baby, and an old man. It's an absolute scream if you don't have it yet...

 

Made this one nice and big so it can haunt your dreams, too.

Around July time the furface and I took a trip north, and north, and then north a bit more. We visited family in Dingwall, stayed at a campsite, and panned the river. We found zip-all gold but it was fun to try. I've had problems with my feet and pain this year so I haven't been out on the water much since then.

I love panning, I absolutely love the thrill of hunting for gold. when It's freezing cold and soaking wet all season and you already hurt it is hard to stay motivated. It is most definitely a fair weather sport.

That being said I did make it along to the Gold Panning Championships. Well done James Linnett on the win!






In Spring I also found out that there was a castle near me known as 'Danger Castle'. This started a bit of a spate. Pictured to the left is Castle Douglas AKA Castle Danger. I also visited Castle Gloom... the home of at least some of my ancestors. I will put together a separated post on the Campbell clan eventually. For obvious reasons that one will take a while and I'd like to get it straight in my head first. It can be a bit of a touchy subject up here...





Not too long after that I found this absolute beauty of an agate from Ayrshire. That agate though... I still have it in my own collection and I still don't have either a table to cut it on, a wheel to grind it on, or a tumbler to polish it with. As usual, answers on a postcard, please.

On the side there you will see the inside of one of the rooms in Carmicheal House. A couple of friends and I ended up there in July. We had been out rockhounding and came back up through this way.

Carmicheal House lies in its own estate, within the ruins of a garden that General Roy mapped back in the eighteenth century. It was supposedly built around then, supposedly for the third Earl of Hyndford.  It's a beautiful mess now, with a graveyard out back and the forest literally growing up through the walls.



 One of my favourite memories of the second half of this year was coming through the forest at my usual dog walking spot to find a book in a plastic wrapper. The book had a message, basically saying to read it, then hide it for another person to find.

Of course it was a kid's book... but if it had been Pratchett I'd be on it. Maybe I should add a few more adult ones? There's no reason that kids should be the only ones who get to play.

At some point in late August I took a trek out to the south east of Scotland. Mainly because I had gone in every other direction so far in the year. I found this lovely little geological marvel that is simply called 'Cove'. I recommend you do so too, if you can.
Cove has an underground tunnel. When you pass through it you come out at this lovely little sheltered bay. Presumably smugglers used it, afterwards the locals used it to store dry goods and keep them cool. Nowadays it is a tourist hot spot. I genuinely don't know how I missed it before.

In summer some time (but don't ask me when) some friends brought me this rock. They had been working at a building site near Thankerton, which is close enough to the base of Tinto hill for me to think of it as Tinto.I had no idea other than it might be a fossil. I took it to the mineral collectors of Facebookland, who gave me a positive ID.

This is a Dendritic Fossil. It is caused when some liquid manages to seep into the pores of the rock before crystallising. It looks like a tree, hence why they call them Dendrites. Pretty cool. It's on my window ledge with the copper-quartz.




As if I hadn't done enough already, September saw me heading down into Dumfries and Galloway once again... this time on a new hunt. Amethyst was my intention.  Reports of an Amethyst vein running through the hills of Dumfrieshire have been greatly exaggerated. That's not to say that it isn't true: just that there is about 600 metres of climbing, a bit of scree kerfuffle, and about 20 yards of brambles to fight through to get to it. I did find a point, I am still not convinced it was worth it...The views, on the other hand, most definitely are.




There was the obligatory yearly migration to New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde. You can read about this on this very blog. This area is where the Welshman Robert Owen introduced a socialism model to Scotland. The people all benefited and so did the establishment. New working hours laws and such were started here.

There's a hotel, the River Clyde with its scenic falls, there's a museum, a cafe, a gift shop, a woollen mill, loads of walks, wildlife, guided tours, a swing park, and some really good ice cream. There are old world mill worker's restored cottages too, just for kicks.



By this time I was writing full time and slowing down a bit. Besides anything else, I am running out of new places to explore. Towards the tail end of the year I took a cracking shot of the estate where I walk the dog. The old Braidwood House is in slightly better nick than the one at Carmicheal, but it's still pretty wrecked.








On another, more dreary, day, I took a trip out to Cambusnethan Priory. I found a really lovely piece of Jasper in the roadway. Asides from that the woods around the place feel horrible. Not great at all. I ended up taking a quick snap and moving on. You can see the contrast between the two buildings, even though they are both in a similar state of affairs.

Interesting aside: when I told my Mum I'd been here she told be she was once offered a job as a 'Wench' in it. Back in the 70's and 80's it was a medieval banquet hall... I wish it still was. I could get a job as a bard.




Most recently (asides from a wee trip to Killin after Christmas) I took a December ride up to Balquhidder. Now... I went to look at the Loch but by the time I got there you couldn't tell where the Loch ended and the field began. I have never seen such bad flooding in all my days as I have this winter in Scotland. Full farms were under water. There is one in particular, named Witsend (which is why I remember it) that was almost wholly under water when I passed.

Anyway; Balquhidder happens to be the home of Rob Roy's grave. He was buried there alongside the clan chiefs of the MacLarens. His grave is decorated with potted flowers and white quartz chips, even to this day. I left a piece of agate from Dunure. In years to come I like to think someone will puzzle over how it came to be there.

Happy New Year!

Well that took a lot longer than I thought - but it made me feel a hell of a lot better about this year's achievements. Stay tuned for Iolite, fourth in the Dark Science series (Jan 2023 update, I just published Comfrey, part 5, in December) and keep following, liking, sharing, reviewing... I'm not fussy, I just need the work...

Happy New Year 2020. Let's hope the adventures keep on coming.

New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde

The glorious River Clyde through New Lanark

New Lanark is home to more than just the falls of Clyde. It has Peregrine Falcon's, a rich history in equality, and its very own hydro-electric power source (circa 1768). New Lanark is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and qualifies as such because of its rich history in relation to worker's rights. Nowadays it makes an awesome family day trip... and I've been visiting since I was a kid.

I sometimes think that it is only as an adult that you gain a proper understanding of some things. That being said there is a lot to do for children in New Lanark. They have a lovely play park in the middle of town, complete with picnic area. They have seversl walks you can take that are signposted with the animal and plant species nearby. The museum also runs regular interesting and fun activities. The Annie MacLeod experience - where you go on a tour through time to the good old days - being just one.

So when you arrive you will have to park at the top of the hill and walk down - though there are disabled spaces at the bottom. The photo on the right there is the layout of the town and you are greeted with this at the top of the hill. On a clear day you can match the buildings to the plan. When I visit nowadays I tend to go for the hikes and not the buildings, but if that's what you like it is there.





From there, you head downhill and sort of left. There are some interesting signs pointing the way to the main attraction: the Falls of Clyde. The kids love them. There's also a hydroelectric power plant up there on the way, a secret garden and a giant badger mural. Of course, the river is the main attraction. On a fine day you can get right down beside it and some of the boardwalks take you along through it. On a wet day? Take the high road (haha but literally) and avoid it at all costs. You don't want to be swept away!

Last time I was there the river was in spate!

We'll get to the geology in a moment - we all know I only visit places of geological importance! For the moment I want to talk about some of the buildings, and exactly why New Lanark is a UNESCO site.

I've been putting this blog off because I wanted to avoid the politics of it all. Arguably, New Lanark was the birthplace of worker's rights. This is all down to a Welshman named Robert Owen, who bought the entire town for £60k in 1800.  When Robert Owen bought New Lanark it was nothing more than a tiny village with two working mills. Both mills ran on the electricity provided by waterwheels in the basement. Owen bought the town with the express intention of creating what would become known as a socialist haven.

So what did he provide that was so revolutionary? The first thing was to slash the working day from 14 hours to 10 hours. Still a long shift but unheard of in 1800. He then built decent homes for his workers, introduced a fair wage system and provided them with free health care. In addition he built a 'school' for the worker's children and even created the very first worker's nursery in the entire world.

So yeah. He was alright like.

So nowadays when you visit, New Lanark has been preserved as a little community people still live in. The homes are quaint and fully restored, there is a back-in-time village store. and you can visit both Robert's house and his 'School for Children'. They have the New Lanark Mill Hotel, a lovely place where weddings are frequent. They have a cafe and shop with a roof garden you can see as soon as you start your descent - and they even have millworker's house examples. One is from the 1820's and one is from the 1930's. If you're still bored after all of that you can wander around the working textile machinery and have it all explained to you by a professional... and not a weirdo on the internet.

So once you have exhausted yourself in the village, you can follow the badgers out into the valley itself. Now this is where things get even more interesting.

At the end of the walkway, once you have seen all the animal and plant markers and read about the nesting habbits of the local falcons, you will reach the Falls of Clyde. Now, I sell words for a living and I can't even describe this in any accuracy. 'Breath-taking' comes close, 'stunning' doesn't quite cut it, and 'spectacular' isn't enough. The River Clyde has spent all of eternity carving its way through the valley. It has worn down through so many layers of bedrock that we must surely be running out soon. In the picture opposite you should be able to see the bedrock exposure in the background? It's all like that!

Now, with regards to the rocks, it is all a protected area and if I see anyone down there with a hammer and chisel I will report them myself... but you can still go look at the rough stuff. You might not be able to get to it for all the vegetation and to be honest I wouldn't recommend rock hunting here. It's the Clyde so there will be quartz, calcite, and all colours of jasper. You won't find a diamond. Believe me I have hunted just about every bit of this river.

That being said, the site is fascinating. The gorges were cut in the last ice age - the same one that failed to completely cover the tip of Ben Nevis. Deep down in those rocks you will find the coal and iron that made the central belt of Scotland so productive during the Industrial Revolution. The multiple layers of sandstone and exposed bedrock you can see cause tumbling waterfalls, craggy cliffs, and spectacular ridges. The hike itself is free, too. Also, they are running an exhibition at the moment regarding the local Geology. The recent threat of a proposed new quarry in the area has been met with intense local resistance. It's no wonder. Who could possibly dig into this indescribable landscape? The Industrial Revolution is most definitely over. This area needs to be preserved.

As the icing on top of the cake, Wallace's Cave lies beyond the head of the Falls. As most of you will know, Lanark was the home of William Wallace. New Lanark is the village next door to this. After Wallace killed the commander of the Garrison (Heselrig) he and 25 men went into hiding. Whereas the night before they had hid in a cave near the Cartland Crags (oh my God you have to go there!!) the night afterwards they snuck down to New Lanark and hid in a cave they knew. Nowadays it is too treacherous for your average human to get to. Lucky for us, a gentleman over on Flickr managed to get there and post a picture of it.You can see it by following this link.

So that about wraps it up! I am sure there are things I have forgotten. I have heard you can approach from the other side and take in the Corra castle and the Hall of Mirrors; but I haven't been yet. When I do I will get more pictures and update this blog. I also want to mention the guys over at Clyde Valley Adventures, who do tours and activities in this area and the rest of the Clyde Valley. To us, tourism is conservation. The more areas we promote the more awareness of the beauty of the area. The more awareness there is, the more we conserve the special bits... at least that's the plan, anyway.

Until next time: happy exploring, find some good rocks, and don't forget to stop by Facebook and watch the video I took of the heron we saw on this trip!

Going Freelance... And Being A Better Writer

Wee car selfie - don't worry, I was parked!

So for those that don't follow me on Facebook or Instagram (and why not? I suggest you click the Facebook link above and find me) you won't know that I am currently 'in transition'. No, I'm not in the process of moving house, changing body or anything else of an elaborately complex and stressful nature - but I am crossing over from Chef to full time freelance writer... and that's a level of discomfort I always hoped to avoid.

Why? Why would I give up full time, paying work to sit behind a laptop all day and hope for clients? I genuinely don't know. But since I made the decision the nightmares have stopped... so that means it must be the good thing to do, right?

My lovely friend Kirsty Anderson, Illustrator

On a more serious note... I think sometimes in life you need to take the pay cut just to be happy in your own skin. I've always been the kind of person who values my free time above my work time; but the funny thing about writing is that I just can't see it as work. I can literally hear the other writers gasp at that statement - so before you lose any more breath let me explain myself...

I have spent the last three years of my life (Edelweiss was released in 2016, so we are probably closer to 4 years) waking up, going to work, coming home after a long shift and writing up to five thousand words, then going to sleep again. For all this time writing has been what I did in my free time. It was a hobby (albeit one that I was committed to). It was work, yes; but it was work for me.

The upshot of this is that I invested my time and skill into something that I wanted to do for myself. At no point did I start making money from it and, to be honest, I've sunk more into the books than I have made back. This blog I write entirely for free. My short stories - even though they are published - were all written for free, sent off without payment and published with a nod to exposure or a contributor's copy. But what I am going to say next is going to blow your mind... Writing isn't a profession where you can jump straight on in at the top.

If I were to start in a kitchen tomorrow I would be a dishwasher. I might have 20 years of kitchen experience but I don't have a piece of paper that says I can cook. Double this up with being a woman and I'd likely spend triple or even quadruple the time on dishes than a man with a qualification would. And before the anti-feminists get involved I'd like to point out that my record in this position is 10 years, despite being overly qualified for the position and having to watch less qualified people with no paperwork be promoted over my head. I then moved to a new job and was offered a managerial position within three months... but this isn't an equality post. It's about how to be a better writer.

How To Start Being A Writer

So, going with my kitchen example above... why would I accept a new job in a kitchen and expect to be the head chef straight away? Why would I take a job in a store and expect to have managerial responsibilities from day one, having never worked retail before? I wouldn't - of course I wouldn't! So why are there so many people out there who say they don't want to be writers because the pay sucks? Of course it sucks. You're unpublished, you have a name nobody knows and, quite frankly, no matter how many literature degrees you have nobody cares.

Until you have put the time in, until you have started at the bottom and done the free work, until you have edited till 4 in the morning for a project unlikely to ever make you money - you're not a writer. In the same way as you wouldn't step out of catering school and expect a head chef position you shouldn't step out of lit school and expect a book deal. And you're lucky, because you are finding this out now! I had to learn the hard way!

The best piece of advice I was ever given was to write every day (that's Chris Breechen from Writing About Writing, if you don't follow him then start). I started doing this three years ago now and I have a portfolio of work that would put the British Government to shame because of it. I don't want to appear boastful either because I make/have made/consistently fall foul to the same mistakes every other writer makes... but I keep writing. I keep submitting. I keep trying.

Getting Rejected

I have had about five times the rejections that I have had publications made. It might even be higher than that. The chances of you writing a short story and having it instantly published are slim to none - never mind an actual full length book. For every anthology posted on the likes of Horror Tree (another fantastic resource) the editors receive over two hundred submissions. Given that your average anthology is about 12 stories long; you can see how slim your chances are. Worse, anthology work is almost exclusively unpaid, although the Indie industry is on its way up.

So if you manage to get that story published then you are off to a fantastic start. If not? Don't panic, you are in the same boat as the other 88%. That doesn't make you a bad writer, it just means that your story didn't fit. Put it on the back burner, pull it out for another anthology, tidy it up a bit and send it away somewhere else. My record is five submissions to different anthologies before Fangs And Broken Bones accepted "The Spice of Life". At the moment, I have a short story out on it's 10th trip that I absolutely adore and can't understand why nobody wants it... that's just the way the industry works.

My point is that getting rejected should be your default expectation. That way, when something does get accepted, you can celebrate and simultaneously worry that it isn't good enough over a bottle of wine. Keep in mind that the difference between a successful writer and an unsuccessful one is no more than stubbornness. Write every day, get rejected once a week, and after about a year you will start to see improvements.

So all that's left for me to do is apologise to the rock lovers for a blog post about writing and not geology, and stress the point that not giving up is paramount to success in this industry. I am moving forward into freelance writing with the intention of writing a hell of a lot of web content because it actually does make a little money. Wish me luck because I'm going to need it.

One thing is for sure though: kitchens across Scotland will be a lot safer without me in them... although maybe not quite so tidy.

Scottish Crystals - After The Hunt

 Once You've Found Your Crystals - You Gotta Clean Them Up!

So there comes a time, once every few months, where I go through the (literal) bucket in my kitchen and scrub like hell for a few days. Cleaning up the rocks I have found while out on my car-ventures with Kai often turns out to be interesting all by itself. A lot of the time you don't see something properly until it's cleaned up. So though you may throw it in the bag because it has something you like elsewhere, a lot of the time the dirt is hiding something special underneath, too.

At least, that's what you hope for.

So this week was one of those times. I'm making the crossover into full time freelance writer at the moment and I'm doing it with the help of the notoriously slow British Government so it may take a few months. In the meantime I have rocks to wash!... and more time than ever to wash them with...

So I took to the blog, as I do, to show you some of the best examples I found during this wash up. Some of them will be going on my EBay page, some of them will be going to my private collection (which is getting silly) and some of them will go out as gifts because sometimes crystals just want to be with certain people. If you see anything you particularly like then get in touch, but do it quickly because all crystals are unique... which kind of just makes them more special.

Most of these are from around the Dumfries and Galloway area, a few are from the Cairngorms and my nice quartz spots... one or two might be from the south west coast where I have been amethyst hunting a lot this season. A little luck but nothing to write about so far. One of these days...

Until next time: happy crystal hunting in your home country. Let me know if you find anything awesome and add your pictures below!

A little Galena on one corner, pyrite on the other

Drusy Wanlockhead quarts

Pyrite mingling with quartz lines

Galena in blue and pyrite in gold.

Morion is what we call the dark parts of Cairngorm

Almost a point...Caitngorm smokey

That same quartz but with rutile crystals. This one is reserved for a friend in Germany.

 You can view some of the clearer smokey I mentioned above courtesy of YouTube.

Making Bismuth Crystals At Home

Bismuth from Magnametals on Ebay

I bought a piece of Bismuth on Ebay after watching an online tutorial so I am now officially an expert at this... Joking. I just like smashing things up with my hammer... But the multi-coloured, pyramid-like crystals formed by Bismuth when it cools down were just too much of a lure to ignore


The Bismuth I bought was 99.99% pure; I'm not sure what that means but I suspect it is the same as bleach. Since microscopes can't see the smallest bacteria the bleach adverts aren't allowed to say that they are 100% effective, so they always say they "kill 99.99% of all bacteria." instead. From what I have read though impurities will float to the surface once the cooling process begins. You can skim it like you skim the fat off a chicken stock...

I am getting off topic. As you can see the Bismuth is very pretty in the form it arrived in. I figured that it would be easier to melt down if it was in smaller pieces. For this, you should use safety goggles. If you don't have any then wrap the metal in a towel before you attack it with the hammer. This will mean you're less likely to get anything in your eyes or flying off to hit you. Once You have smashed it into pieces you can put it straight into the pot. Make sure it is an old pot because once you have melted metal in it you won't be able to get it clean ever, ever again.


So the process should go something like this:

• You melt the Bismuth in a pan. I found out there is actually no need to smash it after all, since the bigger bits all melted easily.
• You can melt the Bismuth on a normal cooker, since it has a melting point of 271 degrees C (ish). 
• You take the pan off the heat once the metal has become molten.
• As it cools the metal will form into pretty crystals that form in all different colours.
• The colour of the metal will change depending on what temperature the cooling liquid comes into contact with the air. This is why we get a rainbow of colours from Bismuth crystals. 
• This is one of the many YouTube videos I watched before I started... helpful, but proof that not all things can be mastered by watching an instructional video...

I made several mistakes. Firstly, I didn't remove the slag quickly enough. I still haven't got the hang of this. The slag cools exceptionally quickly and you have to move fast once you take the Bismuth off the heat. The unique blend of colours are created through the oxidization process and this is part of the reason that you should cool it as slowly as you can. The greater array of temperatures you cool it at will make for a greater scope of colour. I got stuck with blue, green and purple... but I'm not complaining!

I took a short video just to let you see what the Bismuth looks like when melted... it's pretty fascinating stuff.

My next mistake was not letting it cool slowly enough so that you can catch the colours. I did see one video with the Bismuth pan wrapped in insulation which did seem to slow the cooling process.I also didn't move the crystals that had newly formed around with a fork. If you don't keep the top and bottom layer separate you will end up with a solid block of metal as the crystals join up... unfortunately when you only have a hundred grams of a metal it's not enough for layers. You can see from the video how little it actually is to work with.

All this being said I'm not about to gice up just yet. Next time I will buy a bigger quantity of Bismuth and I guess about a half kilo would be enough to make layers. As you can see from the end result I need a lot of practise at this. I think it would be worth it to investigate further though, as soon as I find the time.

I added a close up below so you can see the beginnings of the crystal formation. This is one project I hope to get much better at over time.

In terms of trickiness I'd give it a seven out of ten. In terms of crystal formation I give myself a two out of ten... however, I would do it again (and probably will) just for the fun of it.