Eldritch Eye Bracer - Worbla and Pretty Rocks

Cold days and WoW servers down meant more arts and crafts! This bracer is made with a pretty rock I painted and Worbla (a kind of thermoplastic). Visit my facebook page for more Worbla fun!

I learned about thermoplastics and painting armor from books by a cosplayer named Kamui. She has many excellent tutorials and books so I will not explain it any further here. Instead, please enjoy the progress pictures!

I started with a basic pattern and a rock I painted to look like red eye (with GLITTERS)

Then I used my heat gun (the pink phallic thing in the background) to activate the worbla and molded it to my wrist.

Added a little bit of detail and drew on a basic design.

Added more details and molded the "eye" onto the bracer.

Covered the eye with painter's tape. Primed with 10-15 (who's really counting any way) layers of gesso to even out the small dents. This is the hardest part - apparently, watching paint dry is REALLY boring (rum helped).

Cover with black acrylic paint.

Paint with coloured acrylic paint.

Fix all the small nooks and crannies, then seal with an acrylic spray.

And we are done! No need to add claps or anything since it was molded to my wrist.

Make Pretty Rocks!

Unemployment sometimes means my creative side just explodes. I made these while waiting for WoW servers to come back up. They look as if they could hold powers of a cosmos but are actually really simple and cheap to make.

Here's how to make some of your own:

Materials:

Mosaic Rocks (about $2/15 at Michael's)

Cheap nail polish - glittery ones (Wet n' Wild is usually around $1/bottle)

Black Acrylic Paint (if you want a darker background)

Aluminum foil

More glitter (if you want more sparkles)

1. Paint a thin coat of glitter nail polish on the flat side of the rock and wait for it to dry.

2. Add some glitter to it while the nail polish is still wet, brush off the excess glitter.

2a. Alternatively, add a different colour nail polish.

3. Once the polish is dry, coat the back with a solid layer of black acrylic paint.

4. Once the black acrylic paint dries, coat with a layer of clear nail polish to seal.

OPTIONAL:

While the clear top coat is drying, stick a piece of aluminum foil underneath and cut off the excess. I do this just in case I missed a spot when covering it with acrylic paint.

Experimenting is fun!

Super Soft Winter Hat!

I've wanted to knit with the Noro Shiraito yarn for some time now. This super-duper-soft yarn is made with an angora and cashmere blend. It's a bit pricey ($30/skein) normally but I managed to grab the last skein that was on sale at the local yarn shop last week.

Naturally, instead of applying for jobs, I sat at home and knit this hat. At first, I felt like a clumsy moose because the yarn kept on breaking. I had to experiment with the tension quite a bit so the brim of the hat came out a little wonky.

Here's how I made the hat:

I used a US 3 circular needle and the entire skein, about 195 yrd. It was knit in the round. Final size of the hat is about 22" circumference and 10" in height

First, the yarn is offer for cat approval. As you can see here, Lady is showing nonchalance, the cat way of saying she approves, maybe, quite probably.

Hat brim - CO 108. Start with rounds of knit stitch (I did 3). Then a couple rows of K3 P1 until the end. (I did 15). Purl one round when you are done with the brim.

Hat Body - Start with rows of k1 rounds and add the wavy lace pattern to create the wavy bar when you see fit. I did 10 rounds of k1, wavy lace rounds, 6 rounds of k1, wavy lace rounds, then another 10 rounds of k1.

To do the wavy lace pattern:

1. P1 to the end

2. k1 to the end

3. K2tog 6 times, (YO K1) 6 times to the end.

4. P1 to the end

Hat crown - At this point, you can really use any kind of decrease you like for hats.

I did:

 k2tog 6 times, and k1 6 times to the end of round

K1 to end for 2 rounds

k2tog 4 times, k1 4 times to the end of round

k1 to end for 1 round

K2tog to the end of the round.

Thread tail through the stitches and close the hat

Add a pompom if you have left over yarn.

I didn't block the hat because I'm not very experienced with cashmere/angora and don't want to risk the yarn breaking in the process.

Dice Bag!

I have been playing video games quite a bit since my life as a student has ended. Now my life as a lowly intern has commenced! I have a bit over an hour of commute to work each way and this bag was knitted entirely on the subway/buses. It took about a week to complete.

I did not follow a pattern since I suck at sticking to them, but here's how I made it.

Needle size/gauge/yarn weight doesn't matter here. But I used a wool/nylon bend sock yarn (gift from my best friend) and size 2 needles.

1. Cast on 8. 
2. Divide stitches onto 4 double pointed needles (2 on each needle).
3. Join (don't twist your work!)
4. For each of the 4 needles, make 1 (or however you want to increase) then knit to the end.
5. The idea is one increase per needle until it forms the desired size for bottom of the bag.
6. Find a cable pattern you like (or wing it) and knit each of the rows for the pattern four times, i.e. knit row 1 on first needle, row 1 on second needle, row 1 on third needle, row 1 on fourth needle, row 2 on first needle, row 2 on second needle ....
7. When the bag is about an inch from desired length, start knit stitches in the round until it reaches the desired length
8. Bind off
9. Make i-cord (directions here) long enough to go around the open mouth of the bag twice.
10. Thread i-cord through the knit stitch area at the top of the bag and you are done!

Hand Dyeing Acrylic Yarn

I was a bit skeptical about dying acrylic yarn at first, since it's basically trying to dye plastic, but the yarn turned out beautifully and the process was very simple as well! All I used are some acrylic paint (the 90 cents ones you get from wal-mart) and water.

First, wind your ball of yarn into a hank.

Then, wet the hank with water. (Yes, that's a chip/dip holder thing)

Next, apply acrylic paint. (I thinned out the paint with water and just poured the coloured water on)

This next step is the hardest part, hang it up to dry and try not to play with it too much and get paint everywhere.

After a day or so (I put a heater in front of it at night), it's ready to go!

I prefer center-pull balls!

And it's ready to be used!

 I will be making a kitty mat (for catching litter) with this pretty yarn. Stay tuned for updates!

Divine Soraka Staff Tutorial

I've been playing League of Legends (free to play) for a while now and I mainly play supports. Even though I do not main Soraka, I believe she is still the most iconic support champion.

Visit my facebook page - Manabizzle Creations for more photos!

 

I made some slight alterations to the original design.

Reference Picture.

Pretty acrylic gems!

Ribbon wrapped grip.

Material list:

I ordered most of my materials online. I am sure you can find cheaper prices at local stores. I also listed the price so you can have an estimate of how much you should budget for a project this big.

Wonderflex (half jumbo sheet) - $34

heat gun - $16

Mop handle - $5

Expanding foam -$6

Utility knife - $9

Papermache – $7

Painter’s tape - $4

nail polish - $4

Acrylic paint - $25

Brushes - $5

Model magic - $5

Model builder - $25

Easy cast epoxy - $14 

Mold release - $12

Let's get started!

Wooden mop handle (cheaper than dowels) and cardboard

*I recommend PVC pipes for a lighter prop

Cut the cardboard base into desired shape

Layer with expanding foam (tutorial video here - by Kamui Cosplay)

Carve expanding foam (this is half the mess, I cleaned the floor once already)

Lots of caves in the foam, which is normal.

Layer with painter's tape to cover the holes on the surface and give the next layer something to grip onto

Layer with strips of newspaper and wallpaper paste (tutorial video here)

My cat smoothed on a layer of paper mache for me. I also started priming the wood part with gesso.

The paper mache dried with very bumpy surface (I mistakenly used quick-dry kind) and needs to be sanded. It's a bit cold outside for me to do sanding right now, so stay tuned for more progress when it gets warmer!

Visit my facebook page - Manabizzle Creations for more tutorials!

I almost gave up this project due to some unexpected hardship. Thanks to a good friend (who transported this staff for me over 700 miles!) I was able to finish it.

Sanded a little bit by hand. I would recommend a mouse/handheld sander for the job but I live in a small apartment with almost no ventilation, so that was not going to work.

Heat up small pieces of wonderflex and cover the staff. 

I used wonderflext because it is a bit cheaper than worbla.

There will still be a lot of seams like this.

Heat up the seams and flatten them out with any cylindrical object (beer bottles work too)

You can also use a dremel to sand out the lines but good ventilation is needed.

Seams flattened out.

Drew a basic design of the details.

I didn't like the original design, so there's a bit of improvisation.

Heat up small strips of wonderflex and roll it up.

Place the details on the staff as marked

(or not, I don't like to follow directions, even my own)

Prime with at least 5-6 layers of gesso after all the details are attached.

(The pink stuff are placeholder for gems)

Prime with black paint.

First layer of paint

Second layer of painting and accentuating details with black shadows.

Cat is helping.

Seal paint with a layer of satin acrylic spray.

You can also use glossy acrylic spray if you'd like a more metallic staff.

Wrap the handle with some brown ribbons. Cat helper optional.

Cast some acrylic gems for the socket

(sorry I did not take enough pictures of a full tutorial for this part)

Paint it using this technique.

And we are done!