Purple Dancesport Gown: Stoning

I've got quite a bit of shopping around for dress crystals (flat backs), and have found that Dreamtime Creations seems to have the best prices, even after a fairly large price hike (which they gave more than fair warning about) in the spring of 2011. Most of what I learned about stoning I found in the Ballroom section of Dance Forums, which is a great resource for all things ballroom.

The first question was Swarovski or Preciosa? Preciosa is less expensive, but most people agree that they don't sparkle as much as Swarovski. Some claim that one is sparklier up close, and the other is sparklier from a distance. Well, as the blog title implies, I went the cheaper route with Preciosa.

You will also want regular flatbacks that you attach with glue, and not the hotfix ones. As for glue, you have several options. The two main ones are E-6000 and Gem-Tac. The E-6000 was recommended to me by a professional dancer, & sure enough it has amazing holding power. The only problem is that I found it hard to work with. It makes long threads of glue when you pull away the toothpick you are applying it with, and there really isn't any way to undo mistakes. I've had better luck with Gem-Tac, which is basically a white craft glue. The problem with Gem-Tack is that it dries quickly, so you have do the stoning fairly quickly as well.

To get prepared, you will need:

- the flatback stones (size 20ss and/or 16ss seem to be the most popular for stoning dresses according to people on Dance Forums)
- Gem-Tac
- a chopstick (although I suppose a pencil would do)
- a paper plate or index card as a "glue palette"
- a couple of toothpicks
- poster adhesive.

Poster adhesive?! Yes - I use Duck Brand Poster Putty shown here, but you can also use Blu-Tack or any other similar product.

If you put a small blob of the putty on the end of a chopstick, it is exactly tacky enough to pick up a small rhinestone and place it where you want it, but not so tacky that you can't get the stone off. You may need to use a clean toothpick to push it off once you go to place the stone however.

1) Put a small blob of glue onto your paper palette. Don't squeeze out too much until you know how quickly you'll be working, because Gem-Tac dries quickly

2) Use a toothpick to put several dots of glue where you plan to put the stones. Again, do fewer dots until you have an idea of how quickly you can work since the glue dries quickly.

3) Use the chopstick with the putty to pick up the stones, and place them on each glue dot, gently pushing off with a clean toothpick if necessary. Keep some additional clean toothpicks around in case your glue dot was too big and you need to clean up the glue that oozes out from behind the stone. This whole process seems to be a balancing act of having enough glue to hold the stone tight without having too much and making a mess

4) After the glue has set a little, 3-5 minutes. gently pat the stones down (without moving them!) to ensure good adhesion.

A couple of things I discovered through trial and error:

- Always keep some stones in reserve for repairs - no matter how well you glue the stones on, a bunch are bound to fall off anyway

- A gross (144) of stones is a remarkably small amount - even though it sounds like a lot,  it's maybe a scant teaspoon

- It's better to have the stones clustered together than sprinkled far and wide across the dress - they'll show up more

- I am completely incapable of getting the darned things on completely evenly, so I keep reciting my  mother's favorite phrase, which was "It will never show on a galloping horse".