Thursday, May 20, 2010

What are "Water Jewels" made of?

Has anyone else heard of them? They are sold at craft stores in the same department as floral design supplies, as vase fillers for fresh or silk flower arrangements.


They start out as tiny hard spheres; the clear color variety looks just like the silicone dessicant found in shoe boxes (to keep them dry). When you leave them in water for about 1 hour each one swells up to about marble size and becomes a beautiful clear or colored sparkling orb. Then they are squishy and slippery. Most amusing.


The package is about 2 inches across and contains 200 or so. They come in clear, blue, and green so far but they CAN be colored with food coloring as they expand.


Warm water makes them expand faster.


They shrink back to original size when they dry out in about a week!


Salt destroys them completely.


What the heck are they???

What are "Water Jewels" made of?
I just looked at the package I have. It just refers to product as poly crystals. No where on the packaging does it state what they are made of. It just says it is a non-toxic polymer that absorbs water. I guess that's the best answer we're going to get.
Reply:don't know try searching the web....


1 comment:

  1. Just bought some for an event and the packet says 100% Sodium Polyacrylate... whatever that is.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_polyacrylate

    ReplyDelete