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 :)

Who are you? Where are you based?

I’ve been a grown up for a very long time, but I’m still a kid at heart.  I’m very fortunate to be able to live in the Southern Utah Desert for the winter months, and the beautiful forests of Arizona for the summer months.

When and why did you first start making your art?

I enjoyed working with Perler/Artkal Beads for many years, but I was thinking about quitting the hobby as I didn’t have any projects to work on.  I had already done portraits of everyone in our family and some Holiday projects and didn’t really have a need for anything else.  Then I noticed Robin Gavie’s work (@skapamedparlor).  I was fascinated by the way he used his bead creations in nature, and the amazing photos he took of them. I knew at that moment I wanted to do something similar.  About that time, the Pandemic hit.  Everyone was so depressed, and stuck at home, and I wanted to do something that would cheer them up.  That’s where it all began, and continues to this day.  My goal is to make others smile when they see my art. 

I don’t take myself too seriously, but I am serious about the quality of my art.

What inspires your artwork?

I’m inspired by everything I see!  Any time I see something fun or interesting, I try to think how I can make it in Beads.  I love all things Disney, as well as movies, TV shows, video games and commercials.   I pretty much work on my projects daily, and if I’m not beading, I’m trying to think of new ideas.  My goal is to make someone smile, jog a childhood memory, or merely take their mind off the depressing things happening in the world.  

I try to be as original as possible.  90% of my work is my own design, but sometimes I enjoy following someone else’s pattern. 


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

This beast of a project is 3 feet x 4 feet, and it almost killed me...I think I’ll stick to the smaller ones in the future.  I worked on it on and off for a week.  

What is your art workspace like?

Because I have to move it frequently, I can use any large table, and my Bead collection is on a cart with wheels.  


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

I have a list of so many ideas of things I want to make.  The problem is coming up with a clever way to photo them.  Once I figure out the presentation, I get excited to make the project. 

I tend to embarrass myself and my family when creating my posts and I’m usually sitting or lying on the  ground trying to get the perfect shot.  They’ve had to eat out with a ninja turtle, and have witnessed me laying on the road with my head in the gutter among other things.

Have you had any art-related disasters?

Who hasn’t?  


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

Most of my dream projects are just too big.  I grew up going to Disneyland often and would love to do a design of each ride....maybe I can figure out how to do that in the future.  I did do two projects related to the Haunted Mansion that I’m pretty proud of.

What was your most recent project?

My most recent project is a Halloween themed one that I will be posting in October. 


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

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy reading the comments on Instagram.  The worldwide beading community is really awesome.  People are so kind, and it’s so fun to see what they create and develop a friendship and mutual respect for each other’s art.  Even though I do it to make others smile, it has certainly brought a smile to my face too.  

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

Always!  I have about 40 projects done that I haven’t posted yet, and many more ideas in the works. 


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

I usually donate my work to school teachers, friends, or family.


How can people find you online? Drop your social media handles, websites etc...
All of my work is on Instagram.com/lindasusanhansen.  I also post in the Perler Bead Facebook group.

Who are you? Where are you based?

I am Emergent Art. I'm 36 years old and live in Umeå in northern Sweden. I am a physical pixel artist mainly working with fusebeads. I am also a scientist working in fruitfly genetics.

When and why did you first start making your art?

I started to consider myself an artist about two years ago, however some of my earlier work could easily have been something I made today. It took me quite some time to build the confidence needed to call me an artist. I started using beads together with my kids and it kinda spun out of control from there.

What inspires your artwork?

The most attractive part of doing beadwork for me comes through the theory of emergence. This is the theory of how very basic building blocks, when arranged in a specific way, can result in structures that is more than just the sum of its parts. This can be an ant colony, the ripple patterns on a sand dune or conciseness itself. In my day job as a geneticist these building blocks are the nucleotides that make up the DNA/RNA molecules of life. In my art the beads are the blocks and with roughly 200 different colours they make up a pattern that can only be seen if you take a step back.

I draw inspiration from feminism, the LGBTQ+ community and science. Often a mix of them. I make original work and I riff on great pieces from other artists and disciplines.

Do you remember the first piece you made?

I do remember my first piece I did as an adult, a Super Mario mushroom. I think it's a classic gateway motif for many bead artists out there. I made it with my kids before I even had considered beads as a creative medium.

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

Easily Storm from the X-Men, an adaptation from the art of Mike Mitchell. Biggest one I've mounted is my piece "Raising the Rainbow Flag".

What is your art workspace like?

It has evolved over the years. I started out as a nomad with a portable bead storage solution. This was great in the beginning, to be able to bead everywhere in the house. But as I accumulated more colours and started making increasingly larger pieces I needed a work space. Now I have wall mounted assortment cabinets and a studio in my basement. It's my happy place.

What are the tools of your trade?

Except for beads and pegboards I am a tweezer nerd. This comes from me picking brains out of fruitfly larvae on a daily basis. One can never have too many tweezers. I even made a post on tweezers if you want the whole nerdy lecture.

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

Aside from having a day job and a family, I am a perfectionist. So when a piece is done, which in itself can take a long time, I keep it around and do tiny tweaks for a long time. I have unfinished pieces that are more than 6 months old, that's just how I operate. The exception is if it's a commission, then I get my shit together and finish whatever I start.

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

First, inspiration needs to strike. There are no rules to this, it can be a piece by someone else or something heard by the recycling station. It just happens.

Next comes the pattern making and this is where I can nerd out for days with different colour matching algorithms, palette optimization and image adjustments. When that's done I start the beading process and I usually do one board at the time. I never assemble the whole thing before all pieces are done. This adds to the emergence element of my work, to see I all come together even if it's just for me. Love that part.

Then comes the tweaking I talked about earlier, followed by the ironing and optionally mounting of the piece. I have a super fancy iron but it's still the worst part. I'd happily pay for a ironing service if such a thing existed.

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

1. How/Why do you get em' so big?
2. What software do you use?

Have you had any art-related disasters?

Yes... Oh, you want details. I messed up the ironing royalty a few times. My worst one was melting a hole in Storms head, and having to perform brain surgery,after being an idiot with the parchment paper.

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

I've been asked this before in interviews and joking said a wall sized recreation of "The pillars of creation". Well now it's bouncing around in there and I kinda think it would be an amazing project.

What was your most recent project?

I've had a a few street art projects and my last one was a trans flag version of the rebel alliance emblem from Star Wars. I placed these at various locations to empower and support gender rebels everywhere.

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

All the creative people I have gotten to know thanks to the social media art scene. I have gotten to know some really amazing people not just in pixel art but surprisingly also cosplay which wasn't on my radar before I got my work on Instagram. It's by far the kindest and most interesting community out there.

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

I'm working on one right now that is the sequel piece to one of my most popular pieces. Not telling you anymore. Wait and see.

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

I do sell my art. You can find it on
https://emergentart.bigcartel.com/

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

My handle is @emergentbeads on:
Instagram (my main platform)
Ko-Fi (if you want to buy me a bag of beads)

I am on TikTok, Artfol and Facebook as well but I am not giving my followers there the full all-inclusive experience. Follow me on Instagram say 'Hi!'.

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

Do your thing and screw everybody else. Everyone can bring something unique to the table and if more people did this world would be better for it.

Every week I run a character centered artist/cosplay tribute in my Instagram stories. I let my followers decide who's next and I have a quiz. It's usually on Wednesdays. Swing by and join the fun

Welcome to the first in a series (hopefully) of interviews with pixel artists. Who better to start with than myself?? Here goes...

Who are you? Where are you based?

My name is Iain, aka the Cave of Pixels. I'm based in the UK, in South East England.

When and why did you first start making your art?

I started in 2013. I was at a comic convention and saw someone was selling mini bead sprites based on Nintendo games and couldn't resist getting a Mario one. At home later on I looked up how to make them, and thought "I could do that". I started off with videogame sprites, with the intent of making some nice art for my games room. When I inevitably ran out of wallspace, I didn't want to stop making art, so started selling.

What inspires your artwork?

I get my inspiration from all over. Obviously videogames are a big one - I've been into them since I was a kid - but my art is also inspired by movies, comics, sport (mainly basketball), music, and even other art. I particularly enjoy making portraits, and art based on things I love, like cult movies or basketball. Basically, if I think something looks cool, there's a good chance I'll try and make my own version of it out of beads!

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

Probably the big John Lennon portrait I made out of 1cmx1cm mosaic tiles.

What is your art workspace like?

It's pretty good! I have a big screen to display the design I'm working from, 2 decent sized surfaces for beading, and all my beads stored and labelled within easy reach. The consoles and arcade machine provide inspiration when I'm not beading!

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

I think it was the John Lennon project above. That took 26 hours and was pretty backbreaking!

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

Well my process differs, depending on whether I'm working on a videogame project, or if I'm using a program to make a design from a photo.

For gaming projects, it depends on if the image/sprite/scene is readily available online, in a resolution I can work from. If so, great, but if not I will probably spend some time playing the game on an emulator and making a screen recording of the session. Then I'll go through the recording and screenshot the frames I need. After that, it's a case of seeing what size it needs to be to capture all the detail I want to show. This involves pixel counting by eye! I have previously measured how many beads fit into different sized frames, so these figures help me decide how big to go. After all that, I'll make the art out of beads, matching colours by eye. This can be a trial and error process, but I've been doing this long enough to quickly know which colours should work.

If I'm making a piece based on a photo, I use the Dolkow.se Perler program to make my design. It's a simple program, but it does everything I need, and I'm very used to it by now. I know others use Photoshop or GIMP or bead-specific apps, and that's great, but it's not how I learned to do it. The Perler program lets me design to specific dimensions, change the brightness and contrast, and input my own RGB values for the beads, to make them more accurate (the pre-programmed values are not accurate). It's perfect for my needs. After I've finished the design, I'll basically sit down and make it, usually over a few evenings. I do one board at a time, and tackle it one colour at a time, rather than one row at a time. When the beads are all laid, I'll compare the art to the reference photo and make amendments if needed.

When it comes to ironing, I tape the beads with masking tape, sandwich it between 2 boards and flip it over. Then I remove the pegboards and straighten up any beads that might have shifted. Then it's on with the parchment paper, and time to iron it (temp set to "wool"). When finished, I put heavy books on the art and leave them to cool down. Inevitably some beads won't have fused, so the ironing may need touching up. Then it's time to share on the Gram and bathe in those likes!!

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

There are a few I get all the time:

Q: What program do you use?
A: Dolkow.se Perler

Q: Where do you get your frames?
A: Ikea

Q: Do you iron both sides?
A: No

Q: Where do you get your beads?
A: The official manufacturer websites

When people ask me these now, I just provide the link to my guide on how to bead. Because I'm lazy.

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

I'd love to make a videogame scene that covers a whole wall. Maybe one day!

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

I think I'm lucky to have had a lot of great experiences. Having my art hang in galleries was amazing, as was being asked to display it in pubs and bars. I love that my local arcade has some of my art on display! I really get a kick out of people seeing my art and reacting to it. A few years ago I was able to get some of my art signed by the original (co-)creators - John Wagner signed a Judge Dredd piece I made, and Kevin Eastman signed a TMNT piece. As a fan, it was great to see their reaction to someone's art based on their creations!

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

I always have a "to-do" list that keeps growing as I think of new things. I have some album covers I'd like to make, and I'm thinking of making a series based on basketball cards (another passion of mine), now that I've made one that I'm pretty happy with.

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

I do! I have an Etsy shop called CaveOfPixelsArt

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

You can find me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest as @caveofpixels. My website is this one you're reading! I have a Facebook page too: www.facebook.com/caveofpixels

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

My advice is something I've only just started to follow myself - make what you want to make! Don't feel you have to accept commissions unless it's something you want to make! Make art for yourself... if others like it, then that's just a bonus.

My other faves are the Jurassic Park shooter, the Space Invaders shooter, Time Crisis 4 (can you tell I like shooters?) and the 4 player Ninja Turtles machine (updated from the original).

If you like videogames (and why wouldn't you), I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in or near Aylesbury.

https://thearcadeaylesbury.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thearcadeaylesbury/

Market Square, Aylesbury, Aylesbury, HP20 1TB, United Kingdom
01296312855