Covering an Object with Round Flat Back Rhinestones

Many Rhinestone Biz customers are interested in covering their cell phone, iPod, personal game console or laptop with rhinestones. In addition to questions regarding the overall design and certain adhesive considerations, the question asked most often is related to the number of stones needed to get the desired coverage of the surface. Hopefully, this question can be answered by the table which appears at the end of this page.

We recommend the use of E6000 Craft adhesive. This is a low viscosity product which has better 'spreadbility' properties than the traditional Medium or High Viscosity product, but has that great E6000 bond. E6000 is also preferred for durability and flexibility as many medium or large objects (i.e., laptop cover) will need to flex a bit.

There other considerations as well when taking on the tasking of making an attractive, practical, cost-effective, usable object. Some of these considerations will favor a smaller stone, others will favor a larger stone.

• Abrasion: Larger stones will take less time to apply and will cost less to cover any given surface, however, a larger diameter stone is also by definition a taller stone and is more likely to be chipped, nicked, scratched or completely torn off. A smaller stone is preferred when there is any significant chance of abrasion.
• Edges: Many objects of this type have rounded edges. Larger stones will be more difficult to apply to a rounded edge. Since the flat back will only make contact in a line across the center beneath the stone, the remaining space will need to be occupied by excess adhesive in order to make full contact with the object. This is both less attractive and less secure than keeping the extra adhesive requirement to a minimum. A smaller stone is preferred in this case.
• Coverage Gaps: Larger stones will make quick work of a project, but to the eye individual gaps will appear larger and less attractive. Mathematically speaking, the amount of uncovered area is exactly the same using any size round stone, but with larger stones, that amount of surface area is concentrated in a smaller number of spaces, thus making each gap appear larger. A smaller stone is preferred here as well.
• Application Time: The advantage here goes to a larger stone.
• Cost: Advantage goes to a larger stone here as well.

Round Rhinestones Per Square Inch

	Box	Interleave	Box and Interleave Patterns
5ss	199	226
6ss	199	226
7ss	136	154
8ss	117	133
9ss	92	104
10ss	79	90
12ss	67	76
16ss	42	48
20ss	29	33
30ss	16	18
34ss	13	14
40ss	9	10
48ss	5	6