Thread: Resilvering crystal backs?

Has anyone here done it? I have a collection of vintage sew on rhinestones that have lost some of their silvering on their backs. I'm dying to use them, especially the little stars!

i have the same question! I always thought i could buy silver nail polish and paint the backs but something tells me that's not the way to go haha ;)

I've wondered about this myself, since I have some vintage costume pieces I wish I could restore. According to this article, rhinestone refurbishing isn't a quickie project. Jewelry, Gems, & Minerals: Repair of foil back on rhinestones, museum quality works, vintage pieces. If you have a particular set of rhinestones you want to repair, it might be worth trying the suggestion of contacting a place that specializes in mirrors.

I'm going to try the silver paint method. The stones I have aren't terribly valuable so if they don't turn out it's not a huge deal. I'll update and post pics when I do it!

Originally Posted by Doozer

I'm going to try the silver paint method. The stones I have aren't terribly valuable so if they don't turn out it's not a huge deal. I'll update and post pics when I do it!

Yes! Let us know if it works. I have a bunch of old jazz dance costumes with tons of rhinestones on them, but they are all glued :( I would LOVE to harvest all the rhinestones on them to use for my belly dance costumes, but the silver foil remains stuck in the glue when I pull off the rhinestones.

Originally Posted by crystalllized

Yes! Let us know if it works. I have a bunch of old jazz dance costumes with tons of rhinestones on them, but they are all glued :( I would LOVE to harvest all the rhinestones on them to use for my belly dance costumes, but the silver foil remains stuck in the glue when I pull off the rhinestones.

For the glue problem, maybe you could find a chemical product that will dissolve the glue? I'm sure there's something out there.

As far as resilvering... I used to have to have my hand made telescope mirrors silvered which involved sending it away to a company that does it... kinda expensive. They put the glass (or whatever you've got) in a vacuum sealed chamber and spray an aerosol of silver alumina or silver nitrate or something like that that finely and evenly coats the glass to make a mirror. For rhinestones, just like for the mirrors, you'd also need to have an even coat in order for the light to look right. But since they are so small and don't need to be of optical quality like a telescope mirror, you could probably just try to spray paint the back metalic silver (protecting the rest of the stone of course).

Also recommend cleaning backs of rhinestones w/ the purest alcohol you can find in order to make sure the paint has a smooth surface to stick to.