# Quick lesson Anyone on applying rhinestones



## t-woman (Oct 17, 2009)

I have a sign shop and a small t-shirt shop in a small town. Customer came in wanting rhinestones on her screen printed tees and let me tell you I thought it would be easy. Call my suppliers and ask questions. NOT Most deal with only signs or tees and not rhinestones. I read the forums threads and got completely lost. hot fix or not to hot fix? hand place or get a machine? grey glue vs blue green glue. u-tubed and get this part and not the complete picture. Is there anyone out there who can explain it and tell me step by step how? Where to buy stones? Shineart says no samples, order samples from another company that someone recommended and the just refund my money with out any samples. Is there any help out there for someone like me? thanks


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

unfortunately so many of taken advantage of 'free' samples that they were losing $$...sample taken and no orders received... I have experienced that so I don't do samples of anything..

As to your question on placing on screen print...I don't do that but some have on water based ink...here is a link that addresses your question

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/rhinestone-decoration/t101271.html they seem to have done it...but I have questions on it but here is another link that says don't do it

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/rhinestone-decoration/t82363.html

So I guess some do and some don't. I will hand place stones where there is no ink...or I will use them sublimation or DTG...

Don't worry about the color glue...that used to be a way to tell...but manufacturers got wise...so I would not rely on the glue color to determine how good they will stick..I use someone like Welcome to Shine Art USA - for stones and never worry about the color.

Hot fix stones are used in conjunction with a heat press so the heat and pressure will affix the stones. non hot fix are applied individually by use a glue like gemtac etc 

If you want to hand fix you can try a bedazzler from a craft shop...there are also ultrsonic machines that use ultrasound to activate the glue (these are pricey...around $1500) or a machine from Glitz Up ($125) or from DZU STORE ($119)
The latter two are sort of like a bedazzler on steroids

If you want a system, they can ranger from sub-$1000 to over $5k...or a dedicated cam machine starting from 20K or so


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## MDsUnique (Nov 19, 2009)

Thanks for the links, Charles! Very informative and helpful to another "newbie"!


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