i Want Leftover Gem Chips Fir Art
April 5, 2017 10:39 PM Subscribe
So, I know a lot of artists and I know that some artists incorporated diamond dust into their paintings to add special sparkle and raise prices. I want to give, as an Easter present to my artist friends, some diamond (or diamond like! They can be sapphires or whatever) factory made chips and dust. Surley there has to be a source for factory made diamonds not good enough for gems but fine for being mixed into some oil paint. Tell me how to get them.
If you want to get a bit more toward the idea of "gem" and "gem chips", you can get something like this, which is 1.3mm round cut diamonds, typically used in a pavé setting. I'm not sure if these are .01 or .02 carat stones. Anyway, more expensive, but actually cut and shaped like gems. Plus, if someone wants diamond chips instead of something shaped like a small gemstone, they are super easy to shatter/crush.
I'm not sure what the diamond dust you've seen on paintings looks like. The grain size of the dust probably matters a lot when it comes to the glitter effect it would have as part of a painting.
posted by hippybear at 1:18 AM on April 6, 2017
I'm not sure what the diamond dust you've seen on paintings looks like. The grain size of the dust probably matters a lot when it comes to the glitter effect it would have as part of a painting.
posted by hippybear at 1:18 AM on April 6, 2017
I think you want the glitteriest glitter in the world.
posted by (Over) Thinking at 3:52 AM on April 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by (Over) Thinking at 3:52 AM on April 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
Seconding the glitteriest glitter in the world. Cut diamonds are sparkly because they've been polished so you can see the light bouncing around internally. Without the cutting they just look like rocks and diamond dust looks like, well, dust. Also the sparkles should go on top of your work in some sort of transparent medium, not mixed into an opaque paint, can't sparkle if the light can't get to it.
posted by yeahlikethat at 9:38 AM on April 6, 2017
posted by yeahlikethat at 9:38 AM on April 6, 2017
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You can find some on Amazon but that's about $9 for a single gram, which is not especially cheap. On eBay I can find somewhat larger quantities with somewhat better prices ($1-2 per carat; a carat is 1/5 of a gram).
posted by aubilenon at 10:46 PM on April 5, 2017 [1 favorite]