A lot of you may be wondering, what exactly IS Pixel Portrayal? Good question. Otherwise referred to as bead art, or bead fusion, the art that I create is made out of little cylindrical tubes of plastic. For reasons of simplicity, I will refer to them as beads. These beads are placed upon a large plastic grid of spikes that hold the beads in place, otherwise known as a pegboard. The pegboards I use can fit up to 841 beads on them. I need a much larger working surface than this allows. Fortunately, the pegboards have the ability to interlock and create a bigger work surface.
Once I lay out the beads in the desired pattern, I then heat the exposed top layer of the beads until they fully fuse together. This can become a very delicate labor of love on large images. The beads will begin to contract as they cool off. This can create curling, bubbling, and all around frustration. I have to be extremely strategic with the fusion procedure as it is not only a difficult task, but one of the final tasks in creating the art. Ruining a piece at this stage would be catastrophic!
When the beads are completely fused together, I take the image and mount it onto black foamcore for stability. The stiff backing of the foamcore protects the image from damage, as well as allows the image to be displayed. At this stage, I can either ship the art to you, or I can have the piece custom framed.