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hey my friends Kyle McCoy here and today
we're going to discuss one of the most
important steps in creating peer bead
artwork ironing this is going to
determine what your piece looks like at
the very end it's not the longest step
but it does leave the longest impression
if you under iron your piece may fall
apart if you over iron your beads get
all misshapen and weird there are three
main methods we're going to go over
traditional style the masking tape
method and flat melt we're going to try
all three methods and compare them with
the help of My Three Sons no I don't
have kids I mean these designs it's a
son wearing sunglasses I don't know how
that makes any sense at all but just go
with it first up is the traditional
method that's where you iron both sides
now as I've said before any household
iron will do I picked up this bad boy
about 3 years ago for 15 bucks and it's
been my trusty beat melter ever since
but before you start make sure that
there is no water in your iron you do
not need it H2
no first put your ironing paper over the
design then start fusing the beads on
one side slowly working your way over in
a circular motion never iron in a hurry
you'll be able to see the beads melting
so keep an eye on them to make sure they
melt evenly then flip it over and do the
other
side and whatever style you're using
always put some heavy books on your work
to keep it flat while it cools next up
we have the masking tape method this is
a fairly popular method for pler artists
you start by tearing off strips masking
tape and lying them on your work apply
some pressure to make sure they stick to
the beads you want them to overlap but
not too much once your work is covered
you want to make sure the tape is firmly
sticking to the beads so give it a
little massage especially around the
edges now this tape has created a seal
around the beads when you iron that
little air pocket in there may mess up
your design so take something with a
small Point like a pen and simply poke a
tiny hole through the tape at the bead
Center do this for every bead and it
will release the builtup air inside and
now it's business as usual just ironing
the exposed side in a circular
motion and finally there's flat melt I
bet you can guess what that name means
we iron one or both sides of the design
until the beads have melted almost flat
so the pixels will look more like
squares than circles that can be useful
if you're making something like video
game sprites but it's still possible to
over iron these guys so take a break as
soon as you see those little circles
disappear if you miss any beads you can
always touch it up later that goes for
any of these methods actually all right
we've done all three now let's
compare traditional sturdy feels good
could be used in tons of larger projects
or just a project in and of itself
masking tape method the main appeal here
is the clean uniform look to the
unironed side of the beads it's a bit
fragile but that doesn't matter if
you're going to mount to a canvas and
flat melt very solid clean lines nice
what's my favorite well since you asked
traditional you see I create a lot of
multi-layered artwork so I need the
pieces to be pretty solid so they can
stand up on their own so why not flat
melt because I think ironing can be used
as a Nifty shading tool check out the
traditional one again I melted this side
slightly more so the holes filled in the
less melted sides are open so when your
eyes see it this side looks darker like
a shadow some people might call it
uneven ironing but if done correctly
it's a neat little Optical trick of
course it really depends on two things
the kind of project you're working on
and more importantly your own personal
preference the choice is yours and yes
I'm aware that the sun wouldn't have a
shadow on it but it wouldn't have
sunglasses either so give me a break in
conclusion if I were Goldilocks I might
say that the masking tape method is too
cold while the flat melt is too hot but
the traditional method just right well
thanks for watching hopefully you find
this video helpful if you do leave a
comment telling me your favorite ironing
method and why until next time I'm Kyle
McCoy and happy pearling
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