I designed a unique sculpture to celebrate our marriage. I initially meant for it to go on top of the wedding cake, but it ended up being too big, so it became a standalone project. Here I’ll share a bit about how I made it.
Modeling
I designed the model in Blender. The globe structure was a wireframe mesh with skinning and other modifiers applied; the tricky part was getting the struts to actually curve out in between junctions instead of going straight from one junction to the next. The smooth curves are what make it look like a globe rather than a generic “sphere mesh.”
I made our silhouette panels by taking our profile photos, mapping them to crisp black and white images, converting those images to SVGs, and then importing the SVGs into Blender as detailed vertex loops. I filled the loops with vertex grids and extruded them to add thickness. A shrinkwrap modifier made the silhouettes bend to the curvature of the sphere.
The branches from our silhouette panels reach inside the sphere and twist into a heart in the center. To make this, I first shaped the twisting branches roughly into the shape (actually I only shaped one because they’re symmetry-linked), and then I used the shrinkwrap modifier again to pull that rough heart shape into the form of a simpler and more correct heart mesh. That technique allowed for the perfect balance: a shape that’s unmistakably a heart, but also unmistakably two branches intertwined.
Printing
Next I ordered a 3D print of my model. I used Xometry, a well established company with a great selection of materials. I picked their “Somos PerFORM resin” because it’s strong and good for electroplating. I was impressed that they had no trouble printing this model, especially with the heart structure suspended high above the base.
Plating
Over the course of this project I learned that plating-on-plastic is a thing: plastic models can be dunked in a conductive base chemical and then electroplated with metals. This is way easier and cheaper than casting the model in metal or 3D printing it with metal.
It was a little hard to find a vendor for this, because most only do commercial or industrial applications. But Repliform is a small business in Maryland whose whole pitch is, “Make your 3D printed models beautiful by coating them in metal.” So I shipped my model to them, and they plated it with a nickel alloy and shipped it back.
The result was exactly what I had envisioned. It sat proudly on our sweetheart table during the wedding reception.
Somewhere beyond the sea
Somewhere waiting for me
My lover stands on golden sands
And watches the ships that go sailing
