Diamond Painting Enhancement Drills: Types, Effects & How to Use Them
Enhancement drills let you decide where a diamond painting should shimmer, glow, flash, reflect or draw the eye. This guide explains the major specialty drill types and how to think about using them.
There Is More Than One Way to Enhance a Diamond Painting
You can replace an entire DMC color, but you do not have to. Often, the strongest enhancement comes from replacing a feature rather than every occurrence of a color.
For example, imagine that the center of a flower uses DMC 744. You might replace the 744 only in that flower center. The same DMC color may appear elsewhere in the painting where extra sparkle would distract from the design.
Types of Enhancement Drills
These examples use existing Diamond Painting Drills product photography and videos so you can see the actual finishes and effects sold on our site.
AB / Aurora Borealis
An iridescent coating reflects extra tones—often pink, blue, yellow and green—for bright, shifting sparkle.
Fairy Dust
A fine mica-like shimmer embedded in the top of the drill creates a softer, silvery sparkle without the same iridescent color shift as AB.
Crystal / Rhinestone
Transparent optical-resin drills with reflective backing create gemstone-like depth and strong light return.
Crystal AB
Crystal construction plus an AB-style iridescent effect for additional color play and sparkle.
Metallic
A chrome-like finish produces bold reflection and works naturally for jewelry, metal details, ornaments, windows and other shiny surfaces.
Glow-in-the-Dark & Glow AB
Glow drills add an after-dark effect; Glow AB combines that glow with additional iridescent sparkle. They work especially well for fireworks, fireflies, candles, flames, spooky details and illuminated windows.
Glitz
Holographic glitter creates flashes of additional sparkle and can also be used to change or intensify a color area.
Color Shift Flame
Premium cut-glass crystal drills with dramatic shifting color. Flame drills are physically round and are sized for use with either round or square canvases.
Bars, Blocks & Bricks
Decorative specialty shapes used selectively for bold texture and accents rather than as direct replacements across an entire canvas.
Do Enhancement Colors Always Match a DMC Number?
No. Some enhancement ranges correspond directly to DMC colors, while others use names or their own color systems. Metallics, flames and decorative specialty shapes are examples where a direct one-to-one DMC number may not exist.
An enhancement color can also work as a substitute for several related DMC colors. If the exact enhancement version of a DMC number is unavailable, a nearby shade or visually compatible specialty color may still produce the effect you want.
What Are Flame Drills?
Flame drills are color-shifting cut-glass crystal drills. DPD uses the word “glass” deliberately to distinguish these drills from other crystal drills made from high-quality optical resin.
Flame drills are round because of the cut-glass manufacturing process, but DPD offers them in sizes selected to fit appropriately in either round or square diamond paintings.
Standard Flame jars contain 3 gross. One gross equals 144 stones, so a standard jar contains 432 Flame drills.
What Are the Larger 3 mm Crystal AB Drills?
DPD carries a small group of named Crystal AB drills that are approximately 3 mm rather than the standard approximately 2.8 mm. They are sold in jars containing approximately 600 drills.
Because each drill is slightly larger, placing several directly beside one another can gradually affect alignment. They are especially effective as selective accents where the additional sparkle is more important than maintaining an absolutely uniform grid.
Bars, Blocks & Bricks
Bars, Blocks and Bricks are decorative specialty shapes used selectively rather than as direct replacements for standard drills across an entire canvas.
| Shape | Coverage | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Bars | A line approximately 4 drill spaces long | Linear accents and texture |
| Blocks | 2 × 2 drill spaces | Bold square accents |
| Bricks | 3 × 2 drill spaces | Rectangular accents and texture |
They are available in a more limited range of colors and are packaged in smaller counts appropriate to their selective use.
Can Enhancement Drill Colors Vary Between Batches?
Yes. Batch-to-batch color or finish variation can occur with enhancement drills as well as standard drills. This is not limited to replacement drills.
Read the complete Diamond Painting Drill Dye Lots & Color Variation Guide →
How Many Enhancement Drills Are in a Package?
Most full-size DPD enhancement-drill bags contain a minimum of 2,000 drills. We intentionally add extra drills beyond that minimum.
Specialty shapes and premium cut-glass products are exceptions because they are used differently or are significantly more expensive to produce.
Choose the effect, then choose the color.
Decide what feature you want to emphasize and what kind of light, sparkle, glow or texture you want that feature to have.
Shop Specialty Drills