Playing with Worbla for the First Time

Progress photos of a bracer made of worbla

Well, I didn’t manage to finish my costume for Momocon (to my supreme disappointment).  I got to this point where I probably could’ve finished it, but it wouldn’t have been completed to a standard that I was actually proud of (plus I would’ve gone to the convention half asleep from staying up all night), and so I decided to leave it for next time.

I’m almost done with so many parts of it.

  • The dress is almost complete save for the bottom hem and the collar.
  • The scarf is almost complete save for the funky starburst bits at the end.
  • The leggings and undershirt are complete (they could use a trip through a serger).
  • The bootcovers exist (they need buttons, soles, and hemmed at the top).
  • The bracer (obviously) needs painted and I need to make the stretchy bit for the bottom.
  • I have a leather mask now!  I bought it at Momo!

It’ll be done by Dragoncon for sure.  It was just too many things to finish in the past few weeks and everything that could possibly happen recently did happen.  Sometimes you just have to know when you’ve had enough.

I am rather pleased with how the bracer turned out, however.  I’ve seen a lot of worbla armor/props before but I’ve never actually played with it.  Worbla (for you non-cosplayers) is this funky plastic substance that can be heated up with a heat gun and molded into a variety of shapes.  Google it or go on youtube to find tutorials–there are a million out there.

There are some great cosplayers out there who have made fantastic things with it, and if you’ve never seen Kamui Cosplay’s  work before, you should absolutely check out her site to get an idea of what you can do with it.  I ended up buying her digital set of how to books ($25 for all 6) and after fully reading through two of them so far, I have no regrets about my purchase.  It instilled a bit of confidence in me before I started.  Plus it gave me a handy-dandy warning about how I was going to burn my fingers in the process, but it would be worth it.

I totally went to my guitar lesson today with burnt fingers.  It was fabulous.  My fingers hurt BEFORE playing.  Yay!

I’ll hopefully get the rest of the bracer done in the next few days, so I’ll put pics up when I do.  On Sunday (unless Sunday is crazier than Wednesday at the bookstore), I should have a new “painting” set put together for everyone to see that I made from these super funky canvases.  I’m pretty excited.  My fingers are covered in both worbla burns AND mod podge.  Hooray!

The Worbla’s Finest Art website (for those who have never seen it before).

And my Etsy Shop.  Because self promotion for the win!  Also, I’m going to have something new in the works soon.  Once I’m done burning myself with the heat gun!