How Are Rhinestones Made?
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How Rhinestones Are Made
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Rhinestones tend to make people think of the costumes of Las Vegas dancers. However, Rhinestones have their roots in Germany. The original rhinestones were rock crystals from the Rhine River. They could be used to imitate diamonds, when coated with a metallic powder. When glass or quartz imitation diamonds arrived on the scene, people began to call them rhinestones as well.
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Today, the best rhinestones are still made from actual crystal quartz rather than from acrylic. Quartz rhinestones are made primarily in Austria and Czechoslovakia. Rhinestones are formed by taking the crystal and cutting it with various facets, just as a diamond is cut with a jeweler's saw. The quartz is then heated in a chamber with gold vapors. In the heat, gold molecules fuse to the quartz. This gives the crystal its diamond-like brilliance. Most diamonds, however, are made of leaded glass with a foil or metallic powder coating on the back. The finished rhinestones are machine-buffed to a high shine.
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Acrylic rhinestones, which are made in many places, are simply acrylic that has been injected into diamond-shaped industrial metal molds. They have a flat back that is coated with foil. The flat back makes the rhinestone easy to attach to various surfaces and the foil helps add to the rhinestone's brilliance.
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The foil or metallic powder backing on rhinestones is needed because glass does not reflect light. Instead, light passes through it. The backing reflects back the light, making the glass look like a diamond.
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Rhinestones are manufactured using a universal stone size (ss) scale. They range from ss5 (1.7-1.9 mm in diameter) to ss48 (10.9-11.3 mm in diameter).
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Though rhinestones look like diamonds, they don't have the same strength as diamonds. Rhinestones scratch easily, which can make caring for them somewhat difficult.
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Resources
- Photo Credit A rhinestone tiara. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
