Iron-On Beads - Many questions!

[Zwielicht 16]

Hey everypony!

 

As the title of the thread already implies I'm up to making some mighty fine little artworks for myself and some close friends, but - as always - problems are piling up even before I started!

 

Well, first things first.

Those and the like are what I have in mind:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_O7_nqWlX7HUDM1aVNQTFdtc2c

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_O7_nqWlX7HdEhFMThfOC03eEU

(Source: Google Image Search, stored in my personal Google Drive)

 

Problem 1: Avaiability of pearls

Has anypony experience with beads made by Hama™?

What products are for sale in your (european) country?

 

Perler™ Products seem to be not avaiable in germany, except at exaggerated prices of over 5€/1000pc. So for original Pearler™ beads I see no alternative to Importing them from the US at a price of ~2$/1000pc + shipping + german taxes. That should be the less expensive way of obtaining what I need for a start.

 

Could still turn out to be a rather expensive hobby and I would not be able to resupply on short notice for it would be about 5 days for shipping alone. And since it is a commercial import every single order will surely be stuck at german customs (last commercial order of mine took over a month after arrival in germany until I could pick it up from german customs and the way there took me about an hour. Plus waiting time...)

 

So I'd be grateful for every single alternative!

 

Well, here in germany there are beads made by Hama™ and they seem to be the only ones commonly avaiable here, but they lack the variety in colour. For example Twilight has 3 different purple shades (purple for the eyes, light lavender for the body and dark lavender for the outlines), but Hama™ features only 2 colors in that range plus a transparent variant each.

 

And, of course, the Systems of Hama™ and Pearler™ seem to be not compatible, so stocking up on the "rare Pearler™ colours" once and then resupplying with Hama™ seems to be out of question.

 

Problem 2: Lack of patterns/templates

Sure, I could and I will just work it out by the pictures with a little patience, but it would be a huge help if I had a good source for patterns on the web. Unfortunately I could not find anything really useful, just pictures and patterns of single works, most of them of small size. But I'd need larger ones as seen above and as a "set" so I can make all the 6 Manes alike. And maybe other stuff in the future?

 

Problem 3: I have never worked with those beads so far

Not a real problem thou, it just means that all of my knowledge about that was purely obtained by websearch, no personal experiance at hand.

 

 

Any help or fresh thoughts on the topic are greatly appreciatet!

 

Greetings,

Dennis

[Pinkie_Pi 348]

There is a computer program that can help with designs.  It's called pinta, it's an open source program.  It allows you to take a computer image and zoom in down to the level of each pixel.  My roommate makes pearler bead art, and that's what he uses.  If you can order directly from the pearler website in Germany, they have large square plates that can be hooked together for large designs, there are also now pearler sticks for 3D designs.  I hope I helped you, and I hope you can get the supplies you need.

[Shadow Beam 1,179]

Hello @Zwielicht

Being taken into account that this topic does not showcase a certain sample of your art, instead asking for advice pertaining to its creation, I believe this post would be more suitable for Trixie's Tricks. Therefore, it shall be relocated into aforementioned sub-section.

Have a lovely day, and I hope you find what you're looking for!