The fantastic Arlena Fae partnered with us for her Blood Moon Katarina build, using Worbla’s Black Art and EVA foam to create the detailed leg armor that Katerina sports! If you need to make armor for your next costume, check out her video below – these techniques can be applied to many different types of builds!
Wanda’s final look from WandaVision is amazing, but also has some very specific techniques the creators used to design the look of fabric and armor without stitching. We’ve seen a few cosplayers use Kobracast Art as a way of stabilizing and fusing fabric to a foam or corset base, and the results speak for themselves. Take a look at this phenomenal build by Carmenvalentina – and she shared how she did it in this fantastic video, so you can follow along for your own build!
We partnered with Mage.Cosplay for her Jessie build, and she shared the process of creating her armor and accessories with us. If you’re looking to make Jessie for your next costume, check out how Mage went about the process below!
Source Character: Jessie Rasberry from Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Disclaimer: While the general principles of using thermoplastics, such as Worbla, will be very consistent, there are many methods to use the material to construct costume elements. My methods may not be the best for you, so please keep in that in mind! In summary: There are many tutorials out there, but I’m hoping that sharing mine will help you figure out what’s best for you!
Patterning: The base pattern you’ll see in this tutorial came from Jenny Desu; I bought it from her Etsy shop. This is also my first time using someone else’s armour pattern, so we’re learning together.
Equipment: The tools you’ll see me use include:
• a heat gun;
• heat resistant gloves (provided by CosplaySupplies, who carry these in several sizes!);
• a silicone baking sheet (often covered in parchment paper);
• a cutting mat;
• a utility knife;
• spherical ornament, old hotel key cards, paintbrush handles, and spoons for shaping;
• wooden skewer for poking things;
• rotary tool (very minimally).
Materials:
• CosplaySupplies has generously partnered with me for the Worbla’s Black Art.
• The foam I’m using is two types – one is a high density foam I purchased from CosplaySupplies and the other are yoga mats I picked up from the dollar store.
• Metal bits included a handful of purchased buckles and connectors, split pins in a couple sizes from the stationary store, and jewellery wire that I used as a frame for my DIY fasteners and connectors.
• Contact cement (as little as possible) and hot glue.
• There’s also some hook and loop tape and elastic used.
• Paints are dollar store acrylics, a bit of gold spraypaint, and some PlaidFX Armour.
Glove and Boot Armour
You can see here the glove pieces and also part of the boot pieces as well. The glove pieces will just be getting one piece of Worbla to add strength and give them a nice finish. I’ve left a bit of a seam around them, per usual.
My tools for smoothing the corners are pretty low key—the handle of a paint brush and an old room key. I manipulate the material with my gloved hands while it’s hot and then come in with the card and brush once it’s just warm, so the heat doesn’t warp either.
Since the front of the boot might get banged around a bit, I made a Worbla’s Black Art sandwich. I’ve also put the seam a bit closer to one side by using the paintbrush to push the bulk toward the back. Afterward, the excess was trimmed off and added to my scrap pile. Those scraps will make an appearance in the fastenings and closures section.
I’ve used split pins to fake my brads on all the armor pieces. By heating up the Worbla, I can make it pliable enough for a sharp wooden skewer to pierce both it and the foam. This makes a nice, clean hole that’s also sealed as the Worbla gets taken along for the ride by the skewer. You can see that I’ve left the back of the plates open, which makes them light and still very springy.
Shoulder Armour
JennyDesu’s pattern has been transferred to thin camp mat foam and an approximately-the-right-size piece of Worbla’s Black Art is ready to go. My surface is a silicone baking mat and some parchment paper, alongside a heat gun and a large Christmas ornament to help me round off the shapes.
All the foam pieces have been hot glued at the seams. The hotglue will re-activate when I apply heat via the thermoplastic, but it is essentially just there to keep the foam in place until the thermoplastic gets there. This cheap foam also deforms very easily, but the strength will come from the Worbla.
This is what it looks like after one layer of Worbla’s Black Art. I was able to easily reposition the material as I went, although you can see I could have given it one more go to make sure I got the corner flawless. I stopped fiddling with it because I don’t mind the imperfections here; the character’s likely to be using armor that’s seen many encounters and been dinged, damaged, and repaired several times. They’re also more rounded than they appear in most reference art, but that’s partly the pattern and partly personal preference.
A test shot of how the two pieces of the pauldrons will fit together. With this, the hard parts for the base are all set. You can see the split pins in the bottom piece; they’re the same as in the glove pieces.
Cuirass
The cuirass consists of many parts in JennyDesu’s pattern, so the first step was to transfer these all to foam. The difference is that I wanted a more firm structure for the central plates, so instead of camp mat, I used a higher density foam that I purchased from CosplaySupplies. That’s the grey foam you see in the photos. This was also necessary to get the peaked look you see on the backplate and the stomach plate – those pieces were cut at a 45 degree angle and hot glued.
Since I knew I wanted to already have a good rounded shape present in the foam before I applied the Worbla’s Black Art, I used contact cement on the darts for the upper breastplate. It required some cold outside time, but the fumes are no joke and it’s important to not take risks with that! Unlike hot glue, the contact cement doesn’t re-activate with the application of heat and is more easily sanded.
For the side plates, I did just use hot glue – mostly because I didn’t want to deal with the contact cement fumes and these pieces would not need to take on any complex curves before they were covered in thermoplastic.
I continued working the top and bottom halves of the breastplate separately once they were covered with Worbla. This made it much easier to work on getting the breasts into the shape I wanted them, which followed the same method as when I shaped the upper shoulder armor.
Having thicker, stronger foam underneath made it much easier to really work on the Worbla in terms of smoothing it out around curves and adding in further curves and details where I wanted, which will be easier to see once we get to the paint.
For the lower breastplate, Jessie has these kind of faint abdominal muscle looking lines, so I tried to mimic that as I was shaping. I didn’t have to worry about the fact that I’d used hot glue on that centre-front ridge as the glue was nicely sandwiched between the thick foam and the Worbla.
Now the centre back plate and its side plates have been covered in a single layer of Worbla’s Black Art. Split pins were placed, although I messed up and put some pilot holes in the wrong places after misinterpreting pattern markings. You can kind of see the shoulder blade markings I worked into the back plate and the similar markings on the lower breastplate. At this point, I’d just about reached the point where I had to join the upper and lower breastplates to do any further fitting.
So this step looks a little violent, but one of the ways I made sure that the upper and lower breastplates would line up properly was to use my skewer to put one continuous path for split pins between the two pieces. Although the adhesion of Worbla with itself is fantastic, it never hurts to have a mechanical connection to back-up the chemical one. Of course, this necessitated buying some split pins with longer shanks!
Greaves
JennyDesu’s pattern was transferred to thin camp mat foam. For one greave, I transferred each pattern piece to Worbla’s Black Art with about a half inch of allowance all around. Once adhered, I rolled over the seam allowance and then started to curve the piece. This was repeated for the other two main plates on this greave.
The second greave followed the same initial pattern-to-foam transfer, but I next glued each of the plates to each other and continued from there. Since the foam pieces then had a shape, it was more a matter of best-guessing the size of Worbla piece needed and leaving a much bigger margin for error. I had thought this would save me time, but heating and fitting the entire greave at once took much more time than doing the heating and fitting of each piece first, then adhering each Worbla-covered plate to each other. I used an old hotel key card, pressed into warmed Worbla, to add in the seam lines, where needed. The shoulder straps show this sort of detail more explicitly.
Shoulder Straps
I started with no pattern, just rectangles of foam in the correct length. I wanted to straps to be able to flex easily and they won’t bear any actual weight, so just one layer of Worbla’s Black Art, so I wrapped the Worbla around the foam and set the initial curve, then I used my old hotel room key to press the Worbla’s Black Art in around the edges of the strap. This allowed me to keep things very thin as an alternative to adding a bezel via foam and/or additional thermoplastic. You can see I put the pilot hole for the split pin in as well.
Prep & Paint
I did a little work on these with a rotary tool, which you can see showing up a bit lighter here. Worbla is capable of highlighting even small differences in foam surfaces, so you could see the seam where the two halves of the pattern met up. I chose to leave the surface as it was, so the finished pieces will reflect the native texture of the material, rather than looking for a mirror finish. You can similar results on the piece of leg armor. I used a rotary sander to take off some of the spots where I hadn’t lined up the seams very well. I was good with a dented-and-hand-hammered type of finish, but it needed to be somewhat clean,
Base Layer:
I actually rather like the base texture of Worbla’s Black Art, so I didn’t prime the surface or try to smooth it further. I had some VERY old silver acrylic on hand, so I mixed that with some Flexbond and applied a thin layer over the pauldron pieces. I did some paint tests to see what depth of colour/shine I wanted to go with and you can see some of the results in the following comparison photos.
On the right is acrylic silver paint with some Flexbond. On the left, the same base, but with a layer of PlaidFX’s Armour series paint in Samurai on top.
Here’s what the painting steps looked like for the shoulder straps, after using some dark grey acrylic to weather it and try to bring out the “edge” I put on the armor as well.
For areas like the backplate, I repeated the weathering process several times to try to get more difference and depth between the high and low areas. I also went in and applied some black sharpie before adding a bit of the brighter silver as highlights. 
From left to right is the evolution of small buckles made from Worbla’s Black Art. These used up some of the scraps that were left after cutting out the bigger pieces for the armor parts.
I also needed to make some fasteners and buckles that were non-standard sizes and shapes. For this, I also used up some scrap Worbla’s Black Art. For the large belt buckle, I made a paper template, then used two layers fused to each other. For the pin, I used a short length of jewelry wire as a core.
Elastic straps run underneath the soft pleather pauldron, while the armored strap sits on top of it. One half of the hook and loop tape is sewn to the outside of the pauldron, while the other side is glued to the underside of the strap. While most pieces are secured with hook and loop tape, the glove plates only used the split pins to attach them to the glove base. Little pockets on the inside of the glove protect the wearer from the ends of the pins.
For a few spots, like the cuirass, there’s a mix of hook and loop tape and split pins. The main connection between the breastplate and back plate here is via hook and loop tape to a fabric modesty panel. The actual closures on top are attached on one side with split pins, whereas, for the other side, the split pins are merely decorative and the connection is via hook and loop tape underneath. For the greaves, a similar fabric connector holds the seam together with hook and loop tape. The leather strapping in this case is purely aesthetic and is affixed with hook and loop tape.
We partnered with squeakadeekn on their Hypnos build and they created 2 tutorials for us. The first we’re sharing is this fantastic breakdown on how to make neck armor, using Worbla as a base under EVA foam for a sturdy but lightweight, durable piece of armor!
A challenge of working with EVA foam is it can be too soft and too flexible; this makes it difficult to use for foundation pieces that have to support big costume parts and often leads to excessive wrinkling. A fantastic solution to this is using Worbla as an understructure beneath your foam. The Worbla increases its overall strength and limits how much it’s allowed to flex. This allows you to still use foam priming and assembly methods, but have more versatility in terms of using it to support heavy items and reduce the speed of foam aging.
When making Hypnos’s neck armor I planned it to also be the attachment mechanism for his big blanket cape, so it needs to support a lot of weight. Plain foam would wrinkle and tear, but the Worbla understructure makes it strong enough to do this, and even helps enforce its shape too!
Materials:
⦁ Saran Wrap
⦁ Duct tape
⦁ 4 and 2 mm EVA foam
⦁ Worbla’s Black Art
⦁ Kwick Seal
⦁ Contact Cement
⦁ Hot Glue
⦁ PVA glue / PlastiDip + Filler Primer / foam primers
⦁ Rustoleum gold spray paint + gold/brown acrylic paints
⦁ Velcro closures
⦁ Magnets
Patterning:
To get the pattern for Hypnos’s neck armor, I started by covering a dress form in the saran wrap and duct tape. On the duct tape cover, I used a pen to draw on the shape of the neck armor including seam lines and potential spots for velcro/magnets to attach the blanket cape. In general I try to add seam lines in the areas where there’s a nonlinear curve in the silhouette (in this case, the shoulders, neck line, and front of the armor). It’s worth including that the flat neck section shown here was just a placeholder, since I will be using a much more shaped and articulated neck pattern I had modified from Evil Ted Smith.
After this I cut out the duct tape pattern and tried it on for a quick sanity check to make sure that it fits and is shaped generally how I want it.
Once the pattern is made, I then transferred it onto 4 mm EVA foam. Here you can also see the more articulated neck pattern I had mentioned previously. The neck and shoulder sections are separate to allow for a more pronounced transition from neck to shoulder.
Assembly:
With the pieces cut out, I then assembled the base of the armor using contact cement. The neck and shoulders are still separate, but after a test fit I marked where the transition line is for reference (seen as the silver pen line in the first image below).
At this point I secured the neck and the shoulder pieces together using hot glue and trimmed the excess foam overlap underneath.
Now that it was one unified piece, I sketched out potential placements for the detailing using a silver pen. Once I knew the positions, I cut out small strips of 2 mm eva foam and began laying them down on the armor using contact cement.
Now for creating the Worbla’s Black Art understructure! Since this armor was also going to be used as a support for Hypnos’s very heavy blanket cape and wings, plain unsupported foam would have torn, wrinkled, and put a lot of stress on the front of my neck. This was a good solution to all of those problems, resulting in an armor piece that let me use the priming methods I like for foam and had the durability of Worbla!
To make the understructure, I took the same duct tape pattern pieces I had used for the foam armor and traced them onto Worbla’s Black Art, making sure to cut around 1/4th of an inch smaller along the outer edges so it won’t poke out from the corners. I also added around ½ of an inch of extra length on the sides to allow all of the pieces to overlap. You may notice that I only added Worbla to the shoulder section, this is because the neck section won’t be used to support the blanket or wings, so it was fine to leave it as plain foam.
The Worbla’s Black Art was then heated and pressed onto the underside of the foam armor on the adhesive side, section by section with occasional dabs of hot glue to secure the Worbla extra tight to the foam. I also overlapped the Worbla pieces to solidify the structure. The back edges overlap/wrap slightly around the foam for added security.
I had concerns about the comfort of the edges and seams against my skin, but for the test fits I’d worn it for, I didn’t experience any poking or pain. However If you are worried about this, you can always add in an additional layer of felt, fleece, or other soft fabric as a comfort lining.
Priming and Painting:
With the structure done, it was time for priming and painting! I followed my go-to procedure for priming EVA foam with is as follows:
The gold I used for the color was 2 coats of Rust-oleum Metallic gold; I also included additional details such as contouring with a metallic gold/darker brown acrylic paint mix and used rhinestones to match the fancy energy the rest of the costume has.
Now that the base was made and the painting was done, I added in the attachments and closures. I glued the ropes directly onto the armor since the logistics of making it separate/attached to the cape ended up getting pretty cumbersome. It’s secured tightly with lots of hot glue on the edges and the area directly underneath the velcro patch to avoid it lifting up. There’s two squares of velcro and two magnets at the corners of the blanket to keep it in place, as well as a patch of velcro all along the back. The wings use two squares of velcro each on the shoulders.
To close the armor itself, there’s an additional small velcro strip along the back edge to keep it nice and tight, but because the shape is so molded it’s able to stay on and look fitted even if the velcro in the back doesn’t hook.
And that’s mostly that, folks! In summary, Hypnos’s neck armor was created first by using a duct tape neck armor pattern, then a main base of 4 mm EVA foam which was reinforced with Worbla’s Black Art underneath, primed and painted with fun details and secured with velcro and magnets.
And here’s the final costume! The neck armor did its job well and supported everything like a champ without the usual damage that occurs with EVA foam. It was also comfortable (albeit a little tricky to get on, haha)
I hope this was informative and useful! :^)
We partnered with squeakadeekn on their Hypnos build and they created 2 tutorials for us. The first we’re sharing is this fantastic breakdown on how to make neck armor, using Worbla as a base under EVA foam for a sturdy but lightweight, durable piece of armor!
A challenge of working with EVA foam is it can be too soft and too flexible; this makes it difficult to use for foundation pieces that have to support big costume parts and often leads to excessive wrinkling. A fantastic solution to this is using Worbla as an understructure beneath your foam. The Worbla increases its overall strength and limits how much it’s allowed to flex. This allows you to still use foam priming and assembly methods, but have more versatility in terms of using it to support heavy items and reduce the speed of foam aging.
When making Hypnos’s neck armor I planned it to also be the attachment mechanism for his big blanket cape, so it needs to support a lot of weight. Plain foam would wrinkle and tear, but the Worbla understructure makes it strong enough to do this, and even helps enforce its shape too!
Materials:
⦁ Saran Wrap
⦁ Duct tape
⦁ 4 and 2 mm EVA foam
⦁ Worbla’s Black Art
⦁ Kwick Seal
⦁ Contact Cement
⦁ Hot Glue
⦁ PVA glue / PlastiDip + Filler Primer / foam primers
⦁ Rustoleum gold spray paint + gold/brown acrylic paints
⦁ Velcro closures
⦁ Magnets
Patterning:
To get the pattern for Hypnos’s neck armor, I started by covering a dress form in the saran wrap and duct tape. On the duct tape cover, I used a pen to draw on the shape of the neck armor including seam lines and potential spots for velcro/magnets to attach the blanket cape. In general I try to add seam lines in the areas where there’s a nonlinear curve in the silhouette (in this case, the shoulders, neck line, and front of the armor). It’s worth including that the flat neck section shown here was just a placeholder, since I will be using a much more shaped and articulated neck pattern I had modified from Evil Ted Smith.
After this I cut out the duct tape pattern and tried it on for a quick sanity check to make sure that it fits and is shaped generally how I want it.
Once the pattern is made, I then transferred it onto 4 mm EVA foam. Here you can also see the more articulated neck pattern I had mentioned previously. The neck and shoulder sections are separate to allow for a more pronounced transition from neck to shoulder.
Assembly:
With the pieces cut out, I then assembled the base of the armor using contact cement. The neck and shoulders are still separate, but after a test fit I marked where the transition line is for reference (seen as the silver pen line in the first image below).
At this point I secured the neck and the shoulder pieces together using hot glue and trimmed the excess foam overlap underneath.
Now that it was one unified piece, I sketched out potential placements for the detailing using a silver pen. Once I knew the positions, I cut out small strips of 2 mm eva foam and began laying them down on the armor using contact cement.
Now for creating the Worbla’s Black Art understructure! Since this armor was also going to be used as a support for Hypnos’s very heavy blanket cape and wings, plain unsupported foam would have torn, wrinkled, and put a lot of stress on the front of my neck. This was a good solution to all of those problems, resulting in an armor piece that let me use the priming methods I like for foam and had the durability of Worbla!
To make the understructure, I took the same duct tape pattern pieces I had used for the foam armor and traced them onto Worbla’s Black Art, making sure to cut around 1/4th of an inch smaller along the outer edges so it won’t poke out from the corners. I also added around ½ of an inch of extra length on the sides to allow all of the pieces to overlap. You may notice that I only added Worbla to the shoulder section, this is because the neck section won’t be used to support the blanket or wings, so it was fine to leave it as plain foam.
The Worbla’s Black Art was then heated and pressed onto the underside of the foam armor on the adhesive side, section by section with occasional dabs of hot glue to secure the Worbla extra tight to the foam. I also overlapped the Worbla pieces to solidify the structure. The back edges overlap/wrap slightly around the foam for added security.
I had concerns about the comfort of the edges and seams against my skin, but for the test fits I’d worn it for, I didn’t experience any poking or pain. However If you are worried about this, you can always add in an additional layer of felt, fleece, or other soft fabric as a comfort lining.
Priming and Painting:
With the structure done, it was time for priming and painting! I followed my go-to procedure for priming EVA foam with is as follows:
The gold I used for the color was 2 coats of Rust-oleum Metallic gold; I also included additional details such as contouring with a metallic gold/darker brown acrylic paint mix and used rhinestones to match the fancy energy the rest of the costume has.
Now that the base was made and the painting was done, I added in the attachments and closures. I glued the ropes directly onto the armor since the logistics of making it separate/attached to the cape ended up getting pretty cumbersome. It’s secured tightly with lots of hot glue on the edges and the area directly underneath the velcro patch to avoid it lifting up. There’s two squares of velcro and two magnets at the corners of the blanket to keep it in place, as well as a patch of velcro all along the back. The wings use two squares of velcro each on the shoulders.
To close the armor itself, there’s an additional small velcro strip along the back edge to keep it nice and tight, but because the shape is so molded it’s able to stay on and look fitted even if the velcro in the back doesn’t hook.
And that’s mostly that, folks! In summary, Hypnos’s neck armor was created first by using a duct tape neck armor pattern, then a main base of 4 mm EVA foam which was reinforced with Worbla’s Black Art underneath, primed and painted with fun details and secured with velcro and magnets.
And here’s the final costume! The neck armor did its job well and supported everything like a champ without the usual damage that occurs with EVA foam. It was also comfortable (albeit a little tricky to get on, haha)
I hope this was informative and useful! :^)
One of the most interesting builds we have seen in a while, we sponsored All Tomorrow’s Patterns (GillianConahan on IG) in this sewn armor build using Worbla’s Black Art, and shared the process with us! Take a look at this method, and see if it might help you in your next build!
Foam may be the most common support material to use with Worbla materials, but it’s far from the only option. I’m always looking for options that will retain Worbla’s most useful properties but add structure and strength as needed – especially those that won’t off-gas when heated, which can cause bubbles in your worbla in addition to being hazardous for your health.
For this armor I decided to try using the cotton canvas I’d already purchased for the base layer vest and harnesses. Although cotton can scorch at very high temperatures, it’s perfectly fine in the normal working range for Worbla’s Black Art, and it’s nicely crisp and easy to work with and doesn’t fray excessively. You can control fraying still further by zigzag stitching over the edges and/or running a line of water-based glue along each cut edge, working it into the fabric and allowing it to dry before you continue.
Since I was already adding fabric to the equation, I decided I’d go ahead and try sewing my armor together. It was even more effective than I would have hoped! Worbla’s Black Art is sticky enough to bond to the fabric while working, but still moves through the machine easily even when warm – so you can sew it while it’s soft and flexible. While stickier Worbla materials like Mesh Art are also theoretically sewable, they have to be worked while cool (or at least partially cooled) so they’ll be harder to manipulate into shaped seams.
Unlike foam and other materials that are typically held together with glues or the Worbla’s own adhesive, the fabric substrate retains its proportions and structure even when the Worbla is in its softened state, so it resists distortion and can be restored after crumpling or crushing. Also, by placing a solid object behind the fabric you can create a hard base that won’t squish or dent when you press on it with a sculpting tool, so it’s easier to smooth and sculpt as well.
MATERIALS:
The pauldrons are simple pieces shaped with darts, so they’re a great place to start. Create a rough version of the shape with tinfoil covered in masking tape, (01) then cut darts or seams into any curved areas until the piece can lie flat. The darts will be smoother and easier to sew if you curve them a little, so the transition at the point is as gentle as possible. Mock up your preliminary pattern in heavyweight non-woven craft interfacing, using a zigzag stitch to join the edges with no seam allowance required. (02) Refine the shape as needed, making sure that you know how you plan to join the layers. The lowest layer in my example is more fitted, with three short darts to round it around the shoulder. The middle layer has one long dart for a more gently curved shape, and the top tier has a seam down the middle. Each pair of tiers joins at two pivot points, front and back. (I was still thinking some things through, so I patterned the first two tiers and started the final version before going back and figuring out the top tier, but in other situations it might be more sensible to do them all at once.)
Once you’re happy with the pattern, cut your pattern pieces out of the canvas, omitting all seam allowances. Cut the same pieces out of Black Art, leaving about a half inch to fold in around the edges but cutting exactly at the edge of the fabric for any internal seams and darts. (03) Heat your Worbla’s Black Art and place the fabric, making sure it’s smooth and flat and evenly adhered. The Black Art isn’t very sticky, so you need to get it quite hot and press down firmly on a hard surface to prevent the layers from separating as you work with them.
Set your machine up with all-purpose thread and a zigzag stitch, about 1.5-2mm length and as wide as the stitch will go (6mm on my machine). I got good results with a universal needle, approximately size 14. A denim needle might help if you need more piercing power. Start sewing at the point end of the dart, making sure that the zigzag catches both sides and easing the sides of the dart together as you sew toward the open end. (04) You may find it easier to pull the dart closed if you soften the worbla before sewing, but you may also get some crumpling or buckling in the areas around the seam that you’ll need to correct afterward. The fabric helps the piece to retain its shape, so you don’t need to worry about stretching or distortion too much. (05)
After sewing, reheat the piece and press it on a smooth surface (I use a glass trivet) to bond the Black Art across the dart and also bury the stitches slightly so they’re easier to smooth over later. (06) You can leave the seam as is at this point and smooth the area when you prime the piece (the stitches absorb the first coat but disappear nicely after 2-3 coats of Flexbond) or use an additional strip of Black Art to cover and blend the seam. Trim the ‘hem’ to an even width and fold the edges in. Heat thoroughly and use a sculpting tool to blend the edges into the fabric lining so they stick. (07) If not adding a sculpted border, I also like to run a flat tool along the edge of the piece so it’s crisp and square.
To attach the pauldrons, I made a canvas cuff to go around my upper arm with a short length of elastic on the underside and an extension at the top to go through a small rectangular ring. (08) Once you have the cuff fitted to the correct size and length, join it to the inner layer of the pauldron with stitches or rivets. You may need to reheat the pauldron piece slightly to get it to move through the machine nicely, but then you can attach the strap with a simple back and forth straight stitch. For the multi-tiered pauldron, I used snap tabs looped through the rings to join the tiers, which allows for some movement and allows the pieces to be separated if necessary. Another snap tab joins the pauldron to the base vest. The back banners are attached to a spring clip that hooks onto a small D-ring on a strap riveted to the inside of the pauldron. (09)
The breastplate uses a similar but slightly more involved construction method. I developed the pattern from my personal block using flat drafting techniques, but you could also use a commercial pattern or the tape wrap method to get the necessary shapes. (10) Use heavyweight muslin or similar for the first mockup, then draw in any extra seams and construction details and transfer them back to the base pattern.
Since I planned to combine the Black Art breastplate with a leather and canvas base vest, I constructed the vest first to ensure the pieces would fit together correctly (11) and then mocked up the breastplate in more craft interfacing and made any necessary corrections. (12) When fitting a rigid breastplate, remember that the front chest measurement between the shoulders is important for mobility. If you make this area too wide, it will prevent you from moving your arms forward. If you look at historical breastplates, they usually cut in here for exactly that reason.
The breastplate design uses a three-piece cup set into a frame piece that goes almost all the way around. In this case, I decided it would be easiest to use a lapped construction to set the cup into the frame, so I added a 3/8″ seam allowance on the cup pieces only for both fabric and Black Art. As with the pauldrons, first stabilize the fabric pieces to prevent fraying. All edges without seam allowances get zigzagged and brushed with glue, and the edges with allowances were straight stitched along the seam line. You may also wish to trim these edges with pinking shears to soften the edge and make it less visible. Clip into the seam allowance up to just before the stitching line to allow it to flex. (Space the clips about 3/8″-1/2″ apart, using the pinked edge as a guide to keep them even.) (13)
Even sturdy fabrics like this canvas can be prone to stretching on the bias, especially along curves and narrow extensions like the lower part of the frame. These areas can be stabilized by stitching cotton twill tape along the edge where the cup will be inserted – zigzagging at the cut edge and straight stitching along the interior edge. (14) If your tape is 100% cotton, you can shape it around the curve by pressing and steaming it with an iron. If I was doing it again, I would have also stabilized all the outer edges of the piece in the same way.
Adhere the cups to their Black Art layer just as before. (15) Trim exactly to the cut edge along the internal seams, but you can leave a little extra along the frame edge to help with blending. Cut the Black Art for the frame piece as well, but don’t apply it to the canvas yet. The full breastplate gets a little large and unwieldy to maneuver through a domestic sewing machine, so the cups will be sewn into the canvas layer alone and the Black Art applied afterward.
Assemble the cups using the same method that was used for the darts, using a wide zigzag stitch with a short stitch length and easing the edges together from one end to the other. Heat and press on a hard surface to smooth and blend. Then, heat the outer edges and bend them outward a little so they’ll be flat and ready to go into the frame. (This is why the canvas edges needed to be clipped, since they don’t stretch the way the Black Art does. If you missed that step, just clip into both layers now.) (16) Transfer the placement line for the lapped seam to the outside of the cup by stitching along the seam line again, this time through all layers.
Get the edges of one cup piece nice and hot so they’ll stick to the canvas frame and hold it in place for stitching. Place the frame on top, making sure to match any construction marks and pressing down firmly. Place it in the machine with the cup to the left of the foot, so it doesn’t get in the way of the needle bar as you stitch, and zigzag flat all the way around the cup. (17) Repeat for the second cup, which may be somewhat harder to maneuver depending on the size of your breastplate and machine. You may need to soften the Black Art so it can be manipulated out of the way, then reheat to restore the shape afterward.
Once the cups have been inserted, you can apply the Black Art to the frame. (18) Fold the hem extensions in around the edges just like we did on the pauldrons. If you forgot to leave a hem allowance on any of the pieces, you can apply a separate strip of Black Art to the inside and blend it over the edge to join it.
The large breastplate piece will probably take some work to get smooth, since the cups will want to pull the piece into a body shape while gravity wants to pull everything flat. One solution might be to do this on a dress form, if you have one that will tolerate the heat well, or just heat and shape small sections at a time, shaping the piece over a hard ball or your knee to help get smooth curves. The canvas will tend to pull the piece smooth and take the shape that you’ve patterned in as long as everything is well supported and not sagging under gravity. (19)
Most of the breastplate does pretty well with the basic layers of canvas and Black Art, but I found that the ‘bridge’ area between the cups was particularly prone to buckling and wrinkling due to the contrast between the more rigid seam allowance and the flat fabric between. I added a small piece of Worbla’s Mesh Art to the inside to help fill and support this gap, as it’s stickier and sturdier than Black Art and thus perfect for reinforcement. I also blended strips of Black Art across the seams in the cups, to help smooth and add structure before I sculpted details on top. (20)
Choose your breastplate fasteners according to the type of support needed as well as the underlying structure. I used trouser hooks at the shoulders to take the main weight, and magnetic snaps at the underarms as an easy way to keep the plate from shifting around. The trouser hooks are the prong-back kind, with little teeth that pass through the fabric and worbla layers and clamp onto a support plate. (21) I usually stick a dime under the edge of the hook to prevent me from squishing it flat while I bend the teeth down with pliers. (22) The magnetic snaps (usually sold as purse clasps) are similar, but because the tabs are wider and rounded you’ll need to cut slits in the material to fit them through, so be careful to get the placement right on the first try. (23) After applying the fastener, you can conceal the back plate by blending another scrap of Black Art across it. (24)
For the lower corner of the breastplate I simply cut a hole that allows the side strap to snap through onto the base layer. (25) This works because these heavy-duty snaps have a certain amount of inherent thickness, but you need to be careful that your canvas and Black Art layers don’t exceed that thickness or they’ll interfere with the functioning of the snap.
This is a slightly eccentric detail of this armor, but I include it because it uses a third type of assembly that doesn’t appear elsewhere on the set. For this piece, both sides are visible, so the final piece has a ‘sandwich’ construction with Black Art on both sides.
The pattern for this piece was developed using the same method as the pauldrons, building up the shape with aluminum foil and masking tape and then cutting the pieces apart. I also made note of where it crossed the underlying harness straps, so that I would have a guide for adding attachments later. The components have different curves and join at an odd angle, (26) so they seemed like they would be difficult to ease together in a butted seam. The solution was to apply Black Art to one side of each piece, sew them together with a conventional seam, and then apply the other side of the ‘sandwich’ to cover the seam allowance.
When cutting out the fin pieces, include about a 3/8″ seam allowance on the canvas only. The Black Art does not extend into the seam, but it has a 1/2″ foldover allowance around the outer edges. Cut one pair of fins in canvas and two pairs in Black Art, and sew twill tape just inside the stitching line as described for the breastplate. Clip the seam allowances as necessary around any sharp curves. Apply Black Art to the outward-facing side of each piece, and zigzag stitch over the edge right along where the seam will be to keep it in place during assembly. (27)
When sewing Black Art face to Black Art face, make sure you place something between the layers so that they don’t bond together under the pressure of the foot. I used a strip of cotton bias tape, as it’s easy to manipulate along the seam line and can be peeled up once the Black Art is cool. (28)
It’s normal for one or both pieces to ripple as you’re easing two different curves together, but this can make the piece difficult to maneuver if it stiffens too much while you’re still sewing. You may need to stitch the seam in sections, reheating in between to keep the whole piece soft and workable. Make sure your tape barrier remains in position between any areas where the Black Art layers are in contact, but doesn’t cross the actual stitching line or you won’t be able to remove it. Overlap several stitches each time you stop and restart the seam to prevent it from unraveling. Afterward, make sure you neatly clip all your thread ends to keep them from getting fried by the heat. (29)
Fold the outer edges over, and blend them in as smoothly as possible as another layer of Black Art will be added on top. (30) The pieces get much more rigid once the other layer of is applied, so it’s a good idea to add any sewn-on hardware at this stage as well. I sewed in three snap tabs, one at the peak of the curve and one on either side where the armor piece lines up with the harness underneath. (31) The other half of the snap can be applied to the base harness once the shape and placement of the fin are finalized.
If you notice that the seam is taking a lot of stress in certain areas, or if you want a little extra reinforcement and rigidity, you can add a strip of Mesh Art across the seam line on the less visible side. You’ll be able to smooth it out some by blending the backing layer of Black Art across it, but the seam allowances still tend to create a bit of a lump that needs some work to look neat. Apply the second layer of Black Art and smooth all seams with a sculpting tool. You can trim off the foldover allowance for the second layer, or leave the excess material in order to sculpt a raised edge detail. (32)
Once the base forms are complete, you can go back and plan out your detailing. You can draw the design on your original pattern pieces, (33) or design directly on your assembled armor with a pencil (34) or by laying down a layer of masking tape to draw on. (The nice thing about this is that when you’re happy with the design, you can peel up the tape, cut out individual design elements, and stick them directly to another piece of Black Art as a guide for cutting.)
Preshape the sculpted elements as much as possible to avoid distorting the base pieces when you reheat to attach them. (Some sculpting in place will still be necessary as you will need to shape the detail pieces over a curved surface, but the more you can minimize it the better.) Spirals and swirls are easiest to create by starting with a plain strip, folding and rolling it into a snake, and then coiling it into the final shape. (35) For simpler leaf, scale, or petal shapes, it may be easiest to cut out the finished shape with scissors and then refine with sculpting tools. (36) For repeated elements of consistent size, like when you’re building a symmetrical design, I like to cut 1/4″ or 1/2″ strips of Black Art and snip off matching pieces in order to make sure that each component starts with the same amount of raw material.
I also like to finish my armor pieces with a sculpted border, which is usually a simple strip of Black Art cut to roughly twice the desired width and then folded in half lengthwise to give it more substance. I coil this strip into a spiral and heat until the whole thing is very flexible, then lightly warm the edge of the armor piece so it’s tacky and lay the whole border in place. From there it’s an incremental process of reheating and refining a few inches at a time to create your desired border shape, which can be rounded, square, beveled, or have more elaborate sculpted details as you prefer. (37)
I used the same fabric-backed method to construct the vambraces (38) and helmet (39). The small wings on the back of the costume were constructed similarly to the sword, (link to sword tutorial), with a cardboard base and a mix of Worbla products to assemble the structure and add sculpted details. They’re built around a wire core repurposed from a heavy-duty drapery hanger, which slides into a loop sewn to the back of the armor to attach. (40)
Because all the pieces go together with snap tabs and Chicago screws, the multi-tiered pauldrons and vambraces can be completely disassembled for paint. (41) The combination of fabric and one or two layers of Black Art remains fairly springy, so you will want a primer with some flexibility to avoid issues with cracking. I used Flexbond for most of these pieces, which can be smoothed with a soft wet brush between coats. For anything with exposed cardboard (like the wings,) use caution selecting primers and do a test to make sure you won’t cause warping or rippling, but good quality backing board or book board may be fine even with water-based primers like Flexbond. Most of the armor is painted with a light-bodied matte black acrylic, with gold metallic acrylic that I dulled down with some pewter to get a more subdued shade for the accents. The metallic is not entirely opaque, and I applied light coats over the black with a dry brush to give it a slightly weathered finish. (42)
Gillian also created the sword you see pictured using Worbla’s Black Art and cardstock – and shared the process to make your own! You can find that tutorial here: Cardboard Sword Build
We sponsored the wonderful CheeseCakePanda Cosplay for her Jeanne D’Arc costume from Fate Grand Order and the final build is amazing! She shared her progress with us and you can see just how she used Worbla and basic foam to create this build – and you can use the same techniques for your own armor! If you want to make this version of Jeanne, CheeseCakePanda is also offering the pattern on her Etsy here!
By Maker Fishmeal (also on YouTube and Facebook)
I like to use Worbla for my boots since it provides structure and stability on a piece of armor that has to withstand wear and tear. I also always make my boot armor removable so that I can wear my comfiest pair of boots! Here’s how I do it:
Pattern
Your first step is to pattern! For this project, I began with my basic boot armor pattern (which you can make yourself using the saran wrap and tape method). Building from there, I refined the shapes and did some additional saran wrap and taping to emulate the reference. Of course, all patterning is done on the actual shoes I’ll be wearing with the costume.
Foamsmith
Using your pattern, cut your pieces from 2mm foam and then contact cement them into shape. Using a rotary tool, round down the edges and sand the seams to get a cleaner Worbla application.
Worbla smith
Cut pieces of Worbla (I used Worbla’s Black Art for my project since it has a smooth texture) slightly larger than your foamsmithed pieces. Heat the Worbla and form it to your pieces. Fold the excess material to the underside of the foam to create clean edges.
Perfect the Worbla
You can reheat the Worbla to perfect your application (pop out dents, round edges etc.). You can also use a rotary tool to clean seams. Make sure that you shape your pieces to fit the contours of the shoes you’ll be wearing under the armor!
Seal
Use a foam brush to apply wood glue to the Worbla. The smoother your application the easier your smoothing and sanding will be later – you can tell from my drips that I didn’t do a great job…
Perfect your finish
Alternate sanding and filler primer until you’re happy with the surface of your armor. To correct my sloppy sealing I used sandpaper grits from 60 up to 400.
Paint and top coat
Paint to your taste! In this case I used rattle cans for color and Rust-Oleum Universal High-gloss Clear for the top coat, but acrylics, Mod Podge, airbrushing, etc. all work perfectly.
Strap
This step can be tricky – it’s time to strap your armor so that you can either put the armor on after you put on your shoes or put your shoes on your feet after the armor’s on the boots. I chose the latter, and used a combination of purse snaps, elastic, and Velcro to connect all of the pieces. I like to use elastic on my boots so that there’s flexibility to allow for comfortable walking.
And with that, you’re done! I use this strategy for almost every armor cosplay I make. I love that I can walk on them at a con or shoot and not worry about wearing through soft foam. Thank you for reading – I can’t wait to see what you make!
Vicious.Frockery recently built Nyx from Supergiant’s game of the year, Hades. She used Worbla’s Black Art and magnets to create a low profile attachment system, and shared her process with us!
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Approaching Nyx from Hades, I wanted to prioritize durability for storing her costume in limited space (like a suitcase for easy travel!) and prevent the build from becoming so heavy that it’s uncomfortable to wear. The first thing that popped into my head was foam clay and Worbla elements- but I’ve had bad luck with foam clay getting crushed/cracked in transport. The solution was Worbla’s Black Art for base pieces, and MAGNETS to attach delicate foam sculpts! Here is a tutorial on how to make her armor specifically, and how to incorporate magnets into low-profile projects that aren’t suited to foam.
Firstly, start your pattern. For Nyx, the elements of the chest piece come up around her neck, so I wanted to create a neck piece that leaves the “choker” part of her armor detached. Wearing a separate choker gives me a full range of motion and prevents me from feeling claustrophobic.
For any character with high-necked armor, I recommend using yourself or a mannequin (like this display mannequin) to check sizing and how close to the neck the armor will be. I patterned the vague shapes for Nyx with just plain drawing paper.
The X’s mark where I’ll use magnets to attach the sculpted foam pieces (more on that later). When making your own pattern, make sure to write labels on pieces and mark any attachments beforehand- this can be incredibly helpful down the line and speed up your production. I used a combination of duct tape and plain-old guess and check to create this pattern.
Use drawing paper to test fit and size all armor pieces. This can be a long process to get right, so be patient and make sure that you adjust size in order to be economical with your Worbla in the future!
After patterning, I traced most pieces that needed inner structure (pauldrons, crowns, arm bands) to 2MM craft foam. Trace ONE of each piece needed to foam.
Transfer these same patterns to Worbla with a little seam allowance. Trace TWO of each pattern piece to Worbla so that it creates a “sandwich” around the foam. I use two pencils taped together to get a consistent seam allowance around the pattern.
For striped details, I cut apart my paper patterns as I use them, and trace each section to Worbla. This is totally optional, but helps guide you in the future.
For the pieces that need to stay thin and compact, like the armor over the shoulders and chest, I decided to omit the foam core for strength and to prevent extra bulk. This chest piece is in three pieces: one for each shoulder, and one center “circle” that will serve as a base for a little foam skull.
Here I’ve traced one of my shoulders….
And my center circle. Be sure to transfer the X for your magnetic attachment to your Worbla- pencil lines can be erased later or painted over!
After tracing, cut out your designs. Then you can start heating up two pieces of Worbla, and carefully use your hands (I also used the assistance of a rolling pin) to sandwich the two pieces together. STOP when you get to the X.
When you reach the X in your pattern, it’s time to put in your magnetic attachment. Lift up one side of the soft Worbla Sandwich (Black Art is very good at peeling apart without damaging the final product, should you make a mistake) and put down your magnet.
Gently lay down the Worbla on top of the magnet, and heat up the top layer again. For this project I’m using cheap ceramic magnets from the home improvement store, but rare earth magnets would also work great. Once the Worbla is heated through, use your fingers to press around the magnet and seal it between the two layers, then let it completely cool before picking it up. It’s okay if it protrudes from the final a little bit- You can adjust your foam sculpt if you need to in order to get the perfect fit.
Now that the magnet is in place, go ahead and trim off your seam allowance. Use your heat gun to soften sections of the seam, and then cut with scissors, making sure to cut through BOTH layers of Worbla at once. The pressure from your scissors will seal the two layers of Worbla together and leave you with a beautiful clean edge. If you need to, working in small sections works best for me- the goal is not to start shaping JUST yet, but a little heat will make this process ten times faster and cleaner.
Do the same sandwich method for the remaining pieces of armor, using your hands or rolling pin to prevent bubbling and keep things even. Use scissors to trim off all seam allowance as close to the foam core as possible.
Since pauldrons can be rather difficult to shape over a form, I decided to make this moon-shaped pauldron out of two pieces, and use Black Art to join them in the center. Since Worbla’s Black Art is tacky but very smooth, it’s great for hiding seams.
Heat up the edges of your two pieces that you intend to join, and gently press them together with your fingertips, working in small sections at a time.
Do the same sandwich method for the remaining pieces of armor, using your hands or rolling pin to prevent bubbling and keep things even. Use scissors to trim off all seam allowance as close to the foam core as possible.
Since pauldrons can be rather difficult to shape over a form, I decided to make this moon-shaped pauldron out of two pieces, and use Black Art to join them in the center. Since Worbla’s Black Art is tacky but very smooth, it’s great for hiding seams.
Heat up the edges of your two pieces that you intend to join, and gently press them together with your fingertips, working in small sections at a time.
In order to hide the seams further, simply use a little more heat and your fingertips to blend the two armor pieces together, being careful not to over-heat the foam and lose your shape.
To create details on top of all my armor pieces, I used all my scrap Worbla and formed it into snakes with my heat gun and hands, being careful not to over- or under-heat the thermoplastic. Since Black Art is already so smooth, it didn’t need much working to create smooth details. If you want your snakes to behave more like smoothed clay, use a piece of 2mm foam on your fingers to roll the clay and flatten the texture. I do all my heating on top of a piece of tin foil since it’s nonstick and can help with keeping things smooth as well.
Back to the chestpiece, I used my pattern to arrange my details before translating them to the final. Since this is a symmetrical design, I wanted to be as careful as possible and make sure everything lines up before attaching the final.
Piece by piece, heat up your pre-assembled sculpts and attach them to the chest/shoulders, sculpting as you go. Keep your work as flat as possible to keep things symmetrical, and check in with your pattern often.
I did the same for the crown, adding a piped edge with the same “snake” technique. Continue building layers of texture to flat pieces until you’re totally happy!
From here, start shaping your pieces. It’s good practice to use your mannequin (or yourself) to check in with other pieces as you shape them- Here, I’ve shaped the shoulder over myself, let it cool, and then checked it on my mannequin with the pauldron and necklace
Once one side is shaped, go ahead and translate to the other side. It’s easy to re-heat sections and make sure that they are even once the initial shape is done!
To connect these two, I held my center magnet (“connector piece”) in the middle and traced any overlap with a pencil. The idea is to make sure that there is plenty of surface area for the worbla to adhere to.
Then, heat up the center piece and attach it, following your pencil lines-
And reinforce the join in the back with scrap pieces of Worbla. The inside of this doesn’t matter much, but extra surface area means a stronger bond.
In order to join the necklace and the rest of the armor, I added a 1” strip of worbla around the neck, curving it with my fingers away from my neck slightly. This step is optional.
Next, it’s time to paint! You can seal your Worbla with 2 layers of wood glue. I used a 60/40 glue-to-water mix and did about 2 coats. Black Art is already smooth, so it needed much less working time than traditional Worbla.
Two coats of wood glue plus one coat of gold spray paint
To weather and bring out the detail, use dark values and a dry brush to rub paint into any recesses. I used a gold/black acrylic mix, and a slightly damp paper towel to wipe away any excess.
In between sculpting and paint steps, I sculpted my skulls. These are 1” balls of tin foil, resin cast gems, and Foam-Mo Foam Clay. The foam clay takes about 2 days to dry, but can easily house magnets in the back as shown below. Make sure that you remove magnets after sculpting in order to let the clay completely dry. They can be glued back in when everything is good and cured (shown).
Once painted, use hot glue or contact cement to re-anchor your magnets.
Now that everything is painted, foam pieces can be easily removed, adjusted, and stored separate from the hard parts!
Try everything on as needed, and adjust your attachments before finalizing them. Pauldrons for this build are easily detached with snaps, as shown.
Attach the snaps to the base using strips of twill tape (I used a woven twill ribbon in matching Greek key print, for fun). Hot glue around the edges will help your attachments stay anchored and prevent the edges from catching on anything.
And that’s it! Go forth, and wear your magnetic armor with confidence!
Avera Cosplay shared this amazing tutorial with us showing her technique for creating a beautiful stained glass effect using Worbla’s TranspArt – shown above with her Mercy Sugar Plum Fairy costume from Overwatch, photographed above by Tonya Barnes Photography
If you’ve wanted to create a stained glass effect and haven’t been sure where to start, take a look at Avera’s process below! She walks us through the process of making a Beauty and the Beast shield for an armored Belle build!
Step 1: Make Your Pattern
Find or create your pattern. Two options: find an image that is already stained glass or find a simple design you can alter to create the stained-glass appearance. Coloring Book pages are a good source for simple images and designs that can be easily turned into stained glass. Just make sure that your lines are relatively thick. If the foam is very thin, the gel stain could bleed, also it is not as sturdy. Cut out the parts of the pattern that will be the glass using an exacto knife.
Step 2: EVA Foam
The foam will act as your pattern and to give structure to the worbla. Transfer the pattern to both 2mm and 4mm eva foam and using an exacto knife cut out the pattern. The 2mm will be the front of the glass and the thicker foam will be the back. Heat seal the foam by using a heat gun.
Step 3: Flatten the Transparent Worbla
Transparent Worbla usually comes in rolls so you will need to heat it up to get it flat. Get all the wrinkles out. Transparent worbla will stick to itself so make sure it does not touch itself heated. Trace the base shape of the object and cut it out with scissors.
Step 4: Mod Podge
Apply a generous layer of mod podge to the worbla. You do not have to let it dry. Place the 2mm top layer on the top of the worbla and add more Mod podge. This will glue to the top layer to the worbla, but it will dry clear. In addition, it helps absorb the gel stain, and seals the 2mm foam for painting. Let this layer dry. If there are gaps between the foam and worbla that heat and mod podge is not solving, you can use super glue to make sure that the foam and worbla are connected. If there is a gap the colors will bleed into each other.
Step 5: Unicorn Spit
Unicorn Spit is a gel-based stain. There are a few different formulas. I use the sparkle version here, which is thinner and more transparent than standard formulas. Mod Podge is what will keep the spit stuck to the worbla and it also helps the spit dry translucent. For the Sparkle Version of Unicorn Spit: mix unicorn spit to mod podge in a 70:30 ratio, that will help to increase opacity and speed up drying time. If you use other formulas of Unicorn Spit, you will have to have mix with more mod podge to get the translucent effect at least 50:50. Do not apply it thicker than the foam, or it will spill over. You can mix colors directly in the cell to add depth and shading. You can also mix colors and mod podge first and apply. I use squeeze bottles to apply, just squeezing the spit in a circular motion. You can also play with the ratios of mod podge to get different levels of opacity.
Step 6 LET IT DRY
It is going to take a while, depending on how thick it was applied. Do not touch it, do not fix it, let it do its thing. It may appear like it is “pulling” away from the edge, or that it is getting bubbles. It is ok. Glass is not perfect, let it dry. It may look like it is losing its color, it is not. Once it is sealed it will be vibrant again. Right now, the stain is attached to the mod podge for the most part. If you mess with it, it will peel. It may take up to 48 hours to dry completely. If you must add a dab or two after it is dried to any mistakes.
Step 7: Assemble the Back
Using the thicker foam, follow the same steps as the 2mm, treated it with the heat gun and then seal it with mod podge. You will want to use super glue, in small dots around each part of the design to attach the foam to the back side of the worbla.
Optional Step: Details and Decorations
I added more details to the Shield, this is not necessarily specific to the stained-glass effect and may or may not be relevant to your project.
Using contact cement added as glue an additional boarder to the 4mm foam back. I drew a wood grain pattern and wood burned the pattern into the foam. I made the strap from 2mm foam and the handle from 4mm foam. The rivets on the front and back are painted googly eyes. I created foam flowers and filigrees by pressing foam clay in silicone cake molds. I put the molds in the freezer for 15 min to help them form quickly and dry faster. All these details were sealed with mod podge.
Step 8: Paint the EVA Foam and Any Details
Using a black acrylic paint, you will want to go over the black foam on the stained glass. This will clean it up a bit if there was any spit that spilled over. Pro-tip: use black foam it will minimize painting. I used a gilding wax for the base layer of gold. Then I used unicorn spit artistic vivations in Zeus to help the details pop.
Step 9: Seal with Polyurethane.
Unicorn spit is water based, if you use an acrylic sealer or anything water based it will reactivate it. You must use an oil-based sealer. Polyurethane will give it a gloss that helps the glass effect. Sealing it will bring the colors back to life as well as protect the shield from peeling or cracking. You can also use epoxy or lacquer on the spit depending on the project and how flexible you need it to be.
Enjoy! I have made bunny ears, wings and armor parts using the technique, so it is truly versatile.
(Belle photographed by Tonya Barnes Photography )
Danielle DeNicola used Worbla to create this amazing armor design based on Mushu from Disney’s Mulan. She shared her process with us in these videos, showing the steps to build your own custom armor with Worbla!
Bracers using Black Art and Pearly Scales
Shin Guards using Black Art and Pearly Scales
Breastplates can be a daunting task, but AllieCat Cosplay created this tutorial in partnership with Cosplaysupplies showing how she created her fantastic breastplate for her Camilla build, using Worbla and Foam. You can use this process to build your own Camilla armor, or a similar character’s design. Take a look at the steps below!
Make a Tape Pattern over your body and cut directly down the middle and back (getting assistance so as to not cut yourself upon removal).
Cut out breast cup making dart-notches so the pattern lays completely flat
Transfer to 1/4 inch L200 foam and glue together at seams. Start with notches first then merge middle seam.
Transfer stomach portion to 1/4 inch L200 foam and glue down the middle making sure they line up.
Connect back portions to the front panel and it will start to take shape on its own.
Wrapping corset around pillows, put torso of breastplate on top and heat with a heat gun, slightly pulling the foam towards the back and waiting for the foam to cool. It will hold a curved shape after cooling.
Attach Breast cups to torso portion. At the bottom where the armor lip is, score the line with an exacto knife making sure to not cut all the way through.
Pinch the L200 foam where you scored it and heat with a heat gun. Hold in place until it has cooled.
Add details using the original pattern as a stencil with sheets of 2mm craft foam and contact cement.
Wrap bodice around pillow for support and slowly but carefully heat a large sheet of Black Worbla from the middle to the outside making sure not to rip the sheet.
Prime with 4-5 layers of woodglue and prime with grey spray primer.
Paint with matte black and gold/white details with metallic paints so that they pop in photos.
The breastplate will be seamless and strong to wear in battle!
Need to make armor for your shoes? AllieCat Cosplay created this tutorial in partnership with Cosplaysupplies showing how she created her armored shoes in her Camilla build. It’s a straightforward process that you can do easily with eva foam and Worbla. Take a look at the steps below!
Step 1: Start with a comfortable shoe.
Cover the shoe with plastic wrap (cling film) and then tape to mark your pattern onto.
Step 2: Pattern
Using a marker, draw out your details, then carefully cut your pattern apart. Transfer pattern pieces to 2mm foam, creating a ½ inch lip to connect pieces together.
Step 3: Shape
Cover shoe with towel and heat shape 2mm foam pieces to the curvature of the shoe, then glue foam armor pieces together at the ½ inch lip.
Step 4: Worbla
Heat Black Worbla and cover the armor pieces completely. Press your layer details in with a sculpting tool and trim the excess. Use Worbla scraps to create rivet details.
Step 5: Attaching
Use 2 inch wide elastic and glue to the bottom of the armor near the arch of the foot. This will be the strap to keep the armor on.
Step 6: Paint!
Prime the Black Worbla with 4-5 layers of wood glue, then paint and seal. (Worbla.com note: you can also use other methods for priming, check out our guide here!)
And you’re done!
Thanks to AllieCat Cosplay for this tutorial! Photo credit for the last image goes to Lafeetz Photography.
The fantastic ThermoCosplay used Worbla’s Kobracast Art for her amazing Yojimbo costume, and shared a complete breakdown with us on her process from armor to sewing to painting and details! It’s such a hugs writeup we broke it down into two parts! You can find part 1 here.
This page covers
6: Capelet
7: Skirts
8: Belt and Bandages
9: Armor Attachment and Getting Dressed
10: Testing Fit and Appearance and Final Thoughts
For the capelet I wanted some structure underneath for support. I created a purple bolero. I used an old button up shirt as my pattern but you can follow THIS TUTORIAL for more on how to sew a bolero. You could also just buy a purple shirt and cut/alter it to become a bolero following THIS METHOD.
For the capelet itself I folded a 1.5 yard of fabric length wise and sewed down the middle. Then I folded it width wise and sewed the edges together (be sure the fabric is inside out). I left a small opening so I could flip it so the outside ombre was visible and I sewed up the little hole.
Next I sewed and glue the capelet to the bolero collar area, leaving some room for the gold design work that I created from scraps of vinyl trim.
After wearing this once (and getting professional photographs) I DID NOT like how vibrant the color was. I mean, Yojimbo is ANCIENT and he lives in a CAVE. So, I laid the capelet on a tarp outside and proceeded to spray horizontal lines across in different colors. I started with a light, glittering gold then moved on to a deep red, next was a deep purple and finally I used the gold again to blend the lines and edges.
The paint needed 12 hours to dry but once it settled NO GLITTER ESCAPED. That was AMAZING because glitter is scary to work with. Finally, I added bias tape to the collar and installed a snap at the hollow of my neck seam so I could easily remove the garment.
Ok, this looks SUPER intimidating but it wasn’t THAT hard. It’s just A LOT of measuring and A LOT of clipping/pinning.
Outer Skirt
1. Go to THIS SITE and calculate a circle skirt. The over skirt is a FULL LENGTH circle skirt. That means you MUST get fabric that is 60″ or wider or you won’t have the proper length. If you can’t find wider fabric then be prepared to add fabric to the bottom (which you have to do with this design anyways as the bottom is red).
2. You will need to create a Maxi length circle skirt in both the purple satin and red stretch (red is the lining and trim/bottom while purple is the outside).
3. Clip the waist of both together so the red is inside and the purple outside. Cut a line down the front center then pin your skirt to your dress form OR yourself (be careful).
4. Create pleats at the back so the front opening widens.
5. Take off the skirt and create the bottom trim (Mine is 4 inches tall)
6. Clip/pin the trim to the bottom and sew (DO NOT SEW THE WAIST YET)
7. Once you have the bottom and front side sewn, flip the fabric inside out so your seams are hidden.
8. Sew the waist by folding the fabric in and using a straight stitch at the top (this also sews your pleats in)
Inner Skirt
1. Create a 1/2 circle skirt using the metallic burgundy fabric and the purple polyester
2. Sew the bottom and edges together (leaving the front and waist open)
3. Sew bias tape everywhere except the waist (red bias)
Waist Belt
1. Using the remaining metallic burgundy fabric, create a waist band 4 inches tall by whatever your waist length is + 3″.
2. Pin/Clip the inner skirt to the waist band and sew it on (do not start at the edge, you need 1.5″ on either side available in the front)
3. Pin/Clip the Outer skirt to the waist band and sew it on (ditto)
4. Where the excess 1.5″ on either side is sew on velcro. (under side for one flap and outer side for other flap)
5. Try on your skirt using velcro to keep it on
Underskirt
1. Measure your hips and draw a straight line on the fabric that matches that measurement
2. Make sure the skirt is as long as the over skirt (to your feet)
3. Cut out long rectangle
4. Hem bottom
5. Apply blue bias to front sides
6. Use velcro to create wrap around skirt style (should be big enough if you matched your hip measurements)
Final Details
1. Add gold Trim to outer skirt front edges using gold vinyl
2. Add small details using gold vinyl to inner skirt
3. Spray fabric with metallic gold tulip glitter spray
Bandages / Waist
For the waist “bandages” I took a full yard of 4 way stretch nude spandex and made sure the width matched my waist measurement. I folded the fabric in half and sewed along all edges except where the two ends were to meet. I flipped the fabric inside out (so there were no raw edges) and sewed the two opposing sides together. When sewing I pulled the fabric taught so it would create pleating when I slid it onto the dress form. Essentially you are creating a tube with your folded over fabric.
Since the bandages are meant to look bloodied and old I used the Fabric Paint Textile Medium mixed 1:1 with acrylic paints. I watered down the fabric paint so I could layer the color and “soot” texture on the fabric. Once it was painted I allowed it to dry for 24 hours before machine washing it so it was soft when worn.
Crotch Cover Thing
For the front flap thing (I really don’t know what to call this…it’s not really a Sporran although it resembles one) I took .5 a yard of fabric and doubled it up (so I would not have to sew lining, the back WAS the lining). Next I drew a oblong shape and cut it out. I added some fabric interfacing to the top then sewed all sides except the top. I flipped the fabric inside out (so the interfacing was now inside) and used bias tape to seal the top.
Next I drew the swirly patterns onto some Siserweed iron on vinly in gold and cut them out. I carefully laid the patterns onto the fabric and ironed them on (be sure to use parchment paper on top of the iron on vinyl as direct contact with an iron can melt it). Once ironed on I added details with a purple sharpie and put velcro on the back.
To attach the “sporran” to the “bandages” I used spare Double Fold Wide Bias Tape in red and wrapped it around my waist twice. At the front I added velcro so everything could secure together
Armor Attachment
This is fairly easy. For the Pauldrons I used Nylon Belt Webbing and attached a 3 inch long strip to either side of the bolero shoulder under the capelet. Then I cut a small slit in the capelet on each shoulder and slid the webbing through. I glued on some velcro to the webbing and also added velcro to the Pauldron. Please see the 30 second video explaining how I did this for visuals or check out the image above.
Getting Dressed
This outfit includes the following parts…
1. Hat
2. Wig
3. Hair Accessories (just clip in)
4. 2 Pauldrons
5. Bolero with attached capelet
6. Two Fingerless Yellow Opera Gloves
7. Tank top with attached Breast Plate
8. Breast Form
9. Waist “bandages”
10. Waist Belt Sporran Thing
11. Over Skirt with attached inner skirt
12. Under Skirt
13. Blue Opaque Tights
14. Geta
15. One Sword
Please watch the video above showing how I attach/wear all of these pieces.
I met my goal of completing this costume by March of 2019 however; after have professional photos taken of it I realized it was missing that Final Fantasy Grunge. So I made the following modifications between March and May of 2019…
1. I added MORE shading to the skirts. I even painted the INSIDE of them.
2. I painted the waist bandages as they were too plain.
3. I added MORE COLOR to the hat and increased the magnet count for stability.
4. I created a scabbard for my sword using scrap fabric and foam.
5. I painted the capelet with a more dingy gradient.
6. I changed the sealant on the pauldrons to Gloss Mod Podge after the Plasti-Dip Glossifier failed.
7. I changed my tights to blue from black for more color.
8. I changed my face makeup (and still plan on adding more detail the next go around).
9. I re-styled the wig and raised the bun up higher so the hat had a better tilt when I tipped my head down.
10. I added a waist pouch.
These improvements made moving around in this costume easier, increased my love for its design and truly met the vision I had in my head.
Final thoughts? Well…I WANT TO WEAR IT AGAIN.
It was a TERRIFIC costume. I decided to NEVER WEAR GETA again. They broke while I was competing and I BARELY avoided face planting in front of hundreds of people. I have platform Geta inspired sandals that are MUCH safer that I will stick to.
I also want to add MORE White and Orange to my face paint. I want to mimic Yojimbo’s mask from the game.
I also want to meet MORE Final Fantasy cosplayers.
Honestly…ALL positives. I learned lessons but they were worth. I also cannot stress enough how WONDERFUL COSPLAYSUPPLIES is. Seriously, go give them some love :)
Feel free to ask questions and happy creating!
Professional Photos taken by Kincart Photography and Zar Photo.
Worbla.com is working with Element Creations for her Princess Zelda build, and she shared her first tutorial with us on creating Zelda’s iconic shoulder pauldrons out of Worbla’s Black and Red Art.
The first piece I decided to make for Zelda from Hyrule Warriors is the shoulder armor set. It took around half a Large sheet of worbla, some craft foam, and red worbla for the pauldron detailing.
I started with making the pauldrons. Those have a pretty basic shape, but they do represent a challenge when it comes to adding details and merge them all together to get a seamless look.
The way I did it is rather simple. I used craft foam as a base, then cut the desired shape. You can do that with your own pauldron for any other costumes. It’s always the same patterns, but with a little bit of tweaking.
I did used the sandwich method on these pieces because I want the to be extra solid and I also added some extra support. The pauldron comes in two craft foam pieces in order to get the curved look at the shoulder seam. I merge those two sandwiched pieces together and there was my Pauldron base!
Then the fun but most tedious part! The detailing was very fun and I had the chance to play with red worbla. I did use a tri bead roller to make the square cut on the details, then I placed them together on the pauldron trying to be the most accurate possible.
Zelda’s shoulder armor also have a sculpted detail right on the inside edge. I used red worbla, heated a bunch of it, then sculpted by hand the shape. This took a very long time to get it smooth and perfect and also, to make it look seamless.
The process for Zelda’s shoulder armor is pretty easy, but it takes a lot of time. It’s just a matter of having the desired shape and adding your sculpted details on top.
For the centre chest piece, I used the same process. I drafted it in craft foam, I sandwiched it, then added the details. I did use black worbla on this one. I wanted to test the versatility of the two and how both of them looks primed and painted.
The painting process was quite easy. I primed the whole armor with Mod Podge (one of my fav primers for black and red worbla), then I painted it all black, and used my favorite gold acrylic paint. To achieve the gradient/used look on the armor, I used a fluffy brush, and I slowly dabbled into the armor to gradually add paint and make a gradient effect. Without touching the inner corners, adding the gold gradually makes it looks like the armor is old and used. It’s a really fun process!
I added the gems at the end with some sewing thread.
Adding white highlights is optional for these pieces or any golden armor pieces. I did add them myself because I think it gives a cool look. And since Zelda is cartooned in Hyrule Warriors, I wanted it to pop out.
We worked with Kimchi4U Cosplay & Props recently to create a tutorial for how he created this innovative way of attaching his Mordred (Fate/Apocrypha) armor. Take a look!
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In partnership with Cosplay Supplies I was able to make a full armor build for Mordred from the anime Fate Apocrypha.
This is a tutorial for a type of mounting system I have not yet seen before in other cosplay builds. Since I was making most of the armor out of worbla, I knew that I would be needing something substantially durable for fixing parts of the armor to my body.
Seeing as I have not yet seen this before in other projects, I am going to call it the Punch/Stud method. This method of mounting systems uses the expansion of your body to keep armor parts on your person by friction.
The Punch/Stud method is comprised of 2 parts of armor having holes punched into once piece, and studs made of worbla on the other. The sandwich method for both pieces would probably be ideal as this mounting depends on having both pieces of armor fairly resistant to forces in order to perform as intended.
The two pieces of armor is encased around a part of the body and the studs are fitted through the punched holes to lock in place. It should be a fairly tight fit, and if this is done your body trying to expand back into place from the compression will secure your armor in place.
I punched the holes in the armor pieces by taking a power drill to it with a bit intended for putting holes in wood. The studs were made with scrap pieces of worbla and fixed to the surface of the armor. Both stud and punch holes were reheated and smoothed over.
Make sure to do lots of test fits before finalizing the location of the studs. Otherwise you may end up with armor that is either too small or too big to securely fit onto your person.
Mordred on the official art does not show having studs on parts of her armor. I took some creative liberties in order to use this method of mounting by accepting that I would not be able to hide the hole and stud and placed them in areas where it would make sense.
This method was used to fix my chest/back pieces and calf/shin pieces to my body. Its a method of mounting that is deceptively simple, but also depends on being custom fitted to your body to remain effective.
Pros:
– does not take up a lot of space in order to work
– very secure and durable way of mounting armor
– simple in technique. not very complicated to pull off
Cons:
– substantial changes in body dimensions may result in armor no longer fitting as intended
– visible on the finished product. there is no real way of hiding the fact that this exists on your armor. there is a visible hole and a stud protruding (best to use in areas where it makes sense for the armor to have studs or rivets)
– requires sturdy materials. using this with foam alone will probably result in a fit that is not as secure
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Thanks again to Kimchi4U Cosplay & Props for sharing this technique with us!
We contacted Termina Cosplay to create a tutorial with the new Worbla’s Pearly Art, and she shared how she made this bikini styled breastplate armor with negative details. Take a look at her tutorial below!
Materials/Tools
Heat Gun
Clay Tools
Worbla (I use Worbla’s Pearly Art)
Craft Foam
Scissors
Pencil
Resin Gem (optional)
Large Styrofoam Ball
Masking Tape
Plastic Wrap
Step 1: Prepare Foam Ball
To make the cups for this breastplate, I use a styrofoam ball.
To start, cut the ball in half and wrap it in masking tape. Covering the ball with masking tape will keep the Worbla from sticking to it and keep the heat from the heat gun from melting it.
Step 2: Make the Cups
To make the cups, cut out two pieces of Worbla big enough to cover the ball. Heat those pieces up and stick them together to make a double layer thick sheet.
Step 3: Connect the Cups
To connect the cups, I used a resin cast gem as the center and connected the two sides with a setting.
Make the setting, start by taking your gem and pressing it into a double layer thick piece of Worbla.
Then, make a “noodle” out of Worbla by taking a long, flat piece, heating it up, and rolling it up from one side. Once it is the thickness you want, cut the excess off, heat it up again, and roll it to seal the edge.
You can also reinforce the back with a strip of Worbla if you want to make sure it doesn’t come apart.
It may not fit correctly right after attaching everything together, so to shape it, heat up ONLY the center and fit it directly to your body while it cools. If you heat up more than just the center, your risk warping the cups out of shape, so be careful!
Step 4: Add Details
To make the details, we’re going to use more Worbla noodles! Start with the edges and carefully add on the noodles using your heat gun. Be sure not to heat the cups so much that they warp out of shape! I little heat goes a long way.
To do any details on the inside, you’ll need to make a pattern to ensure both sides will be symmetrical. Cover the inside area with masking tape again and draw your pattern. A pencil is best for this part because it makes it easy to transfer the pattern.
To transfer the lines to the other side, carefully take the masking tape pattern off, flip it inside out, and transfer the lines by drawing over the back so that the pencil lines transfer onto the Worbla. Remember, pen or marker lines will not transfer this way, so be sure to use a pencil!
Then, make more Worbla noodles and add them on with your heat gun following the lines.
You can also add cut out details using your noodles. While the noodle is still warm and flexible, heat up the area on the breastplate you want to attach it to. Then, press one end on and shape it to fit how you want! Be sure to heat up the other end before attaching it on.
Once that noodle has cooled and is in place, you can add more, smaller pieces to connect it to the rest of the breastplate, making some really cool cut out designs in the process! Just cut your noodle piece to fit, heat the area you want to attach it to, and press it on! to strengthen the bond, add a small flat strip of Worbla to the back!
Side panels will give your breastplate more structure and help it fit better. To make them, start by making a pattern for the shape and size. You’ll want it to fit along the outside edges and wrap around your body a bit.
Once you’re happy with the size and fit, transfer the pattern onto craft foam. Cut two pieces so you have one for each side.
Then, cover each one with Worbla. Cut a piece of Worbla a bit bigger than your foam piece, heat it up over one side of the foam, and then wrap the edges over to the back. Seal up the edges and cut off the extra Worbla on the corners that form after folding!
Last, You can add a bit of detail to the side panels to match the rest of the breastplate.
Step 6: Add D Rings
For the last step, we add D rings. D rings make it easy to add straps on, so they’re very useful!
To add them on, take a small strip of Worbla, heat it up, put it through the ring, fold it onto itself, and then press it onto the inside of the breastplate. Be sure to heat the spot on the breastplate as well to ensure maximum hold!
As the arrows below indicate, add D rings to the side panels and to the tops of the cups. This way you’ll be able to attach straps over the shoulders and around the back.
After that, all that is left to do is finish it with some primer and paint. There are many different ways you can do this, so do a bit of research and choose the way that’s best for you!
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Thanks again to Termina Cosplay for sharing this tutorial with us!
We reached out to Cowbuttcrunchies Cosplay to test the new Worbla’s Pearly Art and let us know their thoughts. They shared this review and tutorial with us and it’s a great breakdown of some of the differences of Pearly and how it handles compared to other Worbla products!
Worbla has recently added a new plastic to their lineup! Pearly Art is a smooth, light-colored plastic that claims great smoothness and stretchability. I was really excited to give this a try since it sounded like a smoother version of Black Worbla, but I was surprised to find that the plastic actually handles very differently. Pearly Art is available in Europe and North America at Cosplay Supplies, and will run you $91 for a Jumbo sided sheet.
Heating
Heating Pearly Art was the biggest surprise for me, and the part that it took the longest to get used to. Unlike Black Worbla or Worbla’s finest, Pearly Art does not activate with its telltale “sheen” that indicates that it’s warm enough to mold (or rather, the white color makes this very difficult to see if it does). Pearly Art also activates very quickly and at a lower temperature, which meant that more than once I was sitting there waiting for it to activate, not realizing that this had already long since happened. The other surprising bit is that Pearly Art de-activates and hardens far faster than any other Worbla line except maybe transpArt – within a minute your plastic will be back to its hardened state. If you’re an impatient person like me who likes to heat an entire strip edge or armor piece, then work the entire thing into place over the course of a few minutes, you’re going to need to re-think your plan of attack because this is simply impossible. Instead, Pearly Art forces you to work with a portion at a time – when applying a raised edge to my breastplate, I needed to re-heat it twice before reaching the end.
The method I eventually settled on was to heat the entire piece to start and then begin sandwiching my edges. After making it a little bit around the piece, I’d re-heat just the next spot, sandwich more, and continue until finished. Try not to blast the entire piece with more heat in order to avoid off-gassing from your foam.
A lower activation temperature also means that this plastic does not always require heatproof gloves when working with it.
Stickiness and Stretchability
The confusing conundrum of Pearly Art is that it doesn’t “look” sticky because of the lack of shine, but it definitely is! Once heated, I found that sandwiched edges bonded to both itself and to Worbla’s Finest just fine, with about the same amount of stick as Black Art. This plastic does not have the same bananas level of stick as Mesh Art or even highly heated Worbla’s Finest – I was able to separate two pieces of heated Pearly Art without warping. However this trick only works if your pieces have not been pressed into each other; once bonded you will not be able to separate your plastic without ripping. I quite enjoyed how sticky Pearly Art becomes with a much smaller amount of heat when compared to the other worbla lines. While the stick itself is not anything to call home about, it does not require that the plastic be as hot, which means it’s easier to attach things and to avoid air bubbles from off-gassing foam.
Personally I did not find Pearly Art to be particularly stretchier than Black Art – however take that with a grain of salt as other folks have had great success with the stretchiness. One of the first things I did was rip right through my Pearly Art top layer, while reinforcing my heated sandwich edges with a clay tool – something that has not ever happened to me with Black Worbla. So be mindful when working with this plastic when its activated: the tearability and stretchability seems to vary wildly depending on how hot it is, which could explain the mixed results.
Smoothness and Detail Work
This is where Pearly Art really shines – the final texture is even smoother than Black Art. This means that your pieces will require less priming, especially when little warping or stretching needs to be done. For pieces that are ‘overworked’ by either folding the plastic into itself, stretching, or sculpting to create 3D objects, you will notice that – like Black Worbla – the plastic does tend to texturize and will require more priming than usual. Below are the basic breastplate componants I made in the following detailing tutorial, with unprimed Pearly Art and Finest Art pieces:
And below is the detailed breastplate after one layer of paint primer. underneath the paint I used two layers of flexbond over the Pearly Art portions, and three layers of flexbond over the curved Finest Art portions, which still has a rougher texture:
Pearly Art is also excellent for detail work such as 3d sculping, and noticably better for this sort of detail than even Black Art. Black Art is great for sculping as it can be molded but retains a firm hand so your item does not collapse. However details look better with Pearl Art in part because of the texture, but also because that moldable phase begins at a far lower temperature than it does with Black Worbla. This means that it’s not only easier to heat and mold your pieces, but you can even use your bare hands if you’re so inclined. Pearly Art also does not have the tendency to stick to everything once it’s in this phase, which helps with cutting and small detail movement:
Pearly Art also takes the cake when using a silicone mold to shape your plastic. I’ve tried molding black art before and I don’t really like it – like all worbla it takes on a rough texture once overworked into the clay-like phase, so any details get overshadowed by this rough texture. It’s also not great at picking up detail because of that grain. Pearly Art avoids both of these unless you have severely overworked your plastic.
This is great if you need to make many repetitive items like in my walkthrough below, so read on for detailed instructions!
For a sewing-themed breastplate, I decided to add several identical needles on top of my armor. Rather than mold each of these by hand (time consuming) or use resin (difficult to get the right curve and also time consuming), I tried instead molding my Pearly Art, using a silicone mold of that needle shape. This worked far, far better than my attempts with Black Art, and while it did not capture quite as much smoothness as one would if working with Deco Art, the final needle turned out to be sturdier and could be later touched up and bent into shape, unlike Deco Art which can warp under re-added heat.
Necessary Tools:
Worbla Pearly Art
Silicone or metal mold
Heat Gun
An important component for this is your mold, which can be either something you cast yourself, or a pre-purchased silicone mold that you can find in craft baking stores. In this case we had already made a mold of a needle-shaped button out of Smooth-On’s Moldstar silicone. When choosing your mold, be sure that this is composed of silicone or metal, NOT plastic. While Pearly Art does not have the wildly sticky properties of Mesh Worbla, you still run the risk of accidentally bonding your Pearly Art to the mold’s plastic if you press too hard or heat it too much.
1) Begin by heating up a piece of Pearly Art or plastic scraps until you can mush them together into a plastic ball. Remember that Pearly Art reaches that floppy, moldable stage very quickly and will not gain a glossy seen. Try not to over-heat the plastic in order to keep the texture minimal.
2) Stretch the plastic into the approximate shape of your mold – Pearly Art loses heat amazingly quickly and so you really only have a max of maybe 20 seconds to sculpt.
3) Squish the Pearly Art down into the mold, pressing pretty firmly until everything’s flat on top. Allow to cool for a few seconds, then pull it out.
4) It’d be pretty difficult to pull a perfect mold since you’re basically shoving the plastic in with your thumb – even with resin you’re often left with a little bit of excess from where the material overflowed from the mold itself. If you have a lot of this overflow, you can trim it off with scissors. Properly estimating how much plastic you need in your mold helps a lot, as does trimming off large amounts of excess with scissors. However for a small amount of spillover, re-heat the needle with just a small amount of heat from your heatgun until it is soft enough to press but not so floppy that it completely loses its shape. Using your finger, pat down any excess down until the edges are smooth.
5) Set aside and allow to fully harden.
If you don’t like how your cast turned out, just re-heat your plastic and mold it again! Pearly Art is completely recyclable and may be re-heated over and over again.
6) Heat the underside of your finished needles slightly, and heat the area of your armor. Remember, only a small amount of heat is required! Position your needle and press down firmly to bond.
Prime your armor and paint as desired!
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Thanks again to Cowbuttcrunchies Cosplay for this excellent writeup and tutorial!
We asked Rhoulette Cosplay to create a tutorial for us using Black Worbla, and she shared this great build of a decorated gorget that uses items to create detailed relief designs!
One of the biggest concerns cosplayers have with shaping thermoplastics to foam is the risk of creating air bubbles. This is especially likely to occur when covering large surface areas. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how you can circumvent this problem while also adding a little flair to your piece! I’ll be demonstrating this with a gorget I bedazzled with Black Worbla.
Materials:
• Black Worbla
• 2mm craft foam
• Scissors (preferably an old pair you don’t mind using on Worbla; I recommend not using
fabric scissors!)
• Sewing pins
• Heat gun
• Contact cement (or hot glue if you prefer to use that to adhere foam)
• A respirator (if you plan to use contact cement)
• A heat-resistant surface (like a workshop table—preferably nothing plastic to avoid warping from the heat gun)
• A foam-tip brush (if you plan to use contact cement)
• Oddly-shaped accessories or small knick knacks (such as an intricately-designed hair clip, detailed buttons, seasonal decorations, etc.)
• A pattern (see below)
• A sharp blade (such as an X-ACTO knife)
• A cutting mat (do not aim your heat gun at your mat or it will warp!)
• A marker for tracing (silver usually works best)
Step 1:
It’s important to have a baseline of what you want to create to avoid wasting precious materials on a foundation you’re unhappy with. I used a page out of Kamui Cosplay’s Female Armor Pattern Collection to pattern my gorget. Alternatively, you can quickly whip you your own (but may need a friend):
1) Cover your neck, upper torso, and shoulders with clear wrap.
2) Cut out small pieces of duct or masking tape.
3) Place these pieces all over the clear wrap section that you’d like to pattern.
4) Ask a friend to help you draw out the lines in Sharpie for your pattern. Alternatively, you can also use a mirror to accomplish this.
5) Carefully ask your friend cut it down the middle and remove from your body (if you feel unsafe at any point, consider patterning off of a mannequin and adjusting to your neck measurements),
6) Cut the pattern into pieces and lay it onto paper or card-stock.
7) Trace onto paper or card-stock and cut it out.
8) You have a gorget pattern! :D If you prefer to watch a demonstration of this, check out Kamui’s Cosplay video here.
Step 2:
Make any adjustments to your pattern by drawing on outer details. I opted to work with the base of Kamui’s pattern and build on top of it. Cut out your pattern with a pair of scissors. You can also use an X-ACTO blade on a cutting mat if you find this is easier.
Step 3:
Lay the pattern on your 2mm craft foam and pin down the edges with sewing pins. Since I keep my foam rolled up during storage, this ensures the pattern doesn’t shift around a lot while the foam curls. I also recommend marking your pattern pieces prior to cutting to ensure you don’t lose track of them. I find it very helpful to have arrows pointing with the corresponding numbers to where the other pieces attach.
Step 4:
Trace the pattern with a marker. A silver Sharpie shows up best on black foam while darker colors show up best on white. Remove the pins and pattern from your foam. Lay the pinned pattern and craft foam duo onto your cutting mat. Use a sharp blade to slowly cut out the foam. Alternatively, you can use scissors if they’re not too dull.
Step 5:
Flip your gorget pattern and repeat steps 3 and 4. Since foam doesn’t have a “grain” like fabric does, you can turn it in any direction to make the most out of your material and be economical. : ) Now that you have the necessary pieces, tape them together and see how it feels on yourself or a mannequin. Draw on any adjustments, and cut off the excess foam. Less is more—it’s best to make many small adjustments instead of accidentally hacking off too much. To ensure the adjustments are symmetrical, draw and cut out on one side, flip it onto the other piece of foam, trace, and cut!
Step 6:
Don your respirator with sass, because it’s gluing time! I find that contact cement creates the strongest and cleanest seams with foam, and you don’t need very much! However, if you’re worried about toxic fumes or are on a crunch, you can use hot glue. Please do not work with contact system without a respirator or a well-ventilated work area! Along the seam where you intend to join the pieces of foam, coat both sides in a light layer of contact cement with your foam-tip brush. You can speed up the curing process by turning your heat gun on low and evenly heating both sides until it looks tacky. This typically only takes a few seconds. Alternatively, you can use a glue gun with hot glue.
Step 7:
Line up the top or bottom edge of the seams and gently press them together. If you feel it’s uneven, you can quickly undo some parts of the seam and re-attach before the glue dries. Once you’re satisfied, press the seams together firmly and wipe off any excess glue. If the glue dries in lumps that you’re afraid will show through the Worbla, use a Dremel to smooth out the seam.
Step 8:
Lay your piece out on your Black Worbla and trace with a silver Sharpie, leaving an inch to an inch and a half around the perimeter of your foam. Cut it out with a pair of scissors.
Step 9:
Take your fun knick knacks and lay them flat in whatever way you please! I found these decorative keys on sale at my local craft store for less than a buck! Ideally, find something that can parallel nicely with the shape of your piece. You don’t want anything too bulgy or else you may have to recut your Worbla.
Step 10:
Use low heat to slowly warm up either side of your Worbla piece. In my case, once the Worbla was warm (not hot) and semi-soft (not floppy), I laid it over my gorget with my keys, sticky side (shiny side) facing the foam. I worked from top to bottom, using one hand to adjust the keys (in case they moved) while pressing the Worbla down with the other. Don’t worry if the Worbla catches the shape of the accessory when it’s out of place—you can simply reheat and reshape once it’s in the right spot!
Step 11:
Once you’re happy with the position, continue to heat the Worbla over the foam gorget and accessory. Press around the accessory until a bubble mold is made from it, avoiding to touch the Worbla immediately in case it is too hot. Reheat and continue pressing as desired until the optimum detail is achieved
Step 12:
Wait for the Worbla to fully cool until it has returned to its hardened state. Flip the piece and carefully begin to slide your hand between the foam and the Worbla. As you apply slow and even force, the foam should break free from the Worbla without tearing. Pop out the accessory with your nails, a sewing pin, or simply press gently from the other side.
Step 13:
You did it! You made a fancy bubble! Carefully reheat the Worbla on low heat around the edges, avoiding the area where you detailed with the accessory. Wrap the Worbla around the edges of the foam and press down. If seams are overlapping, you can snip away excess chunks with scissors, quickly reheat, and press down to get a clean finish on the other side. I prefer not to Worbla both sides of my piece, because it allows the pieces to be more flexible, and it saves on material.
Step 14:
If you find that your piece lost it’s shape, you can reheat around the bubble design and reshape it to yourself or the mannequin (ensure it is not too hot before putting it on your neck directly!). I use pins to hold up my piece on my mannequin while I shape it across the collar-bone region.
Step 15:
Time to decorate! You can now freely use your additional knick knacks to make fun indentations and shapes! In the following pictures, I shaped the Worbla over fine details on an old, metal hair clip. You can cut out these details with sharp scissors or a hot knife. Be careful to test the hot knife on a piece of scrap Worbla, so you can get used to how quickly it slices through it. This ensures you don’t ruin a detailed piece you’ve been working hard on!
To attach it to my main piece, I simply heated the area of my gorget I planned to decorate as well as the back of my detailed Worbla, and I pressed them gently together. I applied even pressure as it cooled to cement the fine detail from the Worbla “mold”. I found discount buttons at my local craft store as well as some mismatched ones in an old cookie tin to emboss fine details into my Worbla. I discovered that waiting until the Worbla cooled also made it easier to remove the accessories. I was able to use this method to cut out tiny roses and filigrees to add intricate detail to my piece.
Step 16:
For strapping, I decided to create loops on the ends from which I eventually plan to braid multi-colored ribbons! This is a great time to gather up all that scrap Worbla! Heat up your pile with even, low heat until it begins to stick together. Knead the pile without burning yourself until it becomes one. If you have one big chunk, I’ve found that cutting it into smaller segments makes it easier to heat and work with. Once the smaller chunk is pliable, press down wth your palms and roll it back and forth into a little Worbla string. Roll outwards with even pressure to make the string longer and thinner. If it becomes too thin, simply fold it back onto itself, reheat, and reshape! I made one long, thin string of Worbla, cut it into even pieces, heated up the ends, and looped them onto the back of the gorget. I held each one in place as it cooled to ensure it didn’t flop and cool in an undesirable angle.
I hope you found this tutorial helpful in overcoming air bubble issues when working with thermoplastics. So many fun shapes can be molded with Black Worbla as it is incredibly flexible, strong, and adhesive! : )
Jak Cosplay has created this great tutorial on making the armor bra cups that Digimon’s Angewoman sports. This tutorial would also be great for many other designs, including Ariel from the Little Mermaid. Take a look below!
The always talented Fawnina recently shared the build log for her Warrior Rapidash costume, which was part of a Fire Pokemon Gajinka group at Katsucon. Take a look at her fantastic costume and video below!
Photo by Theorem Productions
We’re often asked about classes and in-depth tutorials that guide from the conception to the completion. While we happily support panels and workshops, those are limited: if you aren’t in an area where workshops take place, you don’t have a lot of other options.
That’s why we’re happy to share that Instructables new paid premium content, called Classes, features a fantastic series of lessons on building your own Superhero costume from concept to finished product – including fantastic lessons on Foam, Worbla and Paint along the way! And for the next month several classes are being offered for free!
The Superhero Class, by Mikaela Holmes, covers the entire Superhero process.
Lessons 1-3 cover creating your own superhero, as well as patterning and building a spandex bodysuit.
Lesson 4 introduces you to EVA foam and gives a full breakdown on how to work with it
Lesson 5 is a complete introduction to Worbla, including different patterning and shaping methods and the creation of a Worbla helmet.
Lesson 6 is a through guide to priming both EVA foam and Worbla, and a fantastic primer on paints and finishes.
Lesson 7 brings everything together as one full piece.
Lessons 5 is one of the most complete I have seen for working with Worbla, with clear photos, video, and step-by-step instructions the whole way. Lesson 6 is likewise a fantastic breakdown on both priming but also paints and pigments – and lesson 4 is especially handy if you will be working with foam as well! If you’ve been searching for a complete guide in one place, I highly suggest you check the class out.
Below are excerpts from the Superheroes Class. If you want to see for yourself, check it out here!
Worbla is simply incredible material for costumes and prop making because it combines ease of sculpting with quick hardening and unbelievable durability. If you have much experience making things, you’ll understand the significance of this for the creative process. While making things out of Worbla certainly requires some planning, it also allows for a kind of creative spontaneity that you usually only get from materials like clay, but you don’t have to fire it or wait a lot time for it to dry! In short, I’m in love with Worbla, and by the end of this lesson I’m willing to bet you will be too :)
In this lesson we’ll talk about the different kinds of Worbla, then I show you how to use it to build costume pieces by combining it with foam, heating, and sculpting.
So we’ve constructed the form of our costume accessories, now we have to define their identities with color! Before we get to the painting part we have to make sure the surfaces of our pieces are prepared, which can be a fairly time consuming process. The process of finishing Worbla is a crucial step that will define the look of your pieces. If you want to create something that looks like a very realistic piece of armor, or some other specific material, finishing can really make or break the look of your costume. I am a bit impatient, and more interested in creating interesting original designs than trying to emulate something that already exists, so I usually don’t spend an immense amount of time on finishing techniques. In this lesson I’ll introduce you to some of the most common ways to finish Worbla, then show you some of my favorite materials and techniques for painting.
Jessica Nigri shared this video covering some of her amazing Deathwing build with us. Photo by David Ngo
The incredibly talented 9Flame Creations created this League of Legends Orianna Costume with Worbla, foam, resin, and lots of time!
Here are two videos she shared with us, on the process of making the hovering skirt, as well as Orianna’s Ball, below:
Dirili had a great way of skipping the tape-pattern method and heat-worry for armor making for your BJD’s, and explains how to make a plaster double as a first step to your armor process!
This tutorial example is done using a bjd. If you are doing this on a plastic or vinyl doll, you don’t necessarily have to make a casting of the body part that you’re working on. You can form it directly on the doll since plastic and vinyl are not as sensitive to heat as resin is. Resin can discolor or weaken if exposed to too much heat. If you do not need to create a form, you can skip steps 1-3, although you may still want to do steps 1 and 2 to make sure the thermoplastic does not stick to the doll and/or to create some padding under your armor piece so that the armor will fit over clothing.
A few months ago I discovered Worbla, a thermoplastic with some amazing crafting capabilities! Comes in sheets, you can heat it and shape it and when it cools it hardens back up again. It also adheres to itself when in it’s heated state. There’s already some tutorials about the basics of using the material that are worth looking at, but since we’re working on a smaller scale for dolls we generally don’t have to worry about foam layers or doubling up so much.
Wonderflex is similar, but not quite as easy to work with. It has a mesh backing so it doesn’t stretch well and it doesn’t adhere to itself as well as worbla does. But it does have it’s uses.
What I’m going to write in this thread are some tips about things specific to working with worbla on dolls since dolls don’t have squishy flesh that can fit into rigid shapes.
If you want to try this process my way, you’ll need:
paper
pencil
paper masking tape
worbla
Wonderflex
plastic wrap
small scissors
pourable plaster
white elmer’s glue
heat gun
hot knife
paint primer
paints and/or spray paints
spray lacquer or varnish
felt
paint brushes
small cardboard box
some packing materials
My first fairly successful attempt (2nd attempt overall) a few more pics of it further down in the thread:
Here was my first semi-successful attempt which taught me a lot about what not to do:
I learned from that first attempt that you can’t use a cotton stuffed duct tape dress form because it doesn’t hold the doll’s shape EXACTLY. Since worbla is solid, any bumps inside it will keep it from fitting on your doll properly so you need an exact shape of your doll’s body to for your pieces on. You don’t want to form thermoplastic directly on your doll since it involves heat and a bit of adhesive. It’s not super hot since you’re handling it with your hands, but still, I hesitate to form thermoplastic directly on resin just in case.
The 2nd thing I had tried was filling the duct tape form with resin, but even though the taped form was tight, it still deformed when filled with the liquid resin
3d try took a few steps and succeeded! So here’s what I did:
Step 1:
Wrap your doll in plastic wrap. Just a single layer because you don’t want to bulk things up. You’re actually sort of making a cast of the torso.
Step 2:
Use small pieces of paper masking tape to make as smooth a cover all over the torso as you can. You use small pieces so that there aren’t wrinkles, particularly around curves and small details and crevices.
Step 3:
Veeery carefully cut the wrap up both sides of the torso and the tops of the shoulders so that it can be removed as a front and back piece. But DON’T remove it yet.
Step 4:
Measure and cut pieces of Wonderflex to form over the tape, doesn’t matter if you do the front or back first, but remember to maintain the seams at the sides. Use more masking tape on the edges of the Wonderflex at the sides to make sure that your front and back templates do not stick to each other. You want to make sure that you form it as close and tight as possible.
Wonderflex is good for this step because it’s just strong enough to hold it’s shape while still fitting in the details.
Step 5
You should now be able to remove the front and back torso templates and have something like this:
If the tape and plastic wrap came apart from the Wonderflex, that’s ok, because it should still be in the same shape and be able to be pressed back into the Wonderflex “mold”.
Step 6
Smooth out the insides of your mold pieces a bit. If there are some pieces of plastic that are a bit too puffy or wrinkled and sticking out, you can use some light heat to shrivel and remove it. don’t use too much heat because you don’t want the mold to soften and deform. If needed, use more paper tape inside.
Step 7
Put the 2 sides of the mold together, tape the sides up on the outsides, no need to worry about the inside. Cover the neck hole and the arm holes, leaving the bottom open. To make sure that the mold halves stay together tight, you can either use rubber bands, or wrap more tape all the way around the mold at the shoulders, waist and at the hem.
Step 8
Set the mold upside down with the open bottom up in the air, inside a small box and set packing material around it to ensure that it will stay in place and not fall over.
Step 9
Mix the plaster. Since plaster can be pretty crumbly, I add elmer’s glue to the mix, about 1 part glue for 3 parts plaster should make it a bit more solid. Pour into the mold and wait for it to harden. The Elmer’s glue will likely make the plaster take longer to harden than the directions of the plaster will say. If it’s a plaster that hardens quickly, it is likely a heat curing plaster, so you want to make sure that you let it cool completely before demolding if you want to preserve your mold pieces in case you want to or might need them in the future.
Step 10
Remove the extra tape and demold. Now you should have a nice facsimile of your doll’s torso! Just use an exacto blade to trim the seams off the sides and the shoulders and you’re ready to form some perfectly fitting pieces on it! I used some putty to round out around the nipples a bit because I didn’t want the armor to have pointy nipples built into it -_-
Now for the fun stuff.
Step 11
create your base pattern pieces on paper to make sure that they will fit right on your form before you cut your worbla. The worbla has some elasticity, but it’s fairly thin, so you don’t want to stretch it TOO much. You can press some wrinkles down too, but that’s not always easy either if it’s bunched up too much, so cutting proper patterns is key to making good fitting pieces.
Step 12
tape your pattern to the worbla and cut the pieces.
Step 13
Use your heat gun, to heat one piece at a time and form them on the plaster torso. Careful not to heat it too much and burn yourself. Worbla sticks to itself VERY easily, so you have to be careful not to let it touch itself accidentally if you don’t want it to stick. You can use various tools to press any edges together. I have some sculpting tools with flat edges that I use to press things.
Step 14
Now that you have your base shape, you can cut the shapes for your 2nd layer details and press them on top of that. Both surfaces have to be heated to stick properly. I like to use a hot knife and hoover it over the place where the piece is being added, and then heat the piece and press it down. You CANNOT put the details on BEFORE the initial forming because the edges where the thicker details join the thinner layer become weak points and when you try to stretch, it will stretch at those weak points and tear. If it needs to be pressed, it will wrinkle and be difficult if not impossible to smooth back out again. A hot knife is really great for smoothing out things and working on small details.
Step 15
Prime the pieces to make them smooth for painting. I like Rustoleum’s Painter’s Touch 2x coverage primer: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BWORRW/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. You will need several layers of this. Follow the directions and add as many layers as you feel you need. You can sand between priming sprays if you like.
Unfortunately on the piece that I’m working on, I tried out a different Rustoleum primer that I thought was similar enough to the one I had been using, but apparently it’s not! Because it cracked like crazy! T_T I had to try to sand it out some which is crazy difficult in such crevices. I just hope it’s salvagable and the new primer will cover it well:
Step 16
After this point, it really all depends on how you want to go about it. I like to use automobile spray paints because I want a finish kind of like Iron Man’s armor. I think it’s easiest to first spray the whole thing the color that your raised details will be. I would wait at least a day to make sure that it was completely dry and then use masking tape to cover those raised details so that you can paint or spray paint the recesses whatever color you choose. I feel that masking the raised details is easier than masking the recesses and I think that it comes off easier that way as well. But that could be subjective.
Step 17
Sealing, you could use various materials, laquer, laquer spray, matte finishes, whatever is compatible with the painting materials you used. Again, wait at least a day to try to make sure the finish is hard enough for you to handle it in the next step without finger prints getting pressed into it.
Step 18
Line the inside with felt. You can use various types of adhesives to stick the felt to the inside of your piece. I used hot glue on my first piece, but I was a litttle worried about any little deformations happening so I think I may try a spray adhesive with the piece I’m working on if I can get it to focus in the right area properly.
And you’re done! Here’s a few bad pics of my piece:
—–
Thanks again to Dirili for sharing this with us!
OwlDepot shared with us this breakdown of how she made her Muron(Myron) Alexis armor. Click the images for larger sizes.
Kamui Cosplay’s progress video of her Dark Valkyrie Diana from League of Legends, sponsored by Riot.
Axceleration created this great video series documenting her work with Worbla for a Justice League Hawkgirl costume.
Part 1: Armor
Part 2: Painting
Part 3: Distressing
You can find more of Kellax Production’s videos on her Axceleration
With thanks to Electric Olivia for creating this.