Amanda from Elemental Photography and Design created this crystal headband using Worbla’s Crystal Art, and shared the process of creating it below!
Step one was to make a mold – you could skip this step and shape the crystals by hand, but I thought this would be an easier way of getting more uniform sizes through the design in less time. I sculpted some crystal positives from Sculpy, baked them, then used the Amaze Mold putty to create this simple mold.
Next up – heat up your pellets inside a silicone container (I like using a silicone cupcake liner or an egg poacher) and when they’re heated, blend the pellets into a putty until there are no individual pellets to be seen, then press into the mold and let cool.
Always wear gloves when working with Crystal Art! You can speed up the cooling process by dunking the whole mold into cold water, or placing it into a freezer.
Next I made the headband base. The headband I had was just a skinny thing from the dollar store, and I needed enough space on the headband to give me something to glue the crystals onto. I created a sort of half moon shaped base out of card stock, and then hot glued it onto the band for support.
You could make your headband itself from Worbla’s Finest Art for something custom sized. The band with the cardstock glued down
I wrapped the band with some silk scraps, gluing them down along the top of the band so I had a platform to sit the crystals onto. I also decided what flowers I’d be adding, and trimmed some of the Crystal Art shapes into sharper points.
Then you just have to hot glue the Crystal Art onto the headband, then cover the base with some flowers to keep everything neat!
And you’re done! You can also color your crystals using pigments when you’re heating them, but I liked the clear crystal effect this time around.
First step is to sketch out the shape you want on to paper. I’m using painters paper here.
Next, I cut out the shape and pinned it to two layers of pink insulation foam that I glued together.
With a utility knife (snap blade) I cut out and shaped the foam. Once it’s roughly cut, I sanded it down for a smoother shape.
Now to create the horn pattern! I covered the foam in duct tape and used a sharpie to draw the pattern.
And don’t forget to draw registration marks which will help with assembling the horns later on.
With a blade, I cut the tape and flattened out the pattern onto 1/4 inch L200 foam. Make sure to mark registration lines as well.
Cut out foam with a sharpened blade
With contact cement, glue foam pattern back together, using the registration marks as a guide to make sure the pieces line up correctly.
Repeat steps to create the second horn!
Next, I attached the horns to a simple headband with contact cement and used a wood burning tool to burn in the details.
I cut 4 horn-like shaped pieces out of insulation foam and sanded them smooth. I then covered them in black worbla, attached them to the headband and used the wood burning tool again to create texture.
I then sketched the ears/fins. I cut this out and traced it onto L200 twice.
I cut out those pieces along with 2 separate pieces that will be the detail on the top of the ear.
I used contact cement to glue the ridge on top and then used a dremel to smooth out the edges and create the shape I wanted.
Just like the ears/fins, I repeated the same process for this shape that will be glued to the front of the crown. I also marked where the gems and lights will eventually go.
I again used contact cement to attach all pieces to the headband.
Next is sealing! I covered the entire piece in 3 thick layers of Plasti Dip, making sure each layer was dry before spraying the next.
Now we’re onto lights! I bought fairy lights online, these work out perfectly for this kind of project. I punched a hole through the center of the headband and strung the wire through. I also re-punched holes where I previously marked on the front of the crown. I made sure to push an individual bulb through each one of the holes. The rest of the lights were glued down to the headband with hot glue.
Gems! Crystals! I wanted to make super organic looking crystals for the crown and I used Worbla Crystal Art to do this!
Since I wanted rougher and more organic looking crystals, I tested out a few methods and this was the easiest way by far! I laid out the Crystal Art on wax paper, folded it over and used a heat gun to heat up and melt the worbla pieces together. This helps keep all the little worbla pellets in one spot so they aren’t blowing all over the place. I used clay sculpting tools to mush the worbla together until I had a lump in a size I wanted. Next I let the worbla cool for a minute and used scissors to cut down the sides. The result is a crystal shape with as many sides and angles you want. I repeated this 25-30 times, creating crystals that were different shapes and sizes.
This is the final result of what the crystal will look like with a light source!
I used a silicone mold that I bought to make the smaller gems for the front of the crown. I heated up a small amount of Crystal Art, placed it into the mold while still hot and used wax paper to press the worbla into the mold. Let cool in the mold.
Once the worbla is cooled, you can take it out. Now all that’s left for this is to color the gem. I used a pink marker and colored the back of the gem. You can use markers, watered down paint or nail polish to do this with whatever color you need. The last step is to glue these gems and all the crystals we made to the crown.
This was the final result after attaching everything to the crown with hot glue. AND LIGHTS. The only other small detail I added was a thin trim around each gem on the front. I just took small pieces of black worbla, heated it up, rolled it into a thin shape and wrapped it around each gem.
The last thing to do is paint! Sticking with Saragosa’s color palette, this is my final result for the headpiece. I used simple acrylic paint to do this. Laid down base colors and weathering to achieve the desired look.
In this tutorial we’ll be creating a crown primarily using Black Worbla and transpART, inspired by My Little Pony’s Princess Celestia! This sun-themed headpiece involves several components and has been broken into several parts for easy reading: 1) the base crown and sculpture motifs 2) the sun “halo, 3) painting and priming, 4) semi-transparent sunbursts, and finally 5) the horn. Keep reading to create your own crown! Since Celestia is the matriarch of the My Little Pony World who seems to have been raising the sun for just about forever, I wanted to go with a regal, sun-themed crown filled with baroque-like horse sculptures. Of course your own crown can deviate from this design as much as you’d like – however to follow this tutorial exactly, you will need the following materials:
Primary materials:
1 medium sheet black worbla
1 medium sheet transpART
37 wooden BBQ skewers
Brown spray paint primer
iDye Poly yellow and iDye Poly orange or red
Amaco Brush and Leaf antique gold paint (or other gold paint)
Flexbond (or other worbla primer)
Black and brown acrylic paint
Pearl EX powder in pink gold and gold
Testors clear lacquer or other sealer
Additional tools:
Heat gun
Paintbrushes
Clay sculpting tools
Scissors and/or tin snips
Several sheets of poster board for drafting
Masking tape
A pen or sharpie
Sandpaper (I used 100 grit but anything somewhat rough is fine)
Thermal gloves (optional but highly recommended!)
1 pair rare earth magnets (optional)
The design I chose for Celestia is heavily sun-influenced, and also involves many baroque-styled “sculptures” for a regal look. However no matter how you decorate your crown, you will want to begin with a solid base. 1) Begin by drafting a test version of your tiara from poster board to gage the size and fit. Don’t forget to fit this template on top of your wig, since it will alter the size of your head!
2) Trace your draft onto your worbla and cut out a worbla version of the base. If you are heavily decorating in motifs, a single layer of worbla should be fine, but if gaps will be showing you may wish to double up your worbla for strength. Cut the side edges into a raggedy, flame-like pattern, and pinch each flame slightly to give it additional dimension. 3) Trace a second worbla draft, but leave this at half the height. Cut the entire top into a flame pattern, pinching these like in step 2. With the worbla still heated, lay it over your larger base piece, matching the bottom edges together. 4) Heat the entire piece very lightly and bend it into shape to fit your head, over your wig. Hold in shape until it cools. With your base out of the way, it’s time to move on to creating the decorative sculptures.
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To construct a 3D, “sculptured” relief: 1) Don your heat proof gloves, heat a pile of worbla scraps with your heat gun, and then kneed them together to create one solid, very thick piece. If your worbla is at a hot enough temperature, you should easily be able to kneed the worbla like playdough to smooth out any folded lines. You do not necessarily have to use a piece this thick, but I wanted more of a sculptural look to my crown, rather than a flat one. Also, the thicker your worbla is, the more freedom you will have to press lines and add dimension later. Sketch the largest “base” part of your sculpture and trace this onto the worbla – for me this was the head and body of my horse. Heat your worbla slightly and then cut your shape – making the worbla pliable will really help with any tight curves.
2) Use a sculpting tool and trace along any hard lines. Try pressing down with the tool or your finger on one side of the line to add even more dimension (for instance, giving a “pop” to my horse head above). While still heated, prod any raw, jagged edges with your fingers to smooth them out.
3) Take a new piece of doubled or tripled kneaded worbla, and cut out any additional pieces for your relief. For my horse, this included strands of hair, legs, and wing base. Heat up the tip of your new piece where it will connect to the larger base and press them together to form a bond. If possible, heat the base piece as well for a stronger hold. Once connected, mold or sculpt your top piece into your position.
4) For more complex shapes like wings, continue to repeat step 3 to build each new layer on top of the last. Here I added a second and third layer of feathers to the wings. Allow the entire piece to cool. Check out the below graphic for some examples of how to make the various sculptures I used in my crown:
To construct a 2D, “flat” relief:
1) Cut two piece of worbla, heat, and press together. Sketch your design and trace it onto your double thick worbla piece. Heat it slightly and then cut the shape out, smoothing out any jagged edges with your fingers before it’s cool.
2) Re-heat the top of your worbla slightly and use a sculpting tool to gently carve out any decorative lines.
3) If you have a complicated shape like my large sun design, repeat steps 1 and 2 to cut out any smaller shapes that should be positioned on top of your base. Heat both pieces and then lightly press the smaller shape over the base to bond them together. Allow them to cool. Once all of your reliefs are sculpted, it’s time to attach them to your tiara!
1) Heat the area of your tiara where you plan on attaching your first sculptures. Simultaneously, heat the back of your relief. Don’t overdo it or you may lose the relief’s fine details – most of the heat can be focused on the tiara itself.
2) Press the relief into the tiara. If layering sculptures, press in your first relief, add a little more heat, then press in the relief that is positioned over it. Remember, go slow and heat up one crown area at a time to prevent bending the base too much. 3) Once all of your sculptures are attached, test the fit of your crown again. If it’s lost its shape slightly, heat the back of your crown and hold the crown against your head in the right position until it’s cooled.
We’re going to cheat a little by using BBQ skewers for the Madonna-halo tines. While technically possible to use worbla, I found it fairly difficult to get a straight, thin enough shape. Just be aware that wood /is/ breakable so be gentle, and if sturdiness is a concern, consider coating your skewers in a thin layer of resin.
1) Place the crown on your head over your wig and measure from back tip to back tip, over the top of your head.
2) Heat a piece of black worbla, and quadruple fold it together. You can also just mash a bunch of scraps into a thicker piece. Cut it to measure the length of your head measurement by about ¾ths an inch wide. Heat this piece slightly and then – with the worbla touching the edges of your crown – lay it against the curve of your head. Allow to cool and you should now have the shape of your tine base.
3) Take your skewers, and using your scissors/tin snips, snip a few millimeters off the pointed tip. Sand this tip with a few strokes of sandpaper until it’s still pointed, but blunt enough to rub your thumb over. This step may seem irrelevant, but it’s important to reduce accidental snags and pulls, since a super-sharp skewer tends to catch on any nearby fabric or wigs.
4) Measure your skewers and cut 32 of them to 6″ including the point. Cut the remaining 5 to 7.75″. 5) I found it easiest to arrange the tines when I had a template to go off of. Trace your tine base onto a sliver of cardboard. Begin laying your tines in a radial circle out from that base outline. You can arrange these however you’d like, but I personally liked spacing the big tines out 2″ from each other, with five smaller tines in between. To save yourself a lot of headache, tape each tine down to your workspace, avoiding taping over the template.
6) Lay your curved base over a fresh piece of worbla and trace the shape. Widen the width slightly so that you’re left with a semicircle that’s around an inch thick. Repeat this a second time and cut both semicircular shapes out. Eventually these two pieces will form a stability layer that keeps the tines tightly in place and clamped to the flat base.
7) Heat your first semicircle and then fold the bottom half upward so that the worbla forms an “L” all the way around. Lay the worbla over your tines so that the bend in the worbla is flush with the bottom of the skewers (you don’t want them sticking out into the open too much). Heat a little more until the worbla is pliable and then begin pressing the worbla down around the skewers for a snug fit. I found that using a spare skewer to push the space in between each stick worked great.
8) Allow to cool completely and then flip the whole thing over. Your tines should be pretty secure at this point, but be careful nonetheless. Repeat step 7 for your unused semicircle by first folding it into that “L” shape. Then, lay it over both the tines and the bottom worbla layer so that you fuse both semicircles together and create a snug fit.
9) Heat the bottom of your tine contraption where the two “L” shape flaps are exposed. You may also heat your base slightly if you wish, but I did not heat it particularly much, since I didn’t want to risk losing my head imprint shape. Spread the flaps out and place the flaps flush against your worbla base, with the BBQ skewers along the base’s center. Generously press the flaps against the base worbla and allow to cool.
10) Heat the ends of your worbla base as well as your crown edges. Press these edges together to fuse the tine base to your crown. If you’re paranoid like me, you can also mush together a big old wob of worbla heated to a high heat, and then press it into the juncture for added security.
11) Didn’t add enough tines? No problem! Mush together a wob of worbla, heat it severely, and then stick it to the edge of your crown before inserting a tine straight into the plastic. Just be sure to press the worbla in around the tine hole to hold it securely in place.
Before moving on to the transpART, it’s time to prime and paint! Priming is an important step in any worbla project, as even black worbla tends to have a slightly gritty texture. To get rid of this, there are a host of different primers you can use, from gesso to wood glue to Flexbond to Plastidip. Because our crown still has the ability to flex slightly, we want to use a primer that will not crack under strain. My pal Kidbunni has a great rundown of primers and their flexibility at http://kidbunni.tumblr.com/post/143657850128/worbla-tutorial-part-1-primer and you can also find some primer comparisons here on Worbla’s own website. I decided to go with Flexbond partially because I was curious about how it would shape up, and also because I knew that sanding this crown would be very difficult because of all the tight edges, which eliminates a big advantage of spray gesso. 1) Pour a little of your Flexbond out and select a relatively small-medium sized brush. I’ve read guides where folks preferred to use a damp brush with their Flexbond, but to be honest this did not work out great for me, possibly because I was working with such small shapes. Any added water just made the Flexbond too watery to use efficiently. Instead I simply dipped my brush in and began painting the glue on.
2) Take care to sweep and thin out any pools of glue – you want a thin, even coat with minimal brush strokes. Work fast and keep to a concentrated space. While the glue is still wet you can easily thin it out to make an even coat, but if you try to go back to that spot after a few minutes you’re just going to make any strokes more obvious.
3) Allow to dry completely and then repeat steps 1-2 until you are satisfied with the finish. Black worbla can be primed in as little as two coats, but I used four just because I wanted an ultra smooth finish. 4) With your prime layer dry, spray your crown with a brown spraypaint or primer. Acrylic paint works too. The brown layer is important as it will give a warm undertone to our gold finish. 5) For the gold layer I used Amaco Brush and Leaf in antique gold. This stuff is AWESOME – it’s a lacquer so it’s extremely opaque and shows very few brush strokes; just be sure to ventilate your area while using it. Allow your first layer to dry then add a second. If using acrylic paint you may need to use a third layer.
6) Weather your gold by drybrushing very small amounts of brown and brown mixed with black into the deeper grooves and recesses of your sculptures. Adding a darker color behind the motifs will help the color pop.
Adding transpART to the crown helps really drive home the sun theme and gives a really cool textural contrast! 1) Begin with a poster board mock up and cut out various sunburst shapes. Keep each piece to a single point to keep it looking more like a sun and less like fire. Tape your pieces together and arrange them behind the tiara until you like the shape. Trim off any excess poster board.
(You may notice that I drafted my mock up prior to constructing the halo – this is perfectly fine so long as you attach your finished transpART after the painting step)
2) Remove your taped-together poster board pieces. If you layered pieces over each other like I did, add a few more pieces of tape so you can keep the front layer together and separate it from the back row. You will be cutting these two pieces out separately.
3) Use a sharpie to trace your patterns onto the transpART. Cut your shapes out.
4) Bring a pot of iDye yellow poly (without the intensifier) to below boiling (make sure this is poly and not natural or your pieces will not dye!). It is always important to boil dye in a pot you do not use for cooking, in a well ventilated area and away from any pets or children. One at a time, drop your transpART pieces in the dye and allow to boil for 7-10 minutes. A pair of non-food tongs works great for working with the transpART, as it’s a good idea to occasionally move your piece around to make sure that your points do not accidently fold and stick to each other for a long period of time. It is fine if the pieces stick a little as they’ll separate right away once cool, but do not allow the transpART to remain in a hard fold for a long period of time, or the dye may get caught in that folded area.
5) Remove your transpART and rinse under cool water. Your shape probably looks pretty floppy right now, but don’t worry! Next, bring your pot of red or orange iDye poly to a boil. (Why orange OR red? Without the intensifier your transpART will only turn orange, even in a red dye bath) This time however, grip your transpART with your tongs and lower the bottom half of the flames into the dye. I did this by rolling the piece together so that I could grip all of the points with my tongs. Continuously raise and lower your flames, taking care to soak the bottom third at all times, while keeping the next third or so only sometimes submerged. This constant movement will help create a gradient ombre effect, rather than a hard line where the orange color stops. The top third should remain completely untouched and will stay a bright yellow color. Once finished, remove and rinse.
6) Lay your crumpled transpART on your table and apply your heatgun until you can push the piece back into a flat shape. Allow to cool slightly and then heat just the tips of your sunbursts, using your fingers to twist the edges and tips slightly to give them a more three dimensional effect. Once cool, apply superglue to the bottom inch or so of your larger sunburst piece, all along the bottom edge. When gluing transpART, I find that applying a thin layer of glue to a large area works best – oversaturating will mean that the glue takes longer to set. Align your top and bottom sunburst layers along the bottom and hold into place until the glue dries.
7) Apply your superglue along the inside base of your worbla where the flames will lay. Hold the transpART piece against the glue and hold in place for several minutes until it’s dry.
**If you’re feeling intimidated by the prospect of molding transpART, don’t be! Click the below link for a timelapse demonstration of how I made the horn portion of the crown from both molded transPART as well as flatter pieces. This mini video tutorial covers steps 1-6 below:**
1) Decide how long you would like your horn and cut out two triangular pieces of transpART to that length. My pieces were approximately 6.5 inches long by .75 inches wide on the widest side.
2) Put your gloves on! To heat transpART to a moldable temperature the plastic must become very, very hot but loses that heat very, very quickly. It’s important to work fast and not let the heat impede you. When over-heating or getting it to a moldable temperature you will notice that the worbla takes on a cloudy look. This is fine but we do not want to over-damage it to the point where it’s completely opaque or contains bubbles. Try to aim for just hot enough to mold, but not so hot that it begins to cloud. Get your transpART to this magical temperature and begin to roll your first triangle back and forth. Apply more heat to maintain the temperature and roll some more until you have rolled it into a cone shape. Repeat for the second triangle. 3) Apply one more final burst of heat and then very quickly pinch the wider base of your triangles together. Twist them upward into a single spiral shape.
4) Apply heat directly to the base and tip so that you can smooth them into a solid, secure shape. 5) For the decorative wings, sketch a shape to your liking on poster board and then trace it onto the transpART. Cut three layers of feathers, each smaller than the last. Use a drop of superglue to affix the smallest feathers on top of the medium layer, and then that on top of the largest layer. Heat the center of your horn to a fairly hot temperature and then press it to the center of your wings – the heat will cause the two piece of transpART to bond. 6) Right now your transparent horn is looking pretty cool, but to add a shimmery, pearlescent finish, dip a dry paintbrush in your rose gold Pearl FX powder and liberally brush it on. Add a few strokes of gold powder near the base of the horn as well. Spray with Testor’s clear lacquer to set. 7) Create a “holder” for your horn by heating a circular, kneaded wad of worbla and pressing the horn directly into it to obtain the right shape. Trim off any excess, and use decorative rolled worbla pieces to bridge the gap between the holder and where you will attach it to the crown. I pressed down on the edges of my rolled pieces to make a wider surface area, which will help when gluing. Prime and paint following the steps you took in the priming/painting section.
8) Apply a thin layer of superglue to the flat part of the rolled pieces and press to the inside base of the crown. Apply a layer to the bottom of the horn and hold against the base until dry.
While the crown should be well balanced on its own, for extra security you can use a rare earth magnet to clamp it to your wig. This will not provide a huge amount of support but it should help ward off any sliding or small bumps. Take one half of your magnet set and generously apply your glue of choice. Press into the center of the base of your halo. To clamp it to your wig, just take the other magnet half and place it under your wig net. So long as you have aligned the polarity, your magnets should clamp together through the wig. Go be a fabulous horse!
When standard Acrylic isn’t viable, Worbla’s TranspArt (WTA) is a clear thermoplastic that offers amazing flexibility and resilience that is solvent-stable, as well as Non-Toxic and Skin-Safe. TranspArt can be vacuformed, both on an actual machine/table as well as by hand with simple tools, can be tinted and dyed, and is incredibly difficult to tear, dent or rip. Look below to see examples of what our customers have done with our product.
These amazing Coffee Splash and Milk Pour props are frozen in time and made from Worbla’s Transpa Art and Worbla’s Deco Art. Finished with Heritage glass stain and acrylic varnish. Created by Rochelle Redgard with Lida Marx from The Worx Distribution.
Abraham Levy created these amazing TranspArt water pieces, inspired by designer Iris Van Herpen. Videos can be seen here, here, and here. The yellow dress was created for Shea Couleé and used in her Crème Brûlée video seen here (explicit), the pink dress was photographed by thedragphotographer and featured on Drag Race All Stars 4 seen here.
This amazing crystal sabretooth skull was created by Naruvien Art&Design using Worbla’s TranspArt and Worbla’s Finest art, and has a red and green led for interior lighting!
by Naruvien Art&Design
by Naruvien Art&Design
Here’s a video of the lights in action!
Erza Cosplay used Transpart and Worbla’s Finest Art for her Heavy Luminescence Armor and Sword from Guild Wars 2.
Erza Cosplay
Erza Cosplay
TranspArt rose by Calypsen Cosplay
Calypsen Cosplay
TranspArt Phoenix Headpiece by Gothichamlet of Cowbuttcrunchies.
Celestial Staff by Whimsy-Mimsy, dyed with iDye Poly
Dragoon Meru from Legend of Dragoon bySpyrah. Wings made from TranspArt, armor made from Worbla’s Finest.
TranspArt flowers and leaves pressed into sillicone moulds, by Worbla Latinoamerica
Worbla’s Finest art bracers covered in TranspArt for an ‘encased in ice’ appearance by Naruvien Art&Design
Sue Storm figure made of clay and then gently vacuformed with TranspArt. Plugsuit made with Finest Art, by the team at Cast4Art. Note the TranspArt even picked up the detail on the bra!
Aurora from Child of Light Crown and Wings made by Maija Cosplay, photos by Patrick Rotthier.
SisuSquid (FB, Tumblr, Twitter) shared this tutorial with us on making her crown out of Worbla.
This is a tutorial on how to make a winged crown out of Worbla. The design itself is my unique creation, inspired by Valkyries. 1) Cut out the detail designs for the wing with an exacto blade. This was the most time consuming part of the whole process and my hand was very mad at me after. The details are a single piece of Worbla.
2) All the individual pieces cut out. I went with the “sandwich” method where there’s two layers of Worbla and a piece of 2mm craft foam in between the wings. This gives the Worbla some extra dimension. I also ended up making the band around the head 3 layers, not two as seen here.
3) Using a heat gun, I heated up the Worbla and put a piece of craft foam in between the layers, then with the edge of a pair of scissors, flattened down all the edges so the feathers would be well defined. I had to reheat the Worbla several times through this process to make sure it would stick together properly.
4) Cut off the excess Worbla, and reheat/reseal any seams that the craft foam was showing through. Be very careful not to get Worbla bubbles during this process, and keep flattening it out! If you do get Worbla bubbles, you can carefully pop them with a push pin and squish the air out. Note: there is no such thing as waste when it comes to Worbla. Every single piece of scrap you cut off can be reheated and reformed. You can make whole new sheets of Worbla if you’re patient enough!
5) Heated and added the top detail piece. Worbla sticks to itself beautifully, so detail work like this is no problem! I recommend heating the piece up while on the desired location, because Worbla warps and bends once it’s heated, so it will be hard to transfer correctly once warm.
6) Detail work on the centerpiece. For more detail, I used a pen in the slightly warm Worbla to carve grooves.
7) All the individual pieces ready to be put together. I also added detail work on the band and wings with a pen.
8) Warm up the band and firmly attach the centerpiece. Then re-heat the whole piece and fit it to what you want it’s shape to be. Here, it’s my head so it was really easy to form. Be careful not to burn yourself! Wait till the crown is cool before you take it off, otherwise it might warp.
9) Heat the wings and the crown band where you want to attach them, and stick the whole piece together. I also bent out the wings a little at this time. Once it’s cool, it’s time for a primer! I use wood glue, and put on 2 layers. This helps make the Worbla nice and smooth. If you want the rough texture a base coat isn’t necessary.
10) After the glue is 100% dry, it’s time to base coat! I use acrylics for all my painting needs, and almost always start with a black base coat. One to two layers should do the trick.
11) Painted the gold by rubbing it on with a paper towel. This helped give it a more worn and metallic look. I then re painted the black around the wings so the detail was nice and sharp.
12) Paint the feathers the base colors. Here, I wanted a soft gradient from gray to white. Several layers and lots of patience was used here.
13) Added details with black paint, and many more layers of acrylics.
14) Added the red/gold detailing inside the decorations. Wood glue isn’t that easy to paint on, so more layers than normal was required to get the red a true red here.
15) Make sure to protect your paint with an acrylic top coat! Also, add your preferred attachment method. Here, I used eyelets, ribbon and a cord lock. (You can see them in the last picture.)
And that’s all there is to it! Please post any questions you have below, and I’ll do my best to answer them! Thermoplastics can be very intimidating, but I know you can do it!
Iloon shared this tutorial on how they made the crown for their Princess Peach costume
Materials used:
– Worbla – Resin – Transulent glass paint in pink and blue – Spray-Putty – Brown acrylic paint – Gold decoration spray paint – Matte varnish – Sticker crystals and pearls – Air dry clay – Sandpaper – Brush
For the base I used Worbla, but you can also use wonderflex (or other types of thermo plastic) or foam. I attached the edges on each other and shaped the Worbla by using hot water. The material will stick on each other by heating it up.
With a soldering iron I added the edge on the crown.
– To smooth out the crown I have sprayed spray putty on it, let it dry for a few hours and sanded it slightly.
– I cast the gems on the crown with clear resin. I used a drop of translucent glass paint to color them and a base mold for resin which you can find in craft stores.
– After the resin was fully hardened after a day, I glued mirror foil on the backside and then on the crown with super glue . I used air dry clay for adding/finishing the edges.
– I sealed the resin stones with masking tape and spray painted the crown gold and let it dry for a few hours.
– I used very small sticker crystals and pearls so I didn’t need to use glue to put it on the crown. This is faster and saver to avoid glue being visible.
– For the worn out look I used brown acrylic paint which I thinned out with water. I used a piece of cloth and rubbed it over the crown until the crown was fully covered. I used a clean cloth to rub off the paint, the paint will remain in the edges of all the details which gives the crown a more classic look. You can also use the dry brushing technique for this result.
– For sealing everything I used 2 layers of matte varnish.
Tips:
– For being able to shape Worbla you can also use a heatgun or oven. – Be careful with the soldering iron, you can make holes in the material with it easily. – If there will be some paint on the resin stones, don’t worry you can get rid of it with acetone/ nailpolish remover. – Drill small holes in the crown to be able to sew the crown on a wig.
—– Thanks again to Iloon for sharing this tutorial with us!
Ravenna crown from Snow White and the Huntsman by MeltingMirror.
General Wukong from League of Legends mask by Eminence Rain who used Worbla’s Finest Art for the face and Worbla’s Transpart for the eyes and crescent headpiece.
Here you see a stencilled mask & its pattern. After cutting it out it was heated up with a heat gun
After moulding it some edges and rims has been grinded and made round. At the end, the "Black Bat" mask was coloured with acrylic and varnish
This mask modelled directly on the face for a superhero cosplay. If you play a little bit with the activation temperature you can regulate its mouldability very easy
A mask made of Worbla's Finest Art is so light you can glue it to your face
Sorsha Helmet from Willow by Avianna photos by Swoz
we put the Worbla's Finest together with the fabric in between two layers of baking paper and ironed it. Afterwards we moulded it onto this ceramic head
