Materials: Obviously: assorted Perler beads and 29×29 square pegboard. 6 pre-cut cork coaster squares. Tacky glue.

Time: A weekend of intermittent TiVo viewing.

Cost: Maybe $30, but we went all out at Hobby Lobby.

I’ve always loved Perler Beads. Inspired by stumbling upon some products at Etsy, I discovered the Perler Nintendo underground. Pete was similarly entranced, and the next day we raided the local Hobby Lobby for a 29×29 square pegboard, cork coaster backing, tacky glue, two divider-filled bead boxes, and of course whatever solid-colored (i.e. non-neon, non-glittery) Perler beads we could find.

Hobby Lobby seems to have the biggest supply of Perler beads of all the craft store chains in my area, but if you’re really interested in making similarly Nintendo-inspired Perler projects then eBay is the way to go. There are several really good stores devoted to selling single-color bags of Perler and Hama (an interchangeable brand with a wider color selection) beads, as well as the desirable 29×29 square interlocking grids. It’s also a cheaper way to go, and you won’t find all of the colors you need, in the quantities you need, in your average assortment.

This Flickr set is a good place to start for inspiration. However, I also started making my own grids from some images of sprites and other game graphics online — Googling for “Nintendo sprites” and a working knowledge of a graphics program are all that you need to begin.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 30th, 2007 at 4:19 pm and is filed under projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.