Meet the Artist behind CryptoMatria

I love all projects on WAX but this is qute a quirky one with fun NFTs and little puzzles so Il let the artists tell you more .

Hey

Hey hey

How you ?

Doing good. How are you doing?

Good just relaxing . What you do today ?

Very nice. Glad we are able to do this today. Wanted to get with you sooner . Just had an early day at work then came home and took a little nap lol .

Stop I had a sneaky one with my 7 month old earlier lol

Niceeee. Yeah I'm sure you need all the rest you can get with a 7 month old

Nah he isn't to bad to be honest . So can I ask what you do for a living ?

Yeah. I am actually a Meat Cutter by day or a Butcher. I was a seafood department manager for quite a few years but had been looking to become a butcher for sometime, so that is where I am now. Which is ironic because my wife is a vegetarian lol

Oh wow so this is quite different from your day job !

Oh yeah very different. But this is really just a fun hobby for me. I played music for a longtime too. So I've always been involved in something artistic and passionate about making art but not always making digital art. Honestly I still have alot to learn but really enjoy it.

How did you find out about NFTs ?

Well, I am a pretty big Crypto enthusiast. I started investing in different cryptocurrencies in 2018. and really got big into it later 2020. I would often come across NFTs. Information and videos about them, etc. And almost immediately I could see how big they can become and how big they still are going to become. I imagined the utility from them being used as digital cards music singles etc. and confirmed my initial thoughts on them through research. I do think we are headed towards a major adoption of them by the entertainment and sports industries.

Plus I was a big Yu-gi-oh fan when I was younger and loved the minting aspect of NFTs and it almost brought back some nostalgia for me . As I got more into collecting NFTs I really had a few different collection/project ideas but was not good enough at making digital art to make any of my ideas. I tried to get a few people that I know personally into a project or two with me. But they didn't have enough time or really were not into it like I was. So i brainstormed for a few weeks and created the ,pretty terrible, beta series of CRYPTOMATRIA. The design was simple enough and the idea was fun behind them I thought. So i have just been trying to expand on the collection and get better at digital art design along the way.

I think everyone has a story how the started in NFTs its funny I remember Yu-gi-oh . I didn't collect does card did collect football stickers I think NFTs are more evolved way of collecting. What was the original idea behind CRYTOMATRIA ?

Really the idea of CRYPTOMATRIA was to design a puzzle packed into an NFT. I wanted the theme to be about Cryptocurrency, Hint the "CRYPTO" Then for the puzzle element I figured using a cipher and a cipher key chart would be interesting and fun. This is where "MATRIA" comes from. Gematria goes back as far as Ancient Babylon. I had researched it before. Of course it is usually in Hebrew but it has been translated into simplified version such as "English Gematria". Which is what I went with for the cipher/puzzle aspect of the cards

And do you not think you have got the project there ?

The cards themselves, starting with series 2 cards are pretty educational as well towards Cryptocurrency and Crypto culture, which really made me passionate about the project. If you were to collect all 40 cards in the series. The hints on each card go into depth about each term to really give the person, deciphering the puzzle, an understanding of the term hidden in the card. I really polished up my crypto knowledge making the series lol. It was a little bit of a refresher/learning experience for me on some of the terms. I think I have gotten it there but for some I know the project is still confusing, or a lot to take in at first glance. It really is a simple theme with a simple design element but still comes across a little complex for some. I've had multiple people who really enjoy it, and i have multiple people who are confused and reach out to me. Which is fine, but I always feel like I need to try to simplify or make some more adjustments. I also have had quite a few people who solve the puzzle and think that when they solve the puzzle they are suppose to submit it somewhere for a reward lol. Which its really just suppose to be rewarding and fun to solve the puzzle in itself. But it has made me consider implementing some sort of future reward system

Its great to hear the community interacts with and maybe you should create a reward system maybe a 1/1 reward for the person who solves it first and its good that people reach out when they don't understand but maybe they might learn as your project moves on .

Definitely. The community aspect of the project so far has got to be my favorite part. I love doing giveaways and having conversations like this one with you. I do like the 1/1 idea and would like to reward those who solve the puzzle in some form. I even try to give every person who purchases a card or pack a "Token of Appreciation". They are NFTs that I send out to those who make a purchase

They are a bit corny but they have messages in them like "I Appreciate YOU" and "BIG Thank You" plus I usually add a memo message thanking them for supporting the collection

Its nice do . So season 2 has just dropped how has that been going ?

Series 2 came after the beta designs. It did pretty well for me. Definitely got me my first real supporters. I learned how to do pack drops for them. so it was a great learning experience for me. Almost everything I make I reinvest back into the project, whether it be storing more RAM/CPU or dropping 500 free CM promo Nfts of my dog with a for the community lol. I like to do Giveaways and drops thats for sure

How many NFTs have you made since you started ?

Since the collection is suppose to be more fun and educational I try to make the price per pack pretty low. and then let collectors decide market price . 5 card pack I did for 5 Wax and 10 Card packs for 10 WAX. This allows everyone interested to be able to afford a pack usually. I believe I've minted close to 100 designs including promos. Right now there are a total of 1851 mints in circulation I've dabbled in other projects and on opensea aswell with some designs but CryptoMatria has definitely been my biggest project and is available exclusively on WAX Blockchain

Oh wow have you added any blending into project ?

I have not, but I intend to make it an option for series 3. I plan to have 3 blends for the 3 epics in the series 3 collection. They have just over a 1% pull rate out of the pack so I would like collectors to be able to blend uncommons, and rares, and even some puzzle cards to get to them . Have not set it up yet but am pretty sure I know how to do it and will try my best to make it happen . I've also got quite a few idea for blends in the future, hopefully near future

So the plan for this project is to get bigger and better ?

That's right and just to have fun and build a community connect with other crypto lovers and creators, etc . I've been working on a .com but am thinking of pushing out a discord channel instead or possibly both

Twitter discord and telegram seem to be the places for the community ?

Series 3 cards is the "Coin Collectors Edition". It drops tomorrow Friday at 5:30 PM EST. These puzzle cards are almost way to easy to solve lol. But I thought it would be a nice edition to the collection. All the puzzle codes when deciphered are the "ticker symbols" for the crypto currency displayed and described in the card. So seeing the image of the coin on the card is a dead giveaway. And if that doesn't give it away the codes are only as long as the ticker symbols. So 3 to 4 digits

Can we get a sneak peak ?

So that card is for Litecoin. Its ticker is LTC so the code is 273 . Some of the coins will gave the ticker on the coin 😆. So this series should be super simple and just fun to collect I hope . Especially for those investing in crypto. Hopefully they can pull their favorite coin .

Ha ha ha most people who invest will get that . Are these in packs ?

They are. These will be released in 5 and 10 card packs. for 5 and 10 Wax just as series 2 was .

Can I ask what has been your favorite card you have created so far ?

Went with a gold color schema for this collection since Crypto is the new gold :p

Of course doesn't feel like it at the moment do !

Yeah we are in a sea of red right now lo . I really liked how the series 2 puzzle cards turned out. I don't know that I had a favorite. Really the promo for series 3 of my dog was fun to drop. It currently has the most mints in the entire collection

Ha ha ha I am guessing it didn't take long ?

They went pretty quick lol it was funny . Do you run many giveaways on Twitter? If you want a few packs for a giveaway I will send them your way tomorrow

Yea I try run them on my articles and on twitter .How do you normally create each NFT ?

Good question I mainly use Gimp for creating the NFTs and then a few different apps on my phone when I'm not able to work on the computer. I have been dabbling in After Effects but still need a lot of work with that. I typically find a color scheme and do a lot of image blending for the background. Usually I find a nice filter to make the colors pop and then run it across all the NFTs in the collection to give them the same feel. As far as the text I just use a grid for placement and alignment and try to make sure everything lines up nice.

And how long would you say it takes to finish a NFT from start to finish ?

Most of the NFTs have around 10 layers to them and follow a similar template. So designing them is fairly simple once I get a few going . Designing the first one takes the longest. Series 2 took me a few hours at probably to get that initial look I was going for. I thought about it and played around with it off and on for a week or so but once I got the first one done it really was just kind of rinse and repeat for the others. Series 3 were actually pretty straight forward and took even less time. Its really the concept and themes that take me the longest to come up with. And then getting everything in place on AtomicHub is somewhat time consuming when its a project with 40+ templates

Have you been whitelisted ?

Yes I have . Actually went through that process and got whitelisted in the beta series

Oh brilliant . Have done any Collabs ?

I have not but I would love to do one!

Who would be your dream Collab ?

Definitely Alien Worlds lol That's what first brought me to the WAX Blockchain. Would love to do a series for theme somehow. But honestly it would be a dream to collaborate with a ton of the projects out there. There are so many good ones GodsnLegends, RPlanet, Bitcoinorigin, Bitverse. I feel like every week there is another great project released . Really love Bitverse Much respect for CryptoStache aswell

Only a small list I see lol . Do you collect NFTs ?

I do. I have a decent Bitverse collection, and usually try to get a little something from each or where I can. I don't have a huge budget for NFT investing right now. So I follow a lot of the projects but don't have many impressive collections . Golden Age of Hip Hop is one I'm a fan of . I have 29 NFTs of that collection Mutant Rockers is awesome as well

Wow you like the expensive collections lol

Yeah Bitverse I have the most. Think I have over 100 or close to it. I have them staked with Rplanet right now getting abunch of aether from them

Shame Aether value is terrible at the moment .

For sure I just use my Aether for generating elements and items in Rplanet mainly Staking some Pump Dumb Wars NFTs as well I try to collect what I can but I'd break the bank if I had everything I wanted literally like I said there are sooo many great collections out

Nice and I can understand that . What does your family think of your crypto project ?

They think its cool for sure. They don't really get into it themselves or anything. My brothers invest in crypto a little. My wife is very supportive and I run a lot of stuff by her before I try it. She loves that I have my music and NFT hobbies. She gives me honest opinions and thoughts so its nice

Is there one lesson you have learnt from making NFTs what would it be

Definitely patience. and just go with the flow. Also a bit of problem solving. It can be frustrating when wanting to create things i don't have the skill set to create so just learning to adapt and literally learning digital design. I have years and years of working with music programs mainly ProTools. So that helped out. But it can be frustrating having to watch tutorials and basically learning from scratch. I do feel like I fell down a rabbit hole a little bit lol . Now I'm in NFT Wonderland

Tell us something random about yourself ?

I'm a twin. I have a twin sister

Ok that's random . What you like to do when you aren't creating ?

When I'm not creating I enjoy watching a good movie or hanging out with my family. We all live pretty close so we get together often for grill outs and family events I also play Decentraland and love hanging out in the Metaverse there . There is an amazing community in Decentraland

I must check it out once the extend a day to about 30 hours lol

lol I know! There is never enough time in the day. You should definitely check it out when you get a chance you would love it!

So your new packs drop tomorrow what does the community need to know ?

Just to look out for it! It drops at 5:30PM EST. 5 card packs for 5 WAX and 10 Card Packs for 10 WAX!

https://wax.atomichub.io/drops/77037

https://wax.atomichub.io/drops/77038

Those are the drop links a little under 8 hours until drop

Follow

https://twitter.com/cryptomatria?s=09

https://twitter.com/TheKyleDriver3?s=09

on Twitter for GIVEAWAYS

Find his cards here for sale

https://wax.atomichub.io/explorer/collection/cryptomatria

Perfect so before we finish up is there anything else you would like to say or tell the readers ?

I would just like to say thank you! Thank you for reading and feel free to reach out to me anytime! If they have supported the collection, I really appreciate it and I appreciate you for taking the time to chat with me about the collection super cool what you are doing here for artists

Not a problem thank you for taking the time to chat to me and it is a pleasure to chat to all you talented artists

Your awesome! and if you ever start up with Decentraland you better DM me so we can hang in the Metaverse 😁

To win one of four packs check the link below

https://twitter.com/Crackers832/status/1416026409257029632?s=19