Thursday, July 4, 2013

Stuck on You - Glues I Have Known and Loved

Happy Independence day! In honor of the fourth, I thought I'd compile a quick rundown of the four types of glue I use on Muses shoes:

1) MOD PODGE
What I use it for - for coating shoes with glitter, this is pretty much all I use (though I have bought a bottle of Elmer's to experiment with). I've also used it to decoupage paper onto shoes before tracing with glue and to make glass stones for the Ain't Dere No More shoe and mini-NOLA tiles
What I do not use it for - I can't use it for attaching rhinestones, sequins, etc. or writing on the shoes
Where I get it - at Joann's or Michael's this is a great use of a 40% off coupon; if I'm ever there and can't find any other good use for a coupon, I'll grab another 16 oz bottle. I personally use the gloss finish.

2)  E6000 Craft Adhesive
What I use it for - for gluing on individual sequins, sequin trim, small clusters of feathers, transfers, tiles, stones...essentially any embellishment other than rhinestones or boa.
What I do not use it for - The solvent in E6000 can partially re-dissolve the silver backing on rhinestones, which takes a lot of the shine out of them. Sadly, I didn't figure this out until after I'd done a shoe entirely covered in rhinestones.
Where I get it - For me, the cheapest option is as an add-on at Amazon (if you have an Amazon Prime account and/or get free shipping). Buy the 2 oz tubes because the larger 3.7 oz size has a really wide nozzle.

3) Jewel-It
What I use it for - rhinestones, Jewel-It won't melt the backing on them like E6000
What I do not use it for - I pretty much use E6000 for all other embellishments because it's a little thicker and easier to work with. I'd classify Jewel-It as optional because it such a unitasker.
Where I get it - I'm pretty sure my bottle came from Joann's, but it was a long time ago. One bottle will last you forever if you're only using it for rhinestones.

4) Hot glue
What I use it for - boa and marabou; the advantage of hot glue is that of all the adhesives you can use, hot glue will "set" quickest - so if you're trying to glue down something that's going to slide out of place before the glue sets, hot gluing and holding it until the hot glue cools is the way to go.
What I do not use it for - the first year, we did everything with hot glue. Plenty of burns, mess, strings of hot glue. Not optimal. E6000 and Jewel-It have mostly replaced hot glue for me, but I still use it for boa and marabou, because they are wont to slide about too much otherwise.
Where I get it - I get my supplies at Joann's, but the hot glue gun is probably one of crafting's more ubiquitous tools, so should be easy to come by. As I recall, they make glue sticks that produce less stringiness. Those are great if you can find them, and that's what I used the second time I made a Chewbaccha costume (but that's another story for another day.....)


No comments:

Post a Comment