SilicaSec Silica Gel how it works

Silica Gel looks a bit like fine sugar, it is ideal for drying flowers because it draws moisture from the flower, drying it quickly therefore reducing the loss of colour and size and the end result is dried flowers which look almost as if they have been freshly picked.

The Silica Gel we supply is a mix of white and auto-indicating crystals - The auto-indicating crystals change from orange to dark green when the Silica Gel is no longer active.

I have had queries as to whether the orange to green crystals will stain petals and having dried flowers of all types and colours, I have never had a problem with the colour leaching out and staining petals.

The crystal size of our Silica Gel is between 0.5 and 1mm which after a lot of trial and error we realised that this was the ideal size, smaller than 0.5 and the Silica Gel was too dusty and crystals bigger than 1mm tended to dent the petals of delicate flowers.

Once the Silica Gel is no longer active, it is easy to re-activate by heating the granules in an open container in your oven, at a temperature of between 105 and 110°c. When the indicating crystals return to their original colour orange, let the Silica Gel cool and then store it in a sealed container until you are ready to use it again.

This reactivation process can be done a number of times and although after a while the orange granules loose their ability to change colour, your Silica Gel will still retain it's capacity to dry flowers.

Regenerating Silica Gel
in a Micro-Wave

If you have a Microwave regenerating your Silica gel couldn't be easier or quicker.

As with regeneration in an electric oven, don't wait until you have a huge quantity to do, about 500gms at a time is a
manageable amount. Place this in an open Micro-wave safe
container, and with your setting on high micro-wave it for 2 minutes,
then stir it mixing in any still green indicating crystals with the ones
that have changed back to orange, and micro-wave again for 1 minute, repeat this process until all the indicating crystals have
turned orange and voila your Silica Gel is ready to use again.