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What is Diamond Painting? Diamond painting is filling in pretty pictures with tiny plastic gems to make sparkly pixely versions of the pretty pictures. You can think of it as the bastard child of cross-stitch and bead art, but infinitely more infuriating  What is Diamond Painting actually? There are two “main” kinds of Diamond Painting, where you follow a pattern printed on a canvas, or where you make your own design. 99% of the time, when you see Diamond Paintings online, they'll be from a pre-printed kit. Preprinted kits come in two styles, round drills or square drills. Round drills are overall easier to work with but leave gaps between the drills (because, y'know, they're round) while square drills are a bit more finicky and lines between rows can be more noticable. It's not really an issue when you're looking at it from a distance, but it does piss some people off. Freestyle is just that, you have a blank area, and you fill it in with your own pattern. You can buy preprinted blank canvases with glue already on the surface, or you can buy glue and make your own canvas. I'm going to be doing the latter eventually for a cross-stitch pattern I want to make, but a blank canvas with the adhesive was at least $150, meanwhile the glue and a regular canvas from Michael's was about $40. If you want to freestyle a cross-stitch pattern, the drills do match up to DMC colors, and there are sellers online who sell drills by DMC color. Kits come in different sizes, the smaller the size, the more like something out of an early-to-mid 90's game the final product will look. Not that that's a bad thing, pixel art is awesome and there are some companies that do nice small kits. This sounds neat, what do I need to do this? There are a few tools you'll need, but if you're just starting out, literally every kit I've seen has included everything you need to actually make a project. Yes, even kits from AliExpress. I'm not 100% sure if websites that take images you provide and turn them into canvases for you include them, but considering that the tools cost literally pennies from AliExpress, it's probably a safe bet. Drills-These are the tiny plastic gems you place on the canvas. No, I don't know why they're called drills. Drill Placer- or diamond pen, diamond placer, drill pen... these have a lot of terms for them. Most kits include a drill placer with one end for single drills and another open end that you can put multi-placers into. Multi-placers are usually for 4 drills and 7 drills, from the kits I've seen. The drill placers that come with kits are usually dirt cheap, some include the rubber grip thing you put onto pens to make them more comfortable to hold. You can buy custom placers online, there's a whole market for resin diamond placers on Etsy. I'm told the fanbase for some maker's drill placers gets a bit... intense. Wax- Every kit includes a block or two of red wax. You stab the placer into the wax, then the drills stick to the wax to be put onto the canvas. Simple. Drill tray- Arguably the most important part of the tool kit, this is a tray with long lines running down the bottom to help line up drills for getting them the right way up and quickly placed with multi-placers. Tweezers- Useful for picking drills up off the canvas that either fell or were put onto the wrong space. Cover Minder and Washi Tape- I've only seen one company include these in their kit, and if I'm being honest, while they're useful, they're not really something you NEED. Hell, I'm still not certain what use Washi tape is, I've seen people say they use it to section off parts of the canvas, while others say that the washi tape just gets stuck to the adhesive and... yeah, no idea. Storage- Buy storage containers for the project you're working on. I cannot stress enough how much of a hassle dealing with tiny baggies to store drills in can be. Artdot has storage containers on Amazon that work well enough. They're basically tictac containers with a convenient storage method. Some way to hang it- When all is said and done, you need some way to actually display this thing. Some people use stretcher bars, some people use frames, I use magnetic poster hangers. I saw this website that lets me make an image into a picture, but I don't know what size to go for? BE A SIZE QUEEN. Drills are a set size. Think of it in terms of the drills are pixels, the smaller the canvas, the less detail will show up. If it's a smaller picture or doesn't have much detail, you can probably get away with a smaller canvas. If it's your wedding photo, I'm sure your signifigant other would like to actually have a face. See this image for an idea of how quality drops the smaller the canvas is.  This sounds great, where can I get some kits to try out? Diamond Art Club- Arguably the top of the line for kits, they're the ones that include cover minders and washi tape in their tool kits. They also have a warranty on their kits bought from them directly, and will actually send you replacement drills in the event that you spill some. They are sold online and through some retailers. If you are buying them in-store, make sure it's sealed, people do steal the drills and kits from them. If you are buying from someone flipping older kits, make sure you ask for the tool kit, there are quite a few resellers that don't include the toolkit for whatever reason. All of their art is licensed from the artists in question (or at least no one has accused them of stealing art). Pros: High quality Comes with everything you need Fast shipping Stupidly easy to hit their reward tiers Available in stores Get in new designs weekly Cons: Expensive as gently caress Diamond Dotz- The mid-range for kits, while their prices are a bit high, they top out much lower than Diamond Art Club for the larger prints. The photo at the top is a Diamond Dotz kit. They're readily available in most craft stores, and they sell drills and glue outside of kits for freestyle works. Pros: Available in-store Good quality Doesn't cost an arm and a leg Cons: They don't have a warrenty Paintgem- Small kits, you usually get about 10 for $30. Probably your best bet if you want to dip your toe into the hobby or you want something small to work on with kids. The prints are tiny, but look nice. Pros: Cheap Good pixel art Cons: Not a ton of detail Ali Express- Hooboy. Yes, you can get Diamond Painting kits for cheap on Ali Express. Just remember that it's Ali Express, and that there's no guarantee of quality, and that there's a 90% chance you're getting stolen art. I have bought some kits from them just to see how they are in quality, but I haven't gotten around to them yet. Pros: Cheap for the size Cons: No guarantee on quality Probably stolen art Long wait time from when you order it. There are a lot more companies out there that make kits, these are just the ones I've actually used in the past (and Ali Express). If you find a place that does good kits or custom kits, give them a shoutout and I'll add them to the list.
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Feb 18, 2023 22:21
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| # ? May 6, 2024 00:25 |
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Reserved in case it's needed
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Feb 18, 2023 22:21
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