Admiral Ackbar Perler Bead Coaster

January 21, 2015November 1, 2015 / May the Fourth be with You Party: Anette / Leave a comment

Admiral Ackbar is one of my favorite Star Wars characters. (…and I promise, it has absolutely nothing to do with that fact that I do really enjoy a nice plate of deep-fried calamari…). Visually, he is a very well-designed character. The puppeteer Timothy M. Rose, the designers and crew did a fantastic job making him come to life. These days, we have gotten so accustomed to CGI, that seeing puppets (when done well), gives me new-found respect for the art form. I am starting to think that maybe CGI is not necessarily the best way to create visual effect. Maybe it is becoming too much of a go-to, or a crutch? Maybe it has become… a trap!
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Stormtrooper Perler Bead Coaster

January 14, 2015November 1, 2015 / May the Fourth be with You Party: Anette / Leave a comment

Have you seen THE trailer? Yeah, THAT one. Now, I normally don’t watch trailers. Usually they give away waaaay to much of the plot, so if it is a movie I know I want to see, I try to avoid the previews at all costs. My husband doesn’t mind them, in fact he was downright giddy about this one. He watched it, deemed it “safe” of spoilers, and convinced me to watch it too. His first comment was, “MAAAN, now I need to get a new storm trooper helmet.” The design IS sightly different, but until I make a The Force Awakens edition, we’ll have to make do with the “classic” helmet design for our pixel designs.

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Mace Windu Perler Bead Coaster

January 8, 2015November 1, 2015 / May the Fourth be with You Party: Anette / 1 Comment

I read in an article once that stated that Samuel Jackson might be the only actor considered a genre all by himself. He exudes cool! Him + the name of the movie “Snake on a Plane” made me go see that movie. I have forgotten everything about he plot (I am sure it was pretty bad), but still, it sounds awesome! Unfortunately Mr. Jackson doesn’t get to do ALL that much in the Star Wars prequels, but him just loitering about makes Episode I, II and III better. I heard that he specifically asked for a purple lightsaber because his character was so bad-ass that he was the only Jedi that could harness part of the dark side, and yet stay a Jedi. His lightsaber hilt even had the letters “BMF” on it. (Who isn’t a Pulp Fiction Fan?!)
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Jar Jar Perler Bead Coaster

November 26, 2014November 2, 2015 / May the Fourth be with You Party: Anette / 2 Comments

They say Star Wars has something for everyone. There is action, adventure, romance, comedy, drama, there are even subtitled parts to satisfy those with “finer palettes.” And there is a characters for just about everyone to identify with. So it was with great interest we watched our children watching Star Wars for the first time. What and who would resonate with them?
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AT-AT Perler Bead Coaster

November 12, 2014November 2, 2015 / May the Fourth be with You Party: Anette / Leave a comment

Sometimes I really do miss the pre-CGI days! We just watched Empire Strikes Back (to get inspired when making our Halloween costumes, which will be posted soon!), and we marveled at how amazing the big battle on Hoth still looks…almost 25 years later. My favorite part is watching the Walkers. When watching, I could feel the weight of those walkers. I could feel the creaking in their knee-joints. Stop motion filming adds weight, gravity and substance in a way that CGI just can’t.
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C-3PO Perler Bead Coaster

November 6, 2014November 2, 2015 / May the Fourth be with You Party: Anette / 1 Comment

My daughter loved doing Perler bead patterns when she was younger. She could sit for hours. One day, as we were approaching M4P (our May the Fourth Party), we had the brilliant idea of making Perler Star Wars characters. After pondering it for a while, we figured making them into coasters would be perfect. We found a few patterns online, but decided it would be more fun to make our own. By now we have about 40 original designs and I plan on posting them all here.
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