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Emerald City Comic Con 2021 | Natasha is AdreeCosplays

Hahaha, bet y’all thought you saw the last of me. It's been like 4+ years since my last project, so it was super fun to put this cosplay together for my first ECCC. I finally found the screen accurate Splendid jacket this year after setting alerts on ThredUp (I highly recommend this strategy; I also nabbed Wanda's Harlyn jacket in just a few weeks). Can't promise any more activity and honestly might be shouting into the void at this point, but I'm excited to be revisiting this hobby.

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AdreeCosplay’s Balem Abrasax Collar & Cuffs Tutorial

Well it looks like I’ve finally gotten around to making this! I was always hesitant to create this tutorial because this was my first time working with Worbla and the techniques I used are most definitely not the easiest/correct way of working with this material. The bulk of this tutorial will be all the design files I used (which are also of a questionable quality). You are free to edit any of these files for your personal use, but I do ask that you don’t repost any of the designs/edited designs as your own without crediting me for the originals.

Tutorial begins under the cut!

The Cuffs

We’re going to start off with the cuffs since they are the easiest to do and let you practice the techniques you’ll need for the collar.

Materials: I was able to get both cuffs and the entire collar out of one medium (29.5" x 19.5") sheet of Worbla’s Finest Art. You don’t have to use this, but make sure whichever crafting thermoplastic you are using is thin, very flexible when heated, and sturdy when cooled. You’re going to be cutting out a lot of fine detail and combining a lot of layers. I used wood glue for sealing/smoothing, but you can really choose any technique you like (see this tutorial for smoothing options). I used a metallic gold acrylic paint for the main color and then a black acrylic paint for shadowing the cuffs. Now, I genuinely can’t remember/tell from these if I used Mod-Podge to make everything shiny, but I am 80% sure I did. Some metallic paints will lose the intensity of their shine when covered with Mod-Podge, so I would recommend doing some small swatch test on the Worbla with whatever sealant/paint/top coat you think you want to use.

Pattern: The layers of the cuffs are listed below. The cuffs are mirror images of each other, so if you horizontally reflect all of these images, you’ll have the pattern for the other cuff. For each layer, you’ll be cutting out the entire image, the color coding is for visualizing how each layer sits on top of the others. Including the silhouette of each layer on all of the layers below it helps stabilize the layers.

• Layer 0 - Just a 2″ x 7.5″ rectangle, this will be the base of the cuff.

• Layer 1 -

• Layer 2 -

• Layer 3 - 

Cutting out the layers: The way I transferred these designs to the Worbla was pretty easy. First, you print out the design on basic copy paper. Make sure that all the layers are printing in the correct size you want (the black sidebars should be ~2 inches tall). After printing, cut around the entire design (just a rectangle around each layer) and cut out a rectangular piece of Worbla for each layer as well. Then, using a weak adhesive like a light coat of spray adhesive (what I did) or a glue stick, glue the paper design face up to the rough side of the Worbla rectangle. Now you can easily cut through the paper and the Worbla while using the image as your guide; no need for tracing the image onto the Worbla! I used an X-Acto knife for cutting out the design. Using an X-Acto knife on hard Worbla is a little painstaking and tedious, so if you know a better/easier way of cutting out the details, definitely do that instead. Once the design is completely cut out, you can just peel off any paper that is left.

Assembling the layers: Using a heat gun, align layer 1 onto layer 0 and heat. This should bond the layers without having to move them while hot which can cause warping. I, a Worbla novice, did not have a heat gun so I used a hairdryer which takes an agonizing amount of time to heat the Worbla evenly. Since the back of layer 0 is also coated in adhesive, make sure you’re working on a non-stick surface so the bottom layer doesn’t get stuck. Repeat aligning and heating by putting layer 2 on layer 1 and then layer 3 on layer 2.

Shaping the cuff: Now that you’ve got your big Worbla stack, you’ll want to heat the entire thing thoroughly and wrap it around something circular to cool. I wrapped mine around a hair spray can since it wouldn’t stick to the metal. If you wrap it around something heat proof (i.e. not an aerosol can which may explode if heated), you can heat and shape at the same time. Some of the layers may shift during this process, but you can trim off any excess once it’s cooled. You can now perfect the shape of the cuffs by heating and reshaping as needed to either flatten them out a little so they sit better around the wrists or make the gap in the back bigger/smaller to fit comfortably over the wrist.

Finishing the cuff: Once the cuff has been shaped, seal it with your chosen sealing method (see Materials for the link to the sealing tutorials) and paint with a few coats of metallic gold paint. Next, go in with a small brush to fill in the crevices with a thin layer of black paint. Finally, seal the paint with your choice of shiny finishes (again, I can’t remember if I used Mod-Podge, but I am pretty sure I did).

The Collar

Making the collar is pretty similar to making the cuffs, only a whooole lot more detailed and time consuming. It took me about 2 weeks to cut out all of these layers. So make sure you’ve got some good music or something to binge watch.

Materials: Base materials are the same as for the cuffs (Worbla, gold paint, sealant, top coat, and X-Acto knife). I used oven-bake clay for the base of the moon gem and the little gnocchi looking button things (I’m going to call them “rivets” from here on out). The moon gem is probably the jankest thing on here; it’s a clay base with toothpick tops stuck into it and then painted over. I also used red acrylic paint and Mod-Podge (for sure!) on the moon gem. The moon and the rivets were adhered to the collar with E-6000. Actually, I amend my previous statement, the jankest thing I did for this collar would have to be the closure I used for the back: an old bra clasp. This was simply because I chose not to make the back portion of the collar since it wouldn’t be seen and my boy doesn’t like having his neck too immobilized. 

Cutting out the layers: The collar is split into three main pieces: the two sides and the front. Each is separated into its respective layers.

• For reference here is the layer breakdown for the whole thing and how the pieces line up (if you need help scaling, when I made this, the front section from top to bottom was 7 inches):

• Left side - These are all 4 layers of the left side. This is the actual format I used to print them out and configure the pieces as to save the most Worbla. I ended up not including the holes up the sides since my original plan was to lace the back closed, but then the infamous bra clasp surfaced. The top left is the blue layer (layer 4), top right is the pink layer (layer 3), bottom left is the green layer (layer 2), and bottom right is the orange layer (layer 1). There is no layer 0 for any of the collar pieces.

• Right side - Top left is the green layer (layer 2), top right is the orange layer (layer 1), bottom left is the pink layer (layer 3), and bottom right is the blue layer (layer 4). Sorry these aren’t laid out more logically. Generally, the lower layers are the more detailed layers.

• The sides revisited (layer 4) - The above patterns are the ideal designs, however, I got extremely tired by the time I got to layer 4, so instead of including all above detail for support, I just cut out the shapes unique to the layer (below) and attached them to the back of layer 3. While this did save time, I compromised stability when heating and shaping.

•  The sides revisited (layer 4), cont. - You can see below how when I went to heat and adhere these thin strips to the collar, they got very warped. This happened a lot around the sides because I also started omitting duplicate details from other lower layers because, man, this was near the end of week 2 on this project. If you have the time and the patience, cut everything out so your final product will be much more stable.

• The front, layer 1 - This is the pink/purple layer you see in the layer breakdown.

• The front, layer 2 - This is the orange layer.

• The front, layer 3 - This is the green layer.

• The front, layer 4/5 - The black is layer 4 (the blue layer). The grey is layer 5 (the yellow “detail” layer) which just provides the shape guides for the moon and rivet details.

Cutting and assembling: I cut out and assembled the layers for all of the pieces using the same technique I used for the cuffs: glue on the pattern and cut out the details, align, heat, and adhere. One extra step then is attaching the sides to the front which can also just be done by heating just the sides needing to be attached. It’s ironic that this step is so short because this step will take the longest.

Shaping the collar: Shaping the collar is pretty tricky. You’ll need to evenly heat the entire collar, but make sure it isn’t too hot to the touch, and mold it around your Balem’s neck. If you are the Balem, get a trusted friend. This is easiest if you have the model lie down for the initial shaping so gravity can do a lot of the work. Then you’ll want them sitting up to shape the collar around the back of their neck. This may take a few tries and some of the details may be warped since I did design this pattern in 2-D. Also be careful when shaping to not break any of the layers; I recommend pressing and shaping with open palms and closed fingers to avoid poking any of the details.

Making the moon gem: The moon gem was made by first shaping the base out of oven-bake clay. Then I trimmed down a bunch of toothpicks and stuck them in the clay. While baking the clay, keep an eye on the toothpicks and make sure they don’t catch on fire. This shouldn’t be a problem though because most oven-bake clays bake at pretty low temperatures. After baking, paint it red and seal with Mod-Podge. Sealing will also help keep the toothpicks in place. I glued the moon gem on with E-6000 after shaping the collar.

Making the rivets: To make the rivets, roll a ball of oven-bake clay into a sphere. Carefully cut it in half and reshape as needed. I then used the side of a pin (a normal sewing pin) to press in the ridges. I then baked them according the my clay’s directions and painted them the same gold color as used for the collar and cuffs. These were also sealed with Mod-Podge and attached with E-6000. The rivet guides are on layer 5 of the front pattern (you can see me using them in the above picture of the moon gem).

Attaching the clasp: If you choose to use some kind of back fastener, I glued the bra clasp on with E-6000 and adhered a strip of Worbla over it for safe keeping.

And that’s it! I have some other reference photos, work-in-progress photos, and layered design files, so if you want those as well, send me a message (this post is already pretty huge so I didn’t want to add them all here). Feel free to also send me a message if anything here doesn’t make sense or you need more help!

Also I love seeing things you all have made using my tutorials, so send me pics!!

Happy harvesting!

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“I will harvest that planet tomorrow before I let her take it from me.” 2/2

DragonCon 2017 | Photo & Costume by AdreeCosplays | Balem is my boy

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“Cosplay is a serious business.”

Here are some of my favorite cosplay outtakes/goofs from photo shoots I’ve done with friends. Behind the scenes shots are always interesting to me, so I thought I’d share some of mine to give you all a look at what goes on just seconds before those “serious” shots.

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“I CREATE LIFE . . .             . . . and I destroy it.”  1/2

DragonCon 2017 | Photo & Costume by AdreeCosplays (me) | Balem is my boy

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Me & the boys | Dragoncon 2017

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“...because today, I am the commander of death.” 4/?

Emori is adreecosplays (me) | Photo by ikolson & edit by me

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“Take a break.” 3/?

Emori is adreecosplays (me) | Photo by ikolson & edit by me

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“Hey, your home is with me, okay?” 2/?

Emori is adreecosplays (me) | Photo by ikolson & edit by me

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“Then I guess you're just gonna have to keep an eye on me.” 1/?

Emori is adreecosplays (me) | Photo by ikolson & edit by me

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Memori preview :)

Emori is adreecosplays | Photo by ikolson

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Balem Abrasax (Jupiter Ascending) accessories 

They’re all finally done!! Collar and cuffs made by me; rings purchased from Shapeways and painted by me.

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All the Worbla pieces have been cut and assembled! Now just to shape, paint, and attach the rest of the pieces and this project will be done.

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Balem Progress - My hands ache from cutting these out but the layered effect is so worth it.

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Much to my chagrin, the Cricut Explore (an automated cutting device for crafts and etc.) cannot be used to effectively or efficiently cut Worbla. I’ll walk you through what I tried and didn’t try under the cut, so please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions regarding this experiment.

Trial 1

Cut settings: strong-grip mat, deep-cut blade, 350 pressure (highest), 1 cut

At the outset, this trial failed since the Worbla would not firmly stick to the mat and began to be pushed/dragged around by the blade housing and rollers. I had to halt this cut after a few seconds.

Trial 2

Cut settings: same as Trial 1, but Worbla was taped down around the edges using masking tape

This cut barely scratched the surface, so the next few trials were just spent increasing the cut count (number of passes done by the blade over the same cut). The maximum cut count for a single load is 7x, so I’ll skip to that one for brevity’s sake.

Trial 3

Cut settings: strong-grip mat, deep-cut blade, 350 pressure, 7x multicut, material taped down

This trial produced the results pictured above. I’d say it made it about halfway through the material. The doubled up lines are due to suggestions online to simply reload the material to increase the number of cuts to as many as necessary (i.e. more than 7x). However, the material never quite lined up correctly, so I abandoned this effort although more cuts may have eventually gotten all the way through the Worbla.

Unexplored Solutions

Heating the Worbla before/during the cutting process might make the job easier. However, the Worbla may be more susceptible to marks left by the rollers which move the material around. Also, I don’t know if heating will cause build-up on the blade. 

Using the Cricut on black Worbla might produce different results due to differences in thickness. Unfortunately, I do not have the funds to test this one out.

Using a different Cricut model. The Explore family of products is intended for light crafting, so a more heavy duty model like the Cricut Maker may be able to take on this material.

I hope this helps inform your next or future projects; if you have any luck with your Cricut and other thermoplastics/cosplay materials, please let me know!

If you need me, I will be cutting out Worbla pieces by hand for the next century.

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Aesthetic: Balem tedium

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First test of cutting and assembling Balem's collar. I'm using a Cricut machine to precisely cut the layers of the collar which I am stacking and gluing together for depth. This test is just made out of cardstock (scrapbooking paper); the final will hopefully be made of vinyl, so it'll be more flexible and comfortable to wear.