Worbla Armor - Embossed Technique

 Here's a sneak preview of the Diablo III Barbarian Tier 5 armor I am building. All of these pieces were made using a thermoplastic called Worbla.

One reason you might use Worbla instead of Wonderflex to create your cosplay armor is in the unique ways that you can manipulate Worbla.

Here's how I create a embossed look on Worbla armor. This technique is more cost-effective than layering extra Worbla on top. Instead, you are layering your less-expensive (and easier-to-cut) craft foam.

You need:

Sheets of craft foam (in two contrasting colors)

Worbla (available from cosplaysupplies.com or yayahan.com)

Heat Gun

A pointy wooden tool

Sharpie for drawing your design

Good scissors
Elmer’s glue
A surface to work on that the Worbla will not stick to (I use a piece of glass shelving from IKEA)

First, cut out your design in craft foam and glue it to your craft foam pattern piece. Then layer Worbla over the craft foam and use a pointed wooden tool to press the thermoplastic down around the edges of the design. Let’s see an example:

This is going to be a plate that wraps around the outside of my upper arm.

Here I layered my design in green foam over yellow. The yellow will become my pattern piece for an upper-arm plate.

First I heated a piece of Worbla, then stuck the pattern piece on it with the green design side against the shiny side of the Worbla sheet.

Then I flipped it over.

Here you can see that it helps to use contrasting craft foam colors because you can see the darker green design through the plastic.

Next, I used the pointy tool to press the heated Worbla down around the design shapes and get nice, smooth edges.

The Worbla cools and hardens pretty quickly so I heated and worked on one quadrant of the piece at a time.

After finishing the relief, I heated a second piece of Worbla and stuck it to the back of the craft foam. Then I pressed the edges together to seal in the craft foam (sandwich!) and trimmed the excess.

Save your Worbla scraps, you can heat them up and use them for decorations, like claws and scrollwork!

Lastly I heated up the whole piece and curve it into shape around my upper arm, then let it cool.

Here is the completed piece after adding the spike and painting it.

In this last image you can see the hand plate on which I used both the craft foam relief technique and also layered strips of Worbla for the edge details. Here it is easy to see the visual difference you get – with the relief technique you will have smooth, rounded edges, and with the layering technique you will have sharp edges., which looks great for border outlines.

Did you know? Worbla (or "Worbla's Finest Art") is made from renewable natural raw materials is also known as Rhenoflex RX 5050 which was originally engineered by a German company for the purpose of industrial shoe-making. You can buy it in the U.S. from cosplaysupplies.com or yayahan.com

Got Mana?

Do you ever find yourself OOM? Do you rely too much on friendly Druids who can spare an Innervate spell? THERE IS A SOLUTION!

Now you can make your own [Mana Potion].

For a magical Halloween display I illuminated the mana potion by placing a battery-powered LED light underneath it.

I cut the top off of a clear plastic cup and Mod Podged white tissue paper over it to create a diffusing shell that the LED sits within.

Never go Out Of Mana again!
Materials (for one mana potion):
1x [Yaley Gel Candle Wax]
1x [Yaley Candle Dye Block - Blue]
1x [Glass Vial] (with stopper)

1x [Piece of Gold Trim] (just enough to wrap around the rim)

* all of these items can be found at craft stores such as Michaels or JoAnns.

You will also need a small funnel, super glue, a small cooking pot, and access to a stove/burner.

Instructions:

1. Follow the directions on the Gel to heat it and add blue coloring. Keep adding more blue coloring until you get it dark enough.

2. Carefully pour the blue gel into your mana potion using a funnel (or make a funnel out of aluminum foil). Do not let it touch the sides because it will stick - you want it to fill up from the bottom.

* At this point we realized we did not have enough gel to fill the entire vial and decided that a half-filled vial would look stupid. So, after pouring in the gel, I rolled the vial around to cover all of the sides thoroughly to give the illusion that it was full. If I did this again I would make enough gel to fill the entire vial.
3. Tap to try and remove bubbles - do not stick anything in there because it will just add bubbles. Leave the vial alone and don't touch it until it has cooled and turned to a "solid" gel. If you move it at all, you will get bubbles or the gel will creep up and stick to the sides instead of settling correctly.
4. Add the stopper.

5. Attach the gold trim using super glue.

WARNING: Do not try to drink/eat/ingest this potion, it is just a PROP. If you want a drinkable mana potion, try water + blue food coloring.

EDIT: My husband demands credit for stealing this idea from WoWInsider.com. He did buy the materials and bring the project home. But I am pretty sure I did all of the gel-pouring myself. And added the gold braid detail, and made it light up. :)