Hama/Perler Bead Creations
Thank ye all. And yes, ryoko, definitely give it a go. Though X-Stitch is pretty easy.
Next up I think will be Charlotte. Shouldn't take too long.
I WOULD do all the classes, but that could have me here for donkey's years. I MIGHT just do some of my favourite ones, will see. For now I'll be doing the 6 basic starter ones, and then I'm planning a couple of other things, also Mana related. I can say that Mantis Ant is one of them.
Next up I think will be Charlotte. Shouldn't take too long.
I WOULD do all the classes, but that could have me here for donkey's years. I MIGHT just do some of my favourite ones, will see. For now I'll be doing the 6 basic starter ones, and then I'm planning a couple of other things, also Mana related. I can say that Mantis Ant is one of them.
My thing is I can't count stitches because I have such a horrendous eye sight.Kassidy wrote:Thank ye all. And yes, ryoko, definitely give it a go. Though X-Stitch is pretty easy.
Next up I think will be Charlotte. Shouldn't take too long.
I WOULD do all the classes, but that could have me here for donkey's years. I MIGHT just do some of my favourite ones, will see. For now I'll be doing the 6 basic starter ones, and then I'm planning a couple of other things, also Mana related. I can say that Mantis Ant is one of them.
There are handy magnifying glasses available for that, Ryoko.
Say, Kassidy, how do you find the colors for the beads? Do you match them to screen colors by eye, or is there software that does it automagically? I know there are such programs for cross-stitch colors, but they're fairly expensive I think.
Say, Kassidy, how do you find the colors for the beads? Do you match them to screen colors by eye, or is there software that does it automagically? I know there are such programs for cross-stitch colors, but they're fairly expensive I think.
I do it by eye. I think I have an old (read as Windows 95 compatible) Cross Stitch pattern maker which I could probably use, but it works out easier just doing it by eye. Plus it lets me have a butchers at changing colour schemes (for example, the lightest highlights for boots, hair and skin are all the same colour in the original sprite, whereas I can try breaking down these into more specific light colours doing it by eye).
What is handy if doing larger (still) creations is to do pixel counting by colour using Photoshop or GIMP, so you know how many beads to buy of each colour (I just went ahead and bought 1000 beads of each colour Perler had available, with an extra 1000 for primary colours and another 1000 still for black, and I've recently bought another 10000 beads from Hama for colours that they have that Perler don't, or are slightly different shades, so right now I have somewhere in excess of 50000 beads in around 60 colours).
What is handy if doing larger (still) creations is to do pixel counting by colour using Photoshop or GIMP, so you know how many beads to buy of each colour (I just went ahead and bought 1000 beads of each colour Perler had available, with an extra 1000 for primary colours and another 1000 still for black, and I've recently bought another 10000 beads from Hama for colours that they have that Perler don't, or are slightly different shades, so right now I have somewhere in excess of 50000 beads in around 60 colours).
Kinda, yeah. Have a look below.
Finished Charlotte, and decided to do a step-by-step of the process for anyone who is interested.
First is the colour picking, which never turns out to the the definitive, but still. These are the 18 (I dropped one) colours I wanted to use for the originally 15-16 palette.
And here are the rest in boxes.
Start out with the outline. Using 2x2 boards interlocked.
Then I went on to skin tones.
Then came the blue, which I decided to use two palettes for instead of one, so I brought back in the colour I dropped.
For the hair I ended up removing one orange and replacing with yellow to bring it further in line with the artwork.
With the hat I went for a more pinkish colour rather than the purple, as I'd already used that previously, and wanted to use something brighter. Now this SHOULD have been the same scheme for the shoes, but...
Went for red instead. I figured that she's a colourful character, so why not mix it up a bit.
In the end I also changed the colours for the mace too, so the end result was I used 31 colours total, seen here.
Now comes ironing. I used baking paper, rather than buying sheets of the official ironing paper. It works just the same, and is non-stick.
The beads are ironed until they are visibly kinda squashed and merging together under the paper. The only issue is that some colours react in strange ways, so orange always squashes a different way. It's important to get this as even as possible, otherwise it'll all fall apart in the next step.
Placing a book on top, I turn it over, and remove the boards one by one. Here is where if it wasn't sticking together, it'll fall apart. I've saved situations like that a few times, but it isn't pleasant.
Iron the other side, place book on it, and let it cool.
And the end result:
And smaller for effect.
Ended up being the smallest of the characters, but so far the most complex one that I have done. Didn't take me as long as the others, which was a plus.
Finished Charlotte, and decided to do a step-by-step of the process for anyone who is interested.
First is the colour picking, which never turns out to the the definitive, but still. These are the 18 (I dropped one) colours I wanted to use for the originally 15-16 palette.
And here are the rest in boxes.
Start out with the outline. Using 2x2 boards interlocked.
Then I went on to skin tones.
Then came the blue, which I decided to use two palettes for instead of one, so I brought back in the colour I dropped.
For the hair I ended up removing one orange and replacing with yellow to bring it further in line with the artwork.
With the hat I went for a more pinkish colour rather than the purple, as I'd already used that previously, and wanted to use something brighter. Now this SHOULD have been the same scheme for the shoes, but...
Went for red instead. I figured that she's a colourful character, so why not mix it up a bit.
In the end I also changed the colours for the mace too, so the end result was I used 31 colours total, seen here.
Now comes ironing. I used baking paper, rather than buying sheets of the official ironing paper. It works just the same, and is non-stick.
The beads are ironed until they are visibly kinda squashed and merging together under the paper. The only issue is that some colours react in strange ways, so orange always squashes a different way. It's important to get this as even as possible, otherwise it'll all fall apart in the next step.
Placing a book on top, I turn it over, and remove the boards one by one. Here is where if it wasn't sticking together, it'll fall apart. I've saved situations like that a few times, but it isn't pleasant.
Iron the other side, place book on it, and let it cool.
And the end result:
And smaller for effect.
Ended up being the smallest of the characters, but so far the most complex one that I have done. Didn't take me as long as the others, which was a plus.
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Dr. Sheexy
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Bought a first lotte of mini-beads to test out. These I got fro mhttp://www.beadmerrily.co.uk
Then got a package of 54,000 Perler beads from e-Bay. Best seller on there is callahan13
Then topped up with some packs of 1000 Hama (slightly different colours) from Bead Merrily again.
Another interesting link, looking further into the option of using a program to get the bead colours and such, there is in fact a web-based version here.
Then got a package of 54,000 Perler beads from e-Bay. Best seller on there is callahan13
Then topped up with some packs of 1000 Hama (slightly different colours) from Bead Merrily again.
Another interesting link, looking further into the option of using a program to get the bead colours and such, there is in fact a web-based version here.
