It all started when I was a young child. My mum would buy big buckets of Hama beads with the shaped boards I would sit for hours making lots of 2d shaped work. My bead hobby fizzled out for 15 years or so. I loosely picked up the hobby in 2014 at Christmas as my partner had bought me beads and boards so I could make a sailor Jupiter picture to hang up alongside my Sailor moon collectables (as seen on right). As you can see my talent for creating bead pictures was rather basic alongside the fact that Hama beads do do a vast array of shades. After I completed it I didn't do anything bead based up until October 2015 when I started buying beads again after browsing through Pinterest fed up of doing my card-making hobby.
The more and more I browsed the more inspired I became so I picked up the hobby again and I'm really enjoying it so far.
My main plain was to make Jewellery pieces from the Hama mini beads but then I found Perler beads. Though they are yet to release there own mini version of beads (April 2016 I'm led to believe) the colour choice is far better in my opinion. I had thought about buying the perler brand for a few weeks and finally went through with it and bought a 22k bucket which took me a week and a half to sort between juggling looking after my daughter who is obsessed with my beads so I can only work with them when she is asleep! I instantly fell in love with the colours and when I ironed them I was amazed. They don't have that plastic shine as Hama beads do, don't get me wrong I like Hama beads and I will continue to use them but my go to brand would be perler now.
The first project I completed with perler beads was from a cross stitch book titled "The magic of the forest in cross stitch and watercolour" by Jan Woodman. I highly recommend finding cross stitch patterns to work with as they are easy to follow and look beautiful once completed. I would advise however that you do not attempt to sell your completed ironed projects as another artist has taken a lot of time and work and made the cross stitch designs. Any cross stitch patterns I use I will give as gifts to family or friends or keep for my self. I do not believe in profiting from someone else's hard work. The patterns make for good practise and you can play with the shades of beads to find colours that will work well together.
NOTE: I do not have the sailor Jupiter pattern any-more. I found a picture via google and converted it into a cross stitch pattern so I could make it into bead art. Try www.stitchboard.com or other cross stitch converter sites if you wish to convert pictures into bead work.
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