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Crystal microphotography

Crystals grown on a slide and shot between crossed polarizing filters. None of this colour is pigment — the crystal splits the light in two, the halves fall out of step, and whatever survives when they recombine is what you see. Nudge the stage and it all changes.

Polarized-light micrograph of broad orange crystal wedges interrupted by three dark blue spherulites, each showing a black extinction cross. — Orange field with blue spherulites

Radiating orange plates crossed by blue spherulites. The dark cross in each sphere is the extinction figure, where the crystal axes line up with the filters and no light gets through.

Micrograph of blue and magenta crystal blades radiating from a bright seam running diagonally across the frame. — Blue and magenta radiants

Blades fanning out from a single seam. The magenta and gold along the fault line mark where the crystal is thinnest.

Micrograph of fine magenta and blue needles radiating from a point above a reddish ground marked with faint concentric rings. — Needle burst over concentric rings

A burst of needles over an older growth front — the faint rings behind them record earlier stages of the same crystallisation.

Micrograph of folded crimson crystal sheets with a pleated dark blue fan opening at the top of the frame. — Crimson sheets and a dark fan

Deep red sheets folding like cloth, with a pleated fan breaking through above them.

Micrograph of a pale blue-white feathery dendrite branching outward against a black field. — Dendritic starburst

A dendrite: growth that keeps branching because the tips reach fresh solution faster than the hollows between them.

Micrograph of a pale rosette on a violet ground, with a comb of cream spikes along the lower edge and a small four-petalled form at centre. — Violet field with rosette

A rosette opening across a violet ground, with a palisade of spikes closing off the bottom of the frame.

Micrograph of a blue disc crossed by concentric arcs and a faint dark radial cross. — Ringed spherulite

Concentric banding inside a single spherulite. The rings come from the crystal twisting as it grew outward.

Micrograph of two smooth blue lobes meeting at the centre of the frame above a red ground, with a fine white needle crossing beneath them. — Blue lobes

Two broad lobes meeting along a seam — thick, even crystal, so the colour stays flat instead of banding.

Micrograph of a large cream rosette with a dark radial cross, accompanied by two small pinwheel forms on a near-black field. — Rosette with extinction cross

A rosette caught with its extinction cross square to the filters, with two smaller pinwheels alongside.

Micrograph of salmon and orange crystal wedges advancing across a dark field scattered with round bubbles. — Salmon wedges

A growth front advancing into the dark, with trapped bubbles marking where it moved fastest.

Micrograph of a massive amber crystal band with dark drapery hanging beneath it against a black upper field. — Amber band

Thick amber crystal with dark striations pulling downward underneath, the whole thing reading like a cliff face.

Micrograph of dark feathery plumes with orange and green blades cutting through them, and a red-orange column at lower left. — Plumes and blades

Dark plumes shot through with orange and green blades, with one bright column holding the lower corner.

Micrograph of an orange and red banded crystal mass with a teal-green streak along one band and a cracked upper surface. — Banded strata

Bands of colour stacked like sediment, each one a step in thickness, with a single green seam running through.

Micrograph of a pale iridescent filament branching diagonally upward from a row of small coloured columns at the base. — Branching filament

A filament climbing diagonally out of a row of stubby columns at the bottom of the slide.

Micrograph of a jagged cream-white crystal band with dark vertical streaks descending below it. — Pale escarpment

Near-colourless crystal, so the structure comes through as relief rather than as interference colour.

Micrograph of small pink, blue and white crystal clusters scattered in a loose spiral across a black field. — Scattered clusters

Isolated clusters on an otherwise empty slide, falling into a loose spiral.

Micrograph of a chain of pale blue blades standing along a curve, with pink flecks above them on a dark blue field. — Chain of blades

Blades standing in a row along a curve, as if the solution dried back along a single edge.

Micrograph of a broken ring of small amber and white crystal fragments on a deep black field. — Sparse ring

What was left when a drop dried from the middle outward — a ring of fragments and nothing in the centre.