Project 5: SNES Coasters - Update - Larger and ... newer?

So this is an update from the last update in 2014, but it’s an update. That being said, having taken … 6 … years to finish this project a lot of my thinking is totally lost to me now. Still I’ve made newer bigger coasters and they seem pretty good.

The Coasters

The original coasters.

I set out to make coasters because I wanted to play with pixels and to make myself some geeky stuff. The first set of coasters have been pretty good, but they are a little small. They’re pretty good with tumblers or a can, but they’re a little small for mugs. They also worry me a bit whith wine glasses, so I tend not to have them out when we have guests over. They have always had a bit of a curve or a cup to them, which, so far I think is the nature of something made out of perler, which makes them a little bit prone to tipping.

They’ve held up quite well over the years. I took an inventory and a few have a bit of separation between the backing and the beads, but all 8 of the original set get use everyday.

One of the blue coasters where I use it daily.

The cupping always bothered me a bit and the size has also been a small problem. So a long time back I figured adding in an extra ring of beads (taking the width from 16 bead x 16 to 18 x 18) would fix the size problem. I’m also hoping that the bigger coasters will also help with cupping, but since that seems to develop over time I don’t have a great answer for that yet.

Pattern

For the pattern I added in an extra ring of the interior colour. That helps actually float the exclamation mark more in the middle so I think overall the bigger sprite makes sense.

I didn't generate a pattern, but here's the expanded layout. You can see the extra row above the exclamation point) which effectively wraps around the whole coaster.

To compare here's the original coasters with the completed larger ones:

All of the originals with the newer ones behind.

For each I used the perler colours: 

The Black and White are Black (80-19018) and White (80-19001).

The Red:

Sprite Colour	Bead Colour
Outer Red	Red (80-19005)
Inner Red	Magenta (80-19038)

Red Coaster - click to enlarge

The Blue:

Sprite Colour	Bead Colour
Outer Blue	Dark Blue (80-19008)
Inner Blue	Turquoise? (80-19062)

Blue Coaster - click to enlarge

The Green:

Sprite Colour	Bead Colour
Outer Green	Dark Green? (80-19010)
Inner Green	Green? (80-19080)

Green Coaster - click to enlarge

 The Yellow:

Sprite Colour	Bead Colour
Outer Yellow	Cheddar (80-19057)
Inner Yellow	Yellow (80-19003)

Yellow Coaster - click to enlarge

Any of the beads where I'm either not sure what bead I used, or what colour the bead is I've marked with a question mark. Those are best guesses.

I also had a bit of an adventure and made a rainbow exclamation mark block. I have a lot of beads kicking around that aren’t really getting used for anything so I thought it would be fun to make up my own. 

 

The Rainbow Wonder. The white ring matches the extra row of beads if you're curious as to size.

I didn’t take notes, so I have no idea what colours I actually put in here.

Fusing

I fused three of these at least a year ago and the other two in the last few days.

For the ones I did in the last few days, I also made some shapes out of the same beads so I had a feeling for how those beads melted. I’ve noticed a bit over time that the different colours have slightly different melting / fusing points.

I also noticed for future reference that depending on how I fuse the beads the depth of the coaster can be pretty different. It doesn’t show so much from the front, but it’s a factor I hadn’t really considered. For the future I’d like to find a way to be more systematic about fusing.

The different depths of the different coasters.

Backing

I used the same backing as I did for the original coasters. Which I do mean literally, they’re the same set of sticky felt that I purchased back in 2013 (2012?). So they might not work as well as I’d like. But it’s what I had and given that going out to the craft store is not an option while I’m working, I figured I’d go with what I had.

As it works out the 18 x 18 bead squares are exactly 3 ½ inches wide. So I proceeded to cut a bunch of squares that were *almost* 3 ½ inches square. I have a new cutting mat that’s a little warped still and I guess I just need more practice (and maybe a bit more technique). 

The fit of the red coaster. The cutting matt is a little wonky underneath.

 

I also realized that 3 ½ inches is too wide, because it doesn’t allow for the edge where the beads hang over the backing. I tried to make that a ½ bead overhang and it seems like cutting the squares to be 3 ⅜ inches would have been a better approach. I also had to trim the corners to deal with the curve. I found it was a bit difficult to get a proper trim, so I think if I do more of these it would make sense to have a template or a jig.

The coaster backs.

So the backs are a little adhoc, despite my best efforts, but they seem to be on comfortably despite all of the potential problems. I’ll use them for a bit and then update to see if the backing actually works, but given how long the smaller coasters have lasted I’m feeling a little optimistic.

Coaster with the backing on.

Wrap-up

These were fun to do. The several times I’ve worked on them over the last (checks notes) half decade, I’ve enjoyed it. Filling in the fields is a very peaceful activity, especially when compared to my Chrono Trigger perler sprites. 

 

The four coasters ready for action.

Now I’m going to use them for a bit and see how they do. In the mean time I get to mark this project done.

And now time to relax.

Project 12: Chrono Trigger Sprites: Update

The Chrono Trigger Sprites are another project I stalled on.

One of the big concerns I ran into was figuring out what colours of perler I wanted to use. I had a sampler set of beads (which I made the test patch in the picture above from), which was a good starting point. I was able to create the original SNES Coasters out of that set, and I might have been able to start on the sprites, but there was one particularly large problem ... I can't figure out what colour (by name) each of these colours is.

So that slowed me down some, along with all the other usual distractions that lead to me not finishing a project. However I have now solved this problem, I went out (to the Internet) and bought myself ALL of the beads:

On the EK Sucess Perler site, they sell 1000 bead bags of every colour. I started to try to figure out what matched what I had already through the website, but then ended up just picking up one bag of everything they sold. Fortunately perler beads are relatively affordable and the promise of free shipping on large enough orders convinced me to just go ahead and do it. Sadly it turns out that that offer wasn't available to Canadians, but still at the end of the day a big box of perler beads appeared at my door, for not that much out of pocket. And now I know name of every colour of bead I have.

As a side note, I wanted to find a nice way to sort the beads that I had. Conveniently I found a screw sorter that happens to perfectly hold 1000 beads in each drawer and probably 3000 in the bigger drawers, which seems like a really nice way to be organized for a project.

Anyway, now that I have all the beads and I'm super organized, I'm out of good excuses not to work on the Chrono Trigger Sprites. So I'll bring the project back up and try to finish a Chrono in 20cm scale by September 30, 2014.

Project 5: SNES Coasters: Bigger, Better, Slightly Less Tippy, and Going on the Road

In my last update I finished making a set of 8 coasters using the exclamation blocks from Super Mario World.

I've now taken them out and used them in the real world and come to the conclusion that they're too small, as I suspected this in the last post. They've also suffered from a certain amount of cupping, all of which makes them a touch unstable. There has only been one major incident with spillage due to the coasters, but it still bugs me.

I've decided I want to try a couple of things, that will result in basically 3 mini-projects. 

• The first is that I want to make larger coasters, the current ones are 16 beads wide/tall and if I add an extra ring of beads they will end up being 18 beads wide/tall and that should improve the stability and make them a little more useable.
• The second is that I want to test mailing these. I'm tempted to start an Etsy shop and sell a few sets of these, although I'm not convinced that's something I really want to do. Either way a better understanding of how to mail these things around would be nice, so I'll make a second set of the larger coasters (assuming that the first batch come out right) and send them to a friend who thought they were cool.
• The third is to try a different pattern. There are some gifts I'd like give and I feel like taking a pattern from Illusion of Gaia, might be a good fit for the decor of the people to whom I'd like to give the gifts. Hopefully, I can end up with video game decor that doesn't look to video gamey.

So I'd like to finish the first batch of bigger coasters by August 31, 2014. I'll update about the other parts when I've done that.

Project 12: Chrono Trigger Sprites

A quick note, I've updated this project!

I don't usually go for having a lot of stuff on your desk, but my recent success making SNES coasters has inspired me to try my hand at making something cool that I can put over my desk at work. Given that Chrono Trigger is one of my favourite games, I figured doing sprites of all the playable characters in the game would be a pretty cool addition to my office.

If you look at the sprite sheets for Chrono Trigger each of the PCs has a lot of positions. I think the best poses though will be the action poses the characters strike at the beginning of each battle. Chrono's sprites look like this:

I'd like to make them about 20cm tall, which will require some reworking since the sprites themselves are only about 30 - 40 pixels tall, which will probably be about half the hight I'd like to reach. Given the need to expand the sprites, I'm not sure if the right answer will be simply to scale them or if I'll have to make a "higher res" version.

The other main problem I've discovered I'll have is is matching colours, since Perler doesn't give you quite the full palette the SNES does. Other people, such as devient artists ~SerenaAzureth and ~MaliceOhgr242, have tackled this before so I'm going take my cue's from them in terms of matching colours.

The next little while is not great for the number of things I need to get done (and the number of unfinished projects I have hanging around) so I'm hoping to be done with these by July 1, 2013.

Projects 4 & 5 Deadline Update

So I've dropped well past the deadlines I gave myself for both the Snake project and the SNES coaster project. This has been due to a combined effect of actually getting things done at work, having some catastrophic computer issues and not getting excited enough and getting things done.

It's a coaster (or it will be)

On the SNES coaster project, I have managed to get excited enough to at least start making prototypes (as you can see in the picture). I still have a bit of work to do figuring out how I'd like them to work (in particular they need a backing for added table protection, plus reinforcement of the beads) and then I need to actually make a few and test them out as coasters. Ideally this should all happen in the next week so I'm giving this project a new deadline of November 24, 2012.

I've made less progress with the Snake project but am planning to jump back on it soon. I haven't actually tackled any of the items I discussed last time and given schedules for all the things that need to be done, I think I won't have too much time to focus on it. I'm giving this project a new deadline of January 1, 2013.

Project 5 : SNES Geek Coasters

One of the problems I face on a semi-regular basis (at least whenever I host a D & D session) is that I don't have enough coasters and that the coasters I do have are just not cool enough. Fortunately the Internet has reminded me that this doesn't need to be an on-going problem and that I can do something cool to fix it.

As such, my next big project is going to be SNES Geek Coasters made from pearler beads.

I was inspired to this idea from two sources, one is a mario coin I bought at the Calgary Comic Expo this year and the other is a set of fridge magnets I saw on Pinterest (which were mis-labeled as coasters).

The coin over my desk. From my photo-project with a friend Seven-Fifty-Two-by-Two.

Fridge Magnets with retro style - found on Pinterest sourced from gadgetsin.com

Pearler beads work well with retro-video game concept because it's easy to put beads in for each pixel. This means that all I have to do to find plans is to hunt down the sprite sheets for any game I'm looking for. Then all I have to do is match the beads to the pixels, load them onto a hedgehog tray and iron. Or not, this may prove to be harder than I've imagined, but I do have my childhood memories saying this is pretty easy and it may be harder to get the sprites that I want.

My first thought was to go with the question mark blocks from Super Mario World, but the more I've been thinking the more I'm interested in trying for some RPGs of the era (Secret of Mana especially) since they're likely to get hauled out during RPG session most often.

My goal is to have at least a prototype version of these up and running by November 1, 2012.