I think the game could be even more fabulous if we could see materials in their full glory. The imagination is a powerful thing, but so is seeing and believing. We collect materials for our gear, but what if Armero's artistic arms...er I mean hands, sorry, got carried away with alliteration there, were able to make a model of a material, using the most ideal bits of a number of samples he is given?

Material Models would all be 1x1 furniture displaying the "perfect" version of a material. Plato would weep tears of comprehension. They would simply be named "Model Beast Scale," "Model Light Shard," etc.

It could take 5 of a 5*, 10 of a 4*, 15 of a 3*, 20 of a 2*, 25 of a 1*, and 30 of a 0* (shards), as well as a special new material available from Brinks for a combination of 21 forge, grim, and primal sparks (7 each) called "Prism Putty," a "miraculous substance that can join even the most opposing of things together in harmony for eternity's gaze."

Imagine a Jelly Gem trophy furniture...colored red. That's a torchstone. Or colored white...that's a hailstone. It would be like a floating diamond and I would put them absolutely everywhere. Every spare tile. Yes. Okay no I wouldn't. A pink jelly gem would be an enamorock. Hey...Wait...

"Plants" such as the Blaze Pepper or Nightshade could be a towering vine in a pot, or a beautiful flower, I'd love to know OOO's design behind the icons of materials, like we saw for boss tokens. Or see what other forum users can come up with! I imagine most would just be large detailed models of their icons hovering over a stand, with something related to their description whenever possible.

Would every material get a furniture representation? I don't see why not :D. Even supply packs could be boxes you stick around.

Below are ideas I've had or heard, the general idea pitch is concluded here.
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Ideas for individual materials
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5* materials could have special effects. For example, materials like the Flame Soul or Plague Essence could be...very interesting. I would love to see a colored animated ball of "energy flames" in a bowl acting as a light source, and I also think it would be funny if these generated a Lost Soul (similar to the cursed tome stand and a spookat, eventually just poofs) when interacted with. So a Storm Chaser would generate a Static Soul and raise a lot of lore questions and "oh god are we eventually going to see Toxic Souls please no dear lord." I think this is very fitting, considering the dialogue we read in Heart of Ice regarding a "pillar of EVERFROST and all the frozen souls it brings forth."

Event materials could also be extra special, since you're giving up quite a catch for an aesthetic furniture item. Indestructable Gift Wrap could be a shiny box (like what a prize box looks like on the ground when you open it, really) that when interacted with makes a metal tink tink noise and you hear a grinchlin snicker. Knights could generate sweat like they do for grimalkin when next to a Shroud of the Apocrea model.

Sprite food would be a hilarious waste, and look exaclty like 3D models of their icons. Oh look, a floating Shadow Orb on a stand. IDK what I expected.

Some materials might be difficult. Piles of dust such as the Grave Soil could be just that, piles of sparkling colorful dust that players can walk through, maybe puffing up a bit when stepped upon, like we see with the dust piles in Ghosts in the Machine. Fabric could be tapestries or flags. Slimey cores could be orbs that drip into a bowl that ripples. Materials such as Ecto Drop or Frost Gel could be colored balls of fluid similar to the water balls you see in FSC and other places. Would dead gold be a single coin, or a pile? Imo, it's more fitting for it to be single, considering its related IRL lore.

While we're at it, the option to craft shards into 2x2 mineral spires or a floating shard Model would be fantastic.