From: rbrennen@tin.Berkeley.EDU (Reid A. Brennen)
Subject: gluing rhinestones
Gatewayed-From: ballroom@athena.mit.edu
Reply-To: rbrennen@tin.Berkeley.EDU (Reid A. Brennen)
Organization: None
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 19:02:35 GMT
Keywords: ballroom, mailing list

I missed any previous discussion of rhinestone attachment, but
following is my own experience in the area.

I've done some gluing of rhinestones to shoes, dresses, pants,
and belts.  I talked to a dressmaker about different glues
before I did any of this and chose my glue accordingly.

I have seen rhinestones glued on a dress with Sobo glue,
a white waterbase glue similar to Elmer's white glue.
I do not know how well that worked, but I suspect that
any moisture would cause this glue to fail.  Plus, since
this type of glue is used primarily on porous materials
and depends on the interlocking interaction of the glue
and the porous material, I believe that white glue does not
adhere well to rhinestone backing.

A favorite among costume makers is the hot glue gun
method which allows for very rapid application of 
rhinestones because a line of glue (or set of dots) 
can be put on the dress (or whatever) and the rhinestones 
can be placed easily.  A big advantage of hot glue is 
that it remains very pliable after it cools and will give 
when the material base (shoe, dress, whatever) moves
or bends.  The main problem with hot glue is that the 
rhinestones DO pop off fairly frequently.  A prominent
dressmaker in LA uses a hot glue gun and charges a lot
of money for his dresses.  He does incredibly great looking
rhinestone patterning but the dresses shed rhinestones
like crazy.  I don't mean that one out of ten falls off
every time the dresses are worn, more like one out of
every one or three hundred.  That is not all that many, but
after the garment is worn four or five times, the gaping
(they seem gaping to me) holes start to become noticeable.
Part of the reason they are visible is that when the 
rhinestones come off, the silvery rhinestone backing
stays ON THE RHINESTONE.  This means that the glue
is all that is showing where the rhinestone used to be.
Of course, this means you can reuse the rhinestone, IF
you can find it.  More on this last later.  One good thing 
about this glue is that when it cools, it is ready to use.

The next glue is one with which I have experience.  The 
glue comes clothed in a variety of names, only one of
which I comes to mind at the moment.  Oop, another one
just popped into my mind.  One is called GOOP Household
Cement.  The other is called E6000.  The Household Goop
is available in hardware stores and since its instruction
paper is in both English and French, I suspect that it
is available all over the US and possibly Canada.  The 
E6000 is available in hobby, craft, and sewing stores.
This glue holds rhinestones on the material extremely well.
My partner and I used Goop Household to cover her Latin shoes in
rhinestones.  She has since quit using the shoes for
competition and now uses them for practice;  the shoes have only
lost two rhinestones in the last year.  I have a belt that
I used to use for my Latin costume.  It is covered in rhinestones
and has only lost 3 or 4 in the last year and a half.  I
like this glue.  Plus, when the rhinestones do fall off,
the rhinestone backing usually stays on the material and
since the backing is shiny, the loss of the rhinestone is
less noticeable.  This is especially good for dark backgrounds.

Now, here are the problems with Goop Household.   It has a
very short tack time.  Once the glue has been applied to 
the material, you only have about 30 to 45 seconds to
place the rhinestones.  This is not too much of a problem
if you are quick in placing rhinestones and do not spread
too much glue at a time (I recommend using a pair of tweezers
to place the stones).  Another problem is caused by the
relatively thick consistancy of the glue; it can be difficult
to put just one dot of glue on the material without getting
whispies out beyond the area covered by one stone.  To get
around this, I put out a small amount of glue onto some
disposable material (cardboard, aluminum foil, etc) and use
a toothpick to put a dot of glue on the back of the rhinestone
and then place the rhinestone.  This glue dries very quickly
and can be used after several hours, but it is certainly
best to wait at least 12 hours before dancing, or even better,
waiting 24 hours.  This glue is also good for gluing fabrics
and/or leather together.  I have used it to reglue suede to 
my dance shoe soles.

I hope the above helps.  If anyone has any comments and/or
disagreements, I would very much like to hear about it.  I
would especially like to hear about glues (or other methods)
for attaching rhinestones which I have not mentioned.

-Turtle
.______________________________________________________________________.
|Reid (Turtle) Alyn Brennen                                            |
|Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center                         "       "   |
|University of California at Berkeley                                  |
|rbrennen@iron.berkeley.edu    (510) 642-8713                          |
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