Optical Beating Heart

For the woman with the golden heart. Love you ….!

Made for hanging to play with light and reflection, as if the heart is beating.

The heart consists of 8 heart-shaped ribs increasing in size. After printing, the ribs of the heart are provided with increasing angle bending by means of a mold. (see video). The mold can of course be used several times!

It is important that the printed heart reflects light well. It is best to use silk PLA or PLA with glitter. Afterwards spray painting with e.g. chrome, gold or glitter paint is also a good option.

For maximum effect I printed on a flat plate. I printed the heart twice and glued it together so that both the front and back are flat and reflective. This is not strictly necessary, but it does give the same reflection properties on both sides.

Place the heart well centered in the mold and then pour freshly boiled water over it. When all the ribs are neatly sunken in/over the mold, you can pour out the excess water. Let the heart cool completely in the mold! (If it is still too warm, deformation may occur when removing it).

Everything is printed in PLA with 0.4 nozzle and 0.2 layer height. For the heart itself I opted for a concentric filling of the 1st layer.

The heart can be hung from the top eye. A label with text can be added by using the bottom eye. As an example, I added 2 labels (heart shape) with text.