What do you get when you cross paint-by-numbers with cross-stitch? One of the newest crafting crazes: diamond art painting.
The difference is, says Joanne Newman of Get Messy NL, a place dedicated to arts and crafts in Paradise, N.L., with diamond painting, you use pretty, sparkly gems. The gems fill up the page according to a legend and once completed, you have a beautiful, almost three-dimensional picture.
The kits come with everything you need: a stylus, wax to help pick up the gems, a tray sorter, all the gems, and the canvas print, says Newman, noting that Get Messy NL was one of the first in the area to sell these kits.
According to Suzanne Amirault of Meteghan, N.S., diamond painting has been popular for the past several years. When she closed her dollar store in 2018, it was around the time when diamond paintings were becoming popular. As these kits were something she already sold in the store and were doing so well, Amirault decided to take the products with her and continue to sell them from her home and shows. She now operates under Suzanne’s Diamond Painting Collection.
Because it’s still a relatively new craft, many people are just learning about it, says Amirault. COVID-19 helped, as people were looking for things to do, she says.
There is a pre-beginner level right up to intermediate and expert level, explains Newman. The more expertise you have with the diamond dots, the more detailed the picture, the more space the dots cover on the scene.
Newman suggests starting with the beginner size, which ranges in price from $10 to $25 apiece. Choose an image that interests you, and get started.
Amirault says there are two kinds of kits: round and square diamonds. Round ones are a little easier, she believes, but she says the square diamonds make a nicer finished picture.
“If you do a picture with fewer colours, it’s a tad easier because you don’t have to keep switching, but don’t let lots of colours scare you,” she says.
Diamond painting kits comes with everything you need: a stylus; wax, which helps pick up the gems; a tray sorter; all gems; and the canvas print. Kits come in a wide variety of designs and some East Coast sellers are now creating custom kits based off photographs. – RF Stock
Wide appeal
Because it’s a fun and easy hobby, says Toni Dinn, who sells the kits from Keystone Comics in Greenwood, N.S., diamond art appeals to a wide range of people. She says most of her customers are women aged 20 to 80 years old, but she does have some customers who are children and quite a few older men.
Newman agrees that the hobby is the perfect fit for all ages.
“I fell in love with them, so did my children, even my dad and grandmother got in on the action,” says Newman. “It was a great past time, and totally addictive.”
Amirault says there is some misconception about the hobby, as anyone can do it. She says her triplets started when they were six years old, and her oldest child was eight years old, but she also has customers in their 80s who are crazy for the kits.
Some people feel they won’t have the patience to complete a project, but once they try it, they are very surprised, says Amirault.
“I often get feedback from people who suffer from anxiety. This craft really helps them a lot,” she says.
To make a diamond painting, dip your diamond pen or stylus in wax and put the specific colour of the diamond onto the tray. Then, place them on the corresponding space on your canvas. – RF Stock
How to Make Them
To make a diamond painting, dip your diamond pen or stylus in wax and put the colour of the diamond onto the tray. Then, place them in the corresponding space on your canvas, explains Dinn.
To set up her workspace, Candy O’Brien, a diamond painting enthusiast in Berwick, N.S., uses painter’s tape to secure the canvas to a shoebox lid. She also suggests taping it to the bottom of a cookie sheet, so everything stays together.
“It does not need to be fancy, and you do not need to spend a lot of money. You will spill the diamonds. It’s inevitable,” says O’Brien, who notes there are always extra in the kit, probably for this purpose.
She also discovered she needed to wear reading glasses while doing the kits.
Amirault and Dinn both use an LED lightboard underneath projects to make it easier to see. It’s helpful because it eliminates the glare of an overhead light, Amirault says, but she recommends trying it without first to be sure that you enjoy doing this craft before investing in a light or any fancy pens.
When the picture is finished, frame them in a shadow box or a regular or wooden picture frame, says Newman.
“They look beautiful up on the wall, especially when the light hits them. They are just like diamonds on the wall,” she says.
Finding frames can be a little challenging depending on the size of the diamond painting, cautions Amirault. There is also the option to mount them on a stretch canvas, she says.
“I fell in love with them – so did my children, even my dad and grandmother got in on the action,” says Joanne Newman. – RF Stock
Custom Orders
Another great thing about diamond painting is that you can have custom kits created, says Amirault. She’s been able to order kits based on her customer’s favourite pictures, like family, wedding, or pet pictures, and has been able to add words or dates to further personalize them. Some people, she says, find it therapeutic and healing to create a diamond painting in memory of someone they’ve lost, and often orders kits of family members or pets who have passed away.
“I’ve heard many stories of tears of joy in receiving a custom kit,” says Amirault.
Amirault’s most popular custom order, though, is the Nova Scotia Strong kits she designed. She used these sales as a fundraiser for the families of Portapique, N.S. mass shooting last spring. By donating $4 per kit, Amirault raised over $1,500. These designs are still just as popular nearly a year later, she says.
“Once you get started, you may not stop,” Amirault says. “Diamond painting is a great project for the whole family to work on together.”
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
