So I had this genius idea to make a 3D heart for Valentines, simply right? Well, it could have been but then my brain got involved and the whole thing got a little out of hand. The idea start off as 3D box with a raised heart on top as the lid. Then to a full 3D heart, that was more of an ornament than a classic Cake & Ale project. So I thought maybe a half heart , possibly with a flat back.. but that was more of dust collector, which is anything but a romantic gesture. So in the end I settled on a heart dish that can sit flat with a stable mid point, something you could pop your trinkets and love tokens from your significant other in. Or use to hint at your desire to have said trinkets purchased for this purpose...
You wouldn't think it, but with so many individual parts creating an inner and outer bowl that sits together nicely is quite the feat of geometry. I did not love maths as a subject in school either, so it generally comes down to a little bit of trial and a hell of a lot of error.
All in all this dish took ten paper prototypes to get correct and took a fair shift in thinking to make it work. I place of having man small gaps it turned out the answer was to have fewer, larger gaps. For those of you who have made shirts think darts, to create the 3D sides I had to treat it like a bust dart. I wont lie but I was ecstatic when it only took the one fabric prototype to get this pattern into the world.
You can see from the photos above and below how the shapes changed through the versions to create the heart "lobes" have sit up and hug the dish section. Instead of larger triangles that create sharp dramatic changes I opted for smaller more graded transitions. Won't lie it does make it a little trickier to manage seam bulk and a little longer to put together.
Here what looks like a lot (3-4mm or a lot in EPP land) gap between the outer and inner bowls actually turned out to be a REALLY tight fit once seam allowance was involved. So tight that I reduced the height of the inner templates 1.5mm before releasing the pattern.
So there is a little bit of the story of how this project came to be. It is so incredibly satisfying though, to start out with an idea and then manifest it into reality. Especially when there was brain bleed mathematics involved, three children, school holidays and a full work load at my 9-5 job!
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