Thanks for the comment! The thing is every iron is different, tapes are different, and the person ironing is different. Just because I use a cheap sunbeam iron, a specific brand of painters tape, and what is for me a medium amount of pressure doesn't mean that someone who buys the same iron and tape and tries to use the same pressure that they'd get the same result. For some people poking holes is a must. Perhaps their irons run way hotter, they have thicker tape, and they press harder without realizing it. I'd encourage people to try both ways. If you want to poke holes and you get good results like that, good! Do that! If you don't want to poke holes, test with small sprites until you find a way that you can iron without poking! :) Often taking the tape off before full melting one side will prevent blowouts. But saying people have poor ironing techniques because they poke holes isn't really a fair thing to say. Also Perler is much more interested in the child market of their product, and not the artist side. I'm rather surprised they even published instructions on how to tape, but encouraging kids to poke tiny holes in the tape with some sort of sharp object may have been a bad idea.

I'm so glad this helped! Here's the answers to your questions! (Sorry for the long comment!) Each piece is going to take a different amount of time, and each iron will be different. Even the same brand and model will have variations between them, for example I replaced my iron with the same model but the new one actually required me to iron at a higher temperature than the last one. But my general rule is to start with a lower temperature so the beads don't melt almost instantly when you put the iron to them, and if you're finding that they aren't fusing as easily as you'd like, turn it up a bit. But make sure you give the iron like 30 or so seconds to fully reach that new temp before you try to jump it up more, because it might just be slow to heat and jumping it up twice would probably make it much hotter than you'd planed for. For the length of time I iron each piece for, as I said it'd varies! I believe I showed it in this video as well, but if not I know I explain it in my newer version (Linked in the pinned comment.), what I do is lift the paper to see how much the beads have melted. You can see them melting though the ironing paper a bit, less with parchment though, but sometimes it's deceiving. So I slide my iron and lift the paper to get a clear look and see if they are fused to my liking. There is no dead set rule for how your melt should look (and I hope no one tells you that!) so just watch your beads until they look how you want! You only need to leave it there until the beads are cold! Normally if you're just putting books or anything heavy (such as the 2l bottles.) on them and leaving them, they will take much longer to cool all the way. But by putting them on something very cold the ice packs pull the heat out much faster. Again it kinda depends on the size of the sprite, but something the size of you hand probably only needs like 3 minutes per side! The biggest thing with the cooling station stuff is to make sure you flip the sprite before it's fully cooled. If one side gets colder than the other does then it tends to warp a bit. Not as bad as leaving it full uncovered to cool mind you! Hopefully this answers your questions! If not feel free to ask me to clarify :D Thank so much for watching! Happy beading <3

Where did you buy that large board you mention in the video?

Just found your channel! Nice Terraria music! Thanks for sharing

Depending on your preference for the way it looks in the end, you just take a look at it! When you pull back the parchment paper/ironing paper to move it around you can then see the beads clearly. If you're like myself and like a partial melt, you can see what spots need more melting and what spots don't need any more. This helps with a full melt too because you can see if any spots haven't got enough melting done yet!

Hello! I do put something heavy on my sprites when they cool! I use a couple 3lb weights, just small hand ones I picked up from Walmart for super cheap. I have 4 of them, but most projects only need 2. Of course if you make large things you'll want more to keep edges flat. When I'm ironing I never wait for the 2nd side to cool before ironing, not only does it take a lot of time as you mentioned, it makes it harder to remove the tape. When the tape is warmer the glue on it seems to stick less and it peels off the projects very nicely. Removing the parchment paper while ironing is for sure the best way to make sure you've ironed everything enough before you move on to the other side. Each iron is different, even the same make and model. With the iron I use now I have it set to a higher heat, but not max. I believe it's at the 3rd from the hottest setting, I've marked it with a Sharpie so I don't need to remember the material type setting on the iron haha. My old iron, the one in this video, is the same make and model that I use now but the heat was much higher on it and I had it set at about a little over half heat. I'd recommend with any iron to just start with a lower heat and turn it up a bit until you find that sweet spot that works for you! :D

Hello! I got my drawers from a local hardware store called Canadian Tire. They are Mastercraft 60 drawer small parts organizer cabinets, but I know you can find a similar thing on Amazon. The ones on Amazon are by Akro Mils, but they've got the same removable drawers that hold a little more then 1000 beads in each!

Hello! I'd originally purchased one from Micheal's, but they seem to be phasing out their Perler stock in favor of their own branded melty beads, so you might not be able to find one there anymore. I bought another from Herrschners.ca at a later date, which you can find here! www.herrschners.ca/product/perler%26%23174-+beads+super-sized+clear+peg+board+accessory.do?from=Search&cx=0 Though that is in Canadian dollars, so if you are outside of Canada it might be different. Hope that helps!

Hello! Yes you can :) I personally prefer the Artkal boards over the Perler boards for minis, simply because the number of pegs on the Artkal boards is something like 49 to the Perler boards which is like 28 I think? I currently only have Perler mini beads, but they work just fine on the Artkal boards, so logically the Artkal beads will work on the Perler boards!

Definitely don’t buy it for that! They’re still $20 or less on Perler’s website.

Thank you so much! Personally, I'm going to be 26 this year and don't plan on stopping any time soon, so I say go for it if you really want to try beading! You can always start with a small kit from a craft store to see if you really like it, but I think if you enjoy the videos you'll love the craft. I hope you do give it a try :) Thank you again! <3

I'm 30, too. And beading is one of my greatest hobbys. Making videos of them, too ;).

Thank you for the kind words! I actually much prefer doing it this way, with the super pegboard then connecting the pieces before ironing, over using the small interlocking ones. I can't flip my projects with the interlocking ones, and I always found they created obvious seams where the boards joined when I used them. But to each their own!