Who are you? Where are you based?

My name is Manuel, I am from Barcelona (Spain), as a child I was passionate about dragon ball, it was my favorite series and I played Nintendo games, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby ... which have marked my childhood and my life.

When and why did you first start making your art?

I started in 2018, I wanted to have something that would remind me of my childhood, those characters that I liked when I was a child, one day while on Instagram I saw a pixel image and I started with something small, a 5x5 centimeter Zelda shield and from There I was leveling up almost without realizing it.

What inspires your artwork?

Especially heroes of my childhood

Do you remember the first piece you made?

Yes, the first piece is always unforgettable, a shield and a sword from Zelda

What's the biggest piece you've ever made?

I don't make excessively large pieces, I don't have a lot of work space, they are usually small about 11 x 19 inches

What is your art workspace like?

A very small table and a very basic organizer, I don't have a fixed place to work and I move everything from one place to another

What are the tools of your trade?

An iron, a wooden board, some tweezers, tape, greaseproof paper and a lot of patience

What's the most time you've spent on a project?

In real photos is where it takes the longest, because each pixel is different, about 6-8 hours

Can you talk us through your creative process? How do you go about planning and creating a piece?

I do not have a predetermined creative process, I use inspiration along with memories and an idea is born, and Google also helps a little ?

What are the most common questions you get asked about your art?

How is it pixelated, what brand of pixel do I use, if I sell it ...

Have you had any art-related disasters?

Yes, I think that everyone has had bad experiences, it is best to learn, so as not to make the same mistake again

Do you have a dream project you'd love to make, but just can't justify yet?

Yes, I would like to do some spectacular Resident Evil, but I still don't know what.

What was your most recent project?

Now I take real photos for my family and friends

What are your favourite experiences you've had as a result of your art?

The best without a doubt are the people you meet on Instagram and the good friends you make, many share your tastes and hobbies

Do you have any projects in progress or in the pipeline right now

There are always new projects, I'll tell you a secret I'm doing one of Kirk Van Houten from the Simpsons

Do you sell your art? If so, how can people find it?

No, I don't sell, I do it as a hobby

How can people find you online? Drop your social media handles, websites etc...

En Instagram: manujito88

Anything else to share? Shoutouts, words of wisdom etc?

Have the courage to seek the saduria that will give you power

Who are you? Where are you based?

My name is Brandon Maldonado and I am based in the LA/Inland Empire area in Southern California. 

When and why did you first start making your art? 

I started about 7 years ago and all because I bought something off of someone on Etsy. It looked fun so I took a trip to Michael’s and started making things that I thought looked cool and before I knew it I had a lot more than I thought. My mom's friend was organizing an estate sale and she asked if I wanted to sell there so I did which snowballed into me going up to people having yard sales asking to sell there. It all eventually led to selling at pop ups and farmers markets.

What inspires your artwork?

People’s interest and being able to impress them. I strive to be a shop that kid me would have loved to visit. The look of a client’s face as you present them their order is what keeps me going. Kids going crazy as they pass by my store is amazing to see.

Do you remember the first piece you made?

It was a Charmander and one side was melting and the other side was crumbling. Ironing is hard lol.

What's the biggest piece you've ever made?

The biggest piece is Princess Leia in the slave costume on her side. She was 6 feet long and took about 12 hours to complete. I ran out of “Rust” twice making this.

What is your art workspace like?

Its a corner in my apartment with a dual monitor setup and drawers full of beads organized by color. One monitor is for the references and the other is for Netflix/videos.

What are the tools of your trade?

Cricut iron, perler beads, perler pen, pastels and my dual monitors. Gotta have that background noise.

What's the most time you've spent on a project?

I usually spend about 2-3 hours on a custom portrait piece, but I once made a huge virgin Mary that took about 15 total hours. Other projects have taken just as long but mainly because I’m not fully satisfied with my rough draft.

Can you talk us through your creative process? How you go about planning and creating a piece?

First I take a few days to find references and start to mentally piece a concept together before finalizing a concept and diving in. Then I do an outline/silhouette of the project and then start from the darkest colors to the lightest until it starts to come together, this is the longest step and revolves around Color Theory. From there I do about ~8 drafts before it finally looks like I want it to. Usually this step involves alot of tweaking and taking photos to see which tweaks look better. I then send the client a rough draft to approve before moving on to ironing. If the project includes a canvas, then I try my best to find either colors that compliment the main colors of the project or a scenery that is doable for my current skillset (pastel,spraypaint)

What are the most common questions you get asked about your art?

“What is this made of” and “how long does it take you to make this?!” haha  
I also get a lot of “did YOU make this??!” Always fun to answer this one.

Have you had any art-related disasters?

YES. They happen about once a week, usually from my knee or elbow hitting the board.

A big one that comes to mind is before I learned the masking tape method. I was making a Heisenberg but I ironed it by itself then promptly watched it crumble before my eyes as the boards lifted and warped.

Do you have a dream project you'd love to make, but just can't justify yet?

I want a wall sized Mario piece, like World 1-1, but it seems absurd since I am limited in space in my apartment. 

What was your most recent project?

I recently had a Harley Quinn and Joker piece that was pretty fun to do. The client wanted her tattoo as a Perler, so that was pretty cool converting the tattoo into pixel art.

What are your favourite experiences you've had as a result of your art?

When I first started, I used to sell at a school flea market in East LA. The first time I was there I was taken back by the amount of appreciation and love that my art was getting. Shortly after, I received an email from a young kid that made me cry.

Do you have any projects in progress or in the pipeline right now?

I am currently working on a 24x30 Canelo Alvarez piece for one of my favorite clients. It is an action shot of his recent victory. This client also recently commissioned a 22x28 Pancho Villa which was a lot of fun to work on.  

Do you sell your art? If so, how can people find it?

I mainly sell art locally but I also have an Etsy page for my portraits and an upcoming website that should be up in a month or so. 
My instagram bio contains it all :).

How can people find you online? Drop your social media handles, websites etc...

Instagram: @justbeadit21
Etsy: JustBeadIt626

Anything else to share? Shoutouts, words of wisdom etc?

I would like to shoutout my mom first and foremost. She has always hyped me up and continued to push my creativity to levels I didn’t think were possible. I honestly hated making arts and crafts growing up, but now I can’t put them down. 

Shoutout to my customers for keeping me going and for their words of encouragement. I am nothing without them, I owe it all to them.

Shoutout to my girlfriend Kim for her continued support and love, I am having the most fun I have ever had making these. P.S she makes our mini-perlers :) (My fingers are too fat)

Who are you? Where are you based?

My name is Jon DeStefano and I am 38 years young with 2 wonderful daughters. I am from the home of Dean Martin, Steubenville, Ohio.

When and why did you first start making your art?

I’ve been making art my whole life. As a child my dream was to be a comic book artist and I would draw from the comics I would read. I’ve gone through many phases in my art journey but I started out sketching and did that for many years. Then I dabbled in painting for a while and really found that to be therapeutic. I would paint cartoons, comic characters, and pixel art! About 3 years ago on Christmas eve I was at my mothers house for a party and my brother pulled out these beads and asked me if I wanted to make something. I figured it would be an easy transition from painting pixels so I gave it a shot. The rest is history

What inspires your artwork?

I find inspiration all around me. It could be a song I heard, a show I just watched, or even a few cases where it was just a word a friend said that got the gears turning. My Sho’Nuff piece was inspired by a co-worker I was emailing and he replied with shonuff. So really anything and everything inspires me but my friends have probably been my biggest inspiration.

Do you remember the first piece you made?

Like it was yesterday, It was Roger from American Dad and I actually have it in a frame.

What’s the biggest piece you’ve ever made?

The biggest I’ve done so far is The Green Bastard, I’m really not sure about the bead count but I'm guessing its at least 20k + It's a 36’ x 36’ canvas and takes up entirely too much space on my wall lol

What is your art workspace like?

It’s a little cramped and serves many purposes but it’s enough…for now

What are the tools of your trade?

The things I get most asked about are my iron and tape. For tape I only use Scotch Blue painters tape, I’ve tried other brands but wasn’t happy with the results as I always poke holes in my tape. My iron is the Cricut Easy Press 2–9” x 9” version. I also use the Cricut Easy Press mini for touch up jobs.

What’s the most time you’ve spent on a project?

Probably the 2 weeks I spent on the 3 Jokers project (which was incredibly fun)

Can you talk us through your creative process? How do you go about planning and creating a piece?

I’m not really sure if i have one or not, most of my pieces are pretty spontaneous. My inspiration is all around me so really whatever I’m feeling at that time has the most to do with how I pick a subject matter I would say. Maybe I do have a process, it’s just unpredictable.

What are the most common questions you get asked about your art?

“What the hell is that made out of?” followed by “How long did that take” haha

Have you had any art-related disasters?

Oh yes, plenty. The worst one though was the 3rd joker I did. I was still making rookie mistakes when ironing with my new expensive Cricut toy. I had been pressing and holding in 1 spot for too long and then moving to the next and so on and by the time i had gotten back to a certain spot it had cooled and was curling and separated from the non melted beads and I lost a huge chunk of it so i trimmed it and was able to make a sale of what was left. I constantly have the iron moving now when finishing the bigger projects and haven’t had an issue since.

Do you have a dream project you’d love to make, but just can’t justify yet?

I have a few in mind, but until i have the room to put them it’s gonna be just that, a dream.

What was your most recent project?

My most recent project was my favorite cartoon character ever. Randy Marsh as Lorde.

What are your favourite experiences you’ve had as a result of your art?

First and foremost all of the wonderful people I’ve gotten to know in the bead community. It’s been a bright spot in a terrible time we are all living in with the pandemic.

One of my favorite shows is Trailer Park Boys and now Jacob owns the piece I made of him!

Do you have any projects in progress or in the pipeline right now?

I just finished Randy today so I have absolutely nothing planned as of right now.

Do you sell your art? If so, how can people find it?

I do, most pieces I sell are by commission. I do however have shops on Etsy and Mercari. what I’ve done in the past is whenever someone wanted to buy from me online I have made a listing so all sales are done through either one of those. My Linktree is in my Instagram profile

How can people find you online? Drop your social media handles, websites etc…

instagram.com/koruptidperlers

Anything else to share? Shoutouts, words of wisdom etc?

Big shoutout to the Cricut Crusaders! you know who you are :)