Materials Monday: Worbla

All of you cosplayers out there have certainly heard of this stuff by now, and it makes sense because its pretty awesome! 

Worbla can be used to make just about anything from weapons to armor and all kinds of accessories and details.
Pros:
- Versatility (you can use it for just about anything
-  Durability
-It's waterproof! (that doesn't mean your stuff won't be damages by water, mind you. Not all finishing products like getting wet, but at least there shouldn't be any major structural damage)
- You can use your scraps, so there's potentially no wasted material

Cons:
- It's pretty expensive
-You need a heat gun
-It can be a bit heavy if you're making something big/using a lot of it
-You usually need to use it in conjunction with other materials

Generally speaking, when you're using worbla you want to use it as an outside layer over some other base. Craft foam (foamies) are common for things like armor pieces and small accessories.

For the armor I made for Young Genji (Overwatch), I used craft foam (and EVA for some parts) as a base, and heated worbla over it.

When you heat up worbla, it becomes very flexible which is great because you can achieve a lot of different shapes. It also sticks to itself when it's hot, so you can create 3D geometric shapes by mushing the edges of two flat pieces together. If you heat it and smooth it over enough it becomes a very strong joint and becomes virtually seamless. On the photo above you can see the knee protrusions, which I achieved that way.

While craft foam is my base of choice because it's lightweight, very flexible, and comes in large sheets, I often use cardstock as a base for smaller pieces or pieces that have angular geometric shapes (like those knee pieces).

The other great thing about worbla is you can heat up all of your scraps and mold them into things! You can see I molded the end of the Myrnaster with worbla.

You can achieve a lot more interesting things than that too! The hilt of Masrur's sword is all worbla too!

Since I've been using worbla for a while, so I have lots of scraps. I've been trying to use them as much as possible for this sort of thing, since it's more durable than making the same thing out of polymer clay, which would be my other go-to for these types of details.

If you're wondering where to get worbla, I always order mine online here. You can get sheets in different sizes and you get discounts for ordering in bulk. That may or may not be helpful for you guys, depending on how often you plan on using it but it's still good.

As always, if you're ever thinking about using any of the materials I've highlighted in my Materials Mondays posts and you're not sure, feel free to get in contact with me, I'd be happy to give you my thoughts on what materials I think would work best for your projects!

More Masks!

Hey folks, as promised I have some updates on the second mask I've been working on, now that the RWBY one is finished.

The process was pretty much the same as the last one, but the shapes were a bit more organic this time which made things interesting.

This is the dragon priest mask, from Skyrim. I don't know a ton about skyrim, but I do know this is a pretty cool mask. Just like last time, I put together the pattern on a wig head using cardstock. The shaping was a bit harder to figure out and I had to tweak things a bunch to get them right, but ultimately I had a viable pattern to use.

You know what comes next, make it again out of paperboard and cover it with worbla!

A note about using worbla over  detail pieces: start in the middle and work your way to the edges to avoid any bubbles.
Another note along the same lines: Popsicle sticks are great for pressing the worbla into the details. You can see how I did it with the eyes and cheekbone ridges.

The mask construction is done! Now it's time to add the loops for the straps to attach to. I did kind of a bad job of explaining how I made those last time so I tried to take pictures of the steps this time.

Start with some heavy-gauge wire. I think the wire I used was gauge 16, I wouldn't recommend anything thinner than that. You start by folding your piece of wire into a rectangle with the two ends overlapping on one side. Then take a long rectangle of worbla (I used two layers, and would recommend you do too for extra stability), and put it through your wire loop. Then heat up your worbla and fold it around the wire loop, over the edge where the two raw ends are. Then heat it up again and mush the soft plastic into the surface where the loops need to go. You definitely want a layer of worbla on the surface underneath the loop, because the worbla will stick better to other worbla than most other surfaces.

And that's were are now. I'll be priming and sanding for a few days and then it's on to painting! Huzzah!