working with new materials

*Walks In* Been a while since we’ve been here, eh guys? Well, here we are once again! A “What The *Bleep Am I Doing?!” This time we’re gonna be talking about how to make stuff and deal with Worbla Deco Art! It’s a cool Worbla-esque product from Worbla. I’m glad I get to tell y’all about it. And if I can save at least one person from getting sticky, uncooled moldable material on their fingers, I have done my job. So let’s get started eh?

Now, what exactly is Worbla Deco Art? I’m sure most of you have heard of and possibly worked with Worbla, but this is somewhat of another beast entirely. So here’s a short and long answer to what exactly it is and how to use it.

Well, the short answer would be, that it’s a very malleable material that when activated by heat you can mold into virtually anything. It doesn’t exactly act like cosplay clay–moldable EVA foam clay and it’s not entirely like resin either. Worbla Deco Art is, to put it simply, a mix of the two of these materials. And it works quite well for multiple things.

The long answer though is better said by Worbla themselves:

Worbla’s Deco Art is the Worbla branded option for moldable plastic pellets. Heat these pellets to 65°C (150°F) with a heat gun, oven, or hot water to create a plastic putty with a low thermal transfer that you can shape by hand, push into molds, and sculpt with tools! It’s an excellent option for sculpting things like skulls, filling in gaps in Worbla armor, making multiple copies of something without resin casting, building up dimension quickly, and adding counterweight to things like pommels on swords.

Deco Art, like all Worbla Products, can be reheated endlessly and scraps can always be reused, so mistakes are easy to correct and makes this material very friendly for those who want to begin sculpting things such as mascot teeth or horns. The surface of Deco Art is much smoother than other Worbla Products, making it excellent for detail work where priming is either not an option due to time, or difficult due to space. Deco Art can be painted with acrylics or spray paint, and the pellets can also be dyed in advanced with polyester dyes such as iDye Poly.

Deco Art is excellent for building up dimension quickly, allowing details in armor to be made quicker and smoother than with the traditional Worbla Scrap/Noodle method.

It’s a pretty handy material, to be honest. The things I have already made are astonishing. From hearts to animal claws. The details you can make for your cosplays are super impressive. I’ve even seen some cosplayers make a whole Master Sword.

Another thing I have learned that can be done with Worbla Deco Art is that if you make a project that you intended to be quite brilliant and it turns out, well not. You can melt it down and either attempt it again or make something entirely different.

An example I can provide is I tried and failed to make Legend of Zelda’s Rupees. They did not look good at all. So I just melt those down and I created claws for my upcoming Sukuna cosplay. And they look pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

All in all, as complex as Worbla Deco Art might seem at first, it’s a material of many hats. You can make an entire prop or just the details on one. You just have to know how much heat it takes and for how long. Because if it starts browning, you definitely need to stop the heating process. You can even use either a microwave or heat gun.

One major thing is that you definitely need water with you. So you don’t burn yourself and so when you finish the shape you want your object in, immediately put it in water so it doesn’t lose its shape. Because it will, thanks to a little thing called gravity.

Well, that’s all I have to say about this material, for now, catch y’all later for the next article!

Rebel Fae out!

Hey everyone! Welcome to this week’s What the Bleep Am I Doing?! A Rebel’s Guide To… Last time I talked about making details for armor with Worbla which you can find the article here if you want to check it out. For this week though, I’m going to go a little bit deeper into working with this material. There’s a lot to cover when it comes to Worbla so this will surely have multiple parts but let’s start off with part one, shall we?

Cutting to size

This I find is not always easy. You most definitely need a good pair of sharp scissors to cut out your Worbla pieces. Safety scissors are not advised to be used. Believe me, I tried, and it doesn’t end well. You’ll also want to use a pattern or place your EVA foam object on it to make the shape—assuming that you are using Worbla to cover the EVA foam, seeing that it’s the most common use for Worbla.

Heating

Heating up Worbla is quite similar to heating up EVA foam in the case that it needs to be spread evenly throughout to take effect on the material. But, unlike EVA foam Worbla will heat up a lot faster and cool down even faster. So because of this, you’ll want to work pretty quick with it but also make sure to be careful because burning fingers is very much a thing.

Molding

I’ve covered a bit of this topic in my last article with making vine details, but there is so much more when it comes to making details with Worbla. If I am to be completely honest it’s not the easiest of tasks. But that’s why I’m here to help! What I recommend so far is to mold the Worbla around an object that is or is close to what you want the details to look like. Or in the case of the vines from my last article, you can take a picture and freehand it.

For an example of what I mean with shaping it around an object let’s use a mask. Just cut out the Worbla that is just a little bit bigger than the mask, place it over it, heat the Worbla up, and voila! You know have Worbla in the shape of that mask! Let it cool off though of course else wise it’s going to fall completely apart.

Priming and Painting

Just like with EVA foam it will need to be primed but not as much because it won’t soak up the paint as much as the EVA foam will. But priming still helps protect the Worbla and of course you need to paint it.

That’s all for this article as per usual when I find out more I will gladly share it with all of you so we can all be less confused together! If you have any questions whatsoever feel free to ask, I’d love to help!

Lastly, if you wanna support Rebel Fae and get exclusive access to things such as work in progress posts and stories I don’t post here or anywhere else, hop over to my Ko-fi page and donate. I’m eternally grateful for all that y’all do for me, you guys give me the strength to keep going so thank you from the bottom of my heart!

That’s all for now…

Rebel Fae out!