Christmas is the time for gifts and MeinMMO community manager Irina Moritz loves to give away nerdy stuff that she makes from children’s toys.
Did you play with bead sprites in your childhood? These colorful things that you can lay out on special boards to create various images like hearts, animals or flowers and then “fuse” them together with a hot iron? I didn’t.
In the toy department at Müller, I was more interested in Lego and board games. I only discovered bead sprites for myself when I was well over 20. Back then, I found bead sprite creations of a different kind at one of the artist stands during a convention.
They were cute figures from anime and video games that immediately thrilled me, and I decided that I wanted to try making something like that too. This led to me making small and large Christmas gifts for my friends in the form of bead sprite art for years now.
Personal, homemade and simply great
When I first tried making the nerdy bead sprite art myself, I didn’t expect it to become a long-lasting hobby. At first, it was a nice pastime where I could express my creativity.
When I showed some friends at work and on social media my first creations, surprisingly quickly, the first takers emerged. People were excited when they received their favorite starter Pokémon or a character from their beloved retro game as a gift.
It didn’t take long before I started getting requests to make certain sprites. I was happy that I could bring joy to my friends and acquaintances with relatively little effort.
You can easily craft bead sprites “on the side” while watching a series, for example. Small sprites take no longer than 20-30 minutes, larger ones usually take an hour or more, but you can also finish them in several sessions.
They make wonderful gifts for anime and gaming fans that can be used in many ways:
- You can make keychains, earrings, or necklaces out of them
- You can attach small magnets to one side and use them as fridge magnets
- They serve as coasters for glasses
- As decorations for the Christmas tree
- Or you can simply hang them on the wall like regular pictures, etc.
Video games are great templates because many sprites from the NES and SNES eras can be easily transformed into bead sprite art. You simply use one bead per pixel.
Since then, I start crafting a few months before Christmas, usually at the beginning of October, so I have more than enough time to find the different sprites, buy new colors if I’m missing any, and of course create the images.
It is a hobby that not only helps me unwind after a busy day but also brings joy to others at the same time. By the time this article is published, the next batch of gifts has already been delivered.
How do you best get started?
If you want to try bead sprites yourself, start small. The process itself is not difficult. Basically, bead sprites are a different version of “paint by numbers”, anyone can do it. However, bead sprite art can get quite expensive with many colors, which is why I initially limited myself.
It started with smaller sprites like Kirby, Pikachu or the mushrooms from Mario, which are not bigger than a board. When I realized that I really enjoyed it, I bought more colors and plates. So think ahead about how much you want to engage with it.
The beads themselves and the boards are available in most craft stores and plenty on Amazon. Hama is the most common brand that offers everything you need to craft bead sprites.
You can easily find templates through a Google search. Sites like Pinterest and Tumblr have large collections of images that you can recreate. If in doubt, you can swap the search term “bead sprites” for the English equivalent “Perler Beads” to broaden your search.
Once you’ve settled on a picture, you can get started:
- Next, the pattern is laid out on a board using tweezers
- A sheet of baking paper is placed over it
- The image is melted together with a hot iron until the beads stick together
- A heavy book is placed on top, and you let it cool for 10-15 minutes.
And that’s the whole magic. Over the years, I’ve made countless sprites and larger images. In my circle of friends, the 2D job icons from FFXIV are particularly popular, but for you it will probably be something else.
