Bismuth, the 83nd element, is considered the heaviest stable element on the planet. Every other element beyond bismuth is rather radioactive. Even though bismuth is technically speaking radioactive, it's half-life is said to be greater than the age of the universe, which makes it pretty stable.

Bismuth when mined is a rather brittle white metal with limited commercial value (Pepto-Bismol, fishing weights, and buckshot). It's being used to replace lead in some applications to remove lead from the environment. Limited commercial value also means its kind of cheap.

Before I move on to the brief tutorial, another fun fact is that it is diamagnetic which basically means that it repels magnetic fields. This also means that it can stabilize magnetic fields, which is better explained with a visual: Levitating with Bismuth

Bismuth crystals do not naturally occur that we know of, they must be created. In the case of the few I have pictures of. They were created in my kitchen earlier this evening.

To start out with this process you take a lump (ingot of bismuth) and melt it over the stove. I use a stainless steel pot that I only use for making crystals. Though you could use a regular stainless steel pot and just clean it out, I wouldn't recommend that (a pain to clean). Though you could, it is oddly enough, rather nontoxic.

So I melt the ingot setting my temp to the half way point between medium and high on my stove. (Sorry for the more technically minded, I do not use a set temperature.)

While the ingot is melting I prepare a container to cool the bismuth in. I prefer to use a stainless steel cup I bought from a restaurant supply store and I line it with aluminum. The aluminum in the cup is a sheet that I have folded over several times. If I did not fold the aluminum multiple times the molten bismuth would have torn through one layer of aluminum and sunk to the bottom of the cup and made a complete mess. Another reason I line the cup with aluminum is that aluminum cools down very quickly and I can pull it out of the cup while it is still hot (using oven mitts and a pair of pliers) to aid the cooling process.

Once I have lined the cup with aluminum I place a seed crystal for the new crystals to grow from. I have been doing this for a long time so I have quite a collection of seed crystals, which have been pulled from imperfect batches to create a cache of them. The crystals I selected were a tiny pink one and a magenta and green (I like using two seed crystals). Also for first time batches, some people like to just pour the metal straight and cool it, which works, or have a paperclip in their to seed.

Once I have the cup lined with aluminum and with two seed crystals I set another burner on the stove slightly towards cool. This is where I put the cup. I will post a picture of the setting. (Again I don't use temperatures). I give it a minute to make sure the temperatures are stable then I pour the molten bismuth from my stainless steel pot to the cup with the seed crystals.

Then I set the timer for 9 minutes. (This timing and the temperature for the crystalizing cup seem to work best for what I am trying to create. Which is little alien cities)

When the timer is down to 3 minutes I take a paperclip and tap the top of my cooling bismuth. Usually the center is hard but if I tap around I can find a spot that is still liquid metal. If the top layer completely cools off I will not be able to pour off the liquid metal.

When the nine minutes is up I pour the excess liquid metal back into my stainless steel pot, and I pull my aluminum lined cup off the burner to let it cool for a few minutes. If I were to let it completely cool, it would just be a lump of metal again. The half state between liquid and solid is where the crystals form. Once it has cooled I take it to examine the crystals. What I want is a cluster of large vibrant multicolored crystals with a hint of green somewhere in there. Green is the mark of a good bismuth crystal.

If it looks nice enough as a miniature alien city, I leave it be. If however it's hard to see the crystals and many might be covered up, I take a pair of pliers and break them away from the base making sure to pull at the break points to get individual crystals. While they are possible to wire wrap and do such things, bare in mind they are quite fragile and very brittle. I try to make my crystals as large as possible, which has to do with the temp and the time.

If I don't like any crystals I remelt them and try another batch. The only risk is creating a slag layer that should be skimmed off. You might be able to tell from my pics, that I have been a bit lazy with the slag and let it accumulate (that is the max I let it get before I skim it).

The reason bismuth goes from a white metal to show all the colors of the rainbow is a bismuth oxide layer that is formed when pouring off the excess liquid metal. Depending on how thick or thin this oxide layer it depends on the wavelength of light that reflects back to your eye. The mark of a good bismuth crystal is the presence of the color green. Poor oxide color typically is bronze looking with some purple and blue.

The reason I love working with bismuth so much and really wanted to share my process is because it reminds me of some of the landscapes and visualizations I have seen with a DMT trip.

Note: The second to last pic was the crystal cluster I did with the batch tonight (my guess is that its lack of vibrancy is due to the excess slag). The last pic is another more vibrant one I had done a few months ago.

They are pretty wild looking, nice job