WhichCraft

Diamond Painting

Like paint by number, with sparkle.

Diamond painting is sticking thousands of small resin gems onto a printed adhesive canvas. Each gem corresponds to a color and a position. The kit comes with the canvas, pre-sorted gems, and an applicator pen with wax that picks up one gem at a time.

The process is slow and repetitive. You pick a gem with the applicator, place it on its labeled square, press it down. Repeat for the entire image. A small canvas takes many sessions; a wall-sized one takes much longer.

The result is a sparkly, mosaic-like image when seen from a distance. Up close it's recognizably gems on a grid. People do it for the same reason they do adult coloring: the absence of decisions and the slow, predictable progress.

Mess
Clean
Difficulty
Easy to start
Time to first win
Long-term project

You’ll love diamond painting if…

  • you want a long, slow project to chip away at.
  • you'd rather follow a pattern than design one.
  • you find the click-place-press rhythm calming.