When I'm downtown, I usually take the bus home, and since that particular bus only runs every hour, I try to plan my appointments around that.
Sometimes, however, that doesn't work perfectly and I have some time to kill, most times not enough to do any big shopping, but too long to spend on a bus stop bench, especially if it's cold.
One way to do that was to go to our version of a dollar store which has now moved to another location, so the one option in the area is the discount retailer which has a bit of everything.
I always head to the crafts and office corner where I sometimes pick up little stuff like pens, brushes, glue or whatever things I see that could be of use to me. Often they offer the same items as our dollar store.
Last time I was there, they had diamond painting kits. I had never thought about picking up diamond painting as a hobby despite having seen some beautiful pictures.
I have an online friend, however, who does really large canvases and another friend picked up a kit when she temporarily didn't have access to her jewelry studio and said it was more fun that she had expected. So I thought it would be interesting to try it just once.
I had never thought about the history of diamond painting before.
From what I read, it was invented in Asia in the early 2000s and then went worldwide.
You use small plastic "diamonds", so-called drills, which can be round or square (there are also special shapes), and put them on your sticky canvas to achieve a sparkly "painting". At first, velvet was used for the canvas and superglue to stick the drills on. Nowadays, the canvas is pre-applied with adhesives and you use a stylus with wax to pick up the drills. The canvas, oilcloth or velvet that is used today is pre-printed with the pattern by numbers or symbols. You can even have a picture of your own turned into such a kit, but when I once thought about giving one as a gift, I saw reviews that the colors don't always come out right.
It really reminds of cross-stitch or of painting by numbers which was basically invented in the 20s, but started its success story in the 50s, only with drills instead of floss or paint. Also if you use round instead of square drills, you will of course have gaps in between. There is even such a thing as partial drill which means you only cover part of the canvas.
The very small kit that I chose is partial drill and it set me back incredible $2. Obviously I expected no masterpiece for that kind of money, but only a small glimpse into what this was all about.
The first thing that didn't convince me about this kit was were the two spots in the tail and leg that are not covered because there are butterflies "in front" of them. As the butterflies are just in the print, they don't work with the 3D of the fox and to me he looks as if his leg is missing a part. There were loads of extra drills, so I could have used some glue - because those spots aren't sticky - and put some on, anyway. I didn't because this was supposed to give me an idea of diamond painting, not a piece to keep.
I did, however, add three black drills for the nose (that spot was sticky) because that hole looked disturbing and the smile in what looks like a beard instead of the chin and breast was a bit creepy, too.
If you go to pages where kits are sold, you will also find facts about diamond painting and explanations about the benefits and why it is so popular.
I could tell rather quickly myself that it's not for me, even with such a small kit that was finished in a short time, as I never found a good way to sit and therefore cramped up. After the second color I just wanted this to be done somehow.
I don't think it's because the pattern is what it is and I therefore lacked motivation, after all I hadn't expected anything, it really was a matter of doing this comfortably and painfree. Had I found the perfect position and had a really good pattern, I could absolutely see how this could become meditative and calming, even if I would not want to exchange it for any of my other crafts.
What I don't see is how my online friend manages to do this with a cat around, he really must be an extraordinarily well-behaved boy!