10 pounds: a thousand miles, I think this quite decent, please do it and write all things that you would like to see in our world, and let it rip 
From what I remember in the book I read this lady mention to use only Lapis, but if you did not have enough to make a long strand, you could space it out by putting clear quartz in between the Lapis pieces
I love the way you extrapolate, I strongly feel that the crystals elixir is much stronger, simply because it vibrates on a etheric level rather than just 3D, as far as the water being programed, I would not give it another thought because the water from the plaster evaporates and all that is left is truly the spirit of the gems; so no water to mess with 