PeaCock Theatre and Cone #012

This week Teddy and I went to see a performance on the PeaCock Pantomime Theatre in Copenhagen Tivoli Gardens. It was a rainy evening and not many people had come. Nevertheless the dancers looked to be in brilliant mood. In particular we were impressed by the many and very fast changes of scenery.

Cone #012 is a more complicated version of Cone #011. It has taken me some time and many trials to develop the final pattern based on Anna’s idea.

The two pieces you weave together are in principle the same as those used for Cone #011, however, each of these are made from three parts by joining. Cut out the six parts in the colours you like. The first piece is made from parts 1, 2 and 3. Start placing part 3 flat on the table and part 1 on top making the arms and cone fit. Join by sliding the two parts together using the small flaps one by one. Then add part 2. The front of the piece is the side showing the small flaps in the same colour. The second piece is made from parts 4, 5 and 6. Place part 6 flat on the table. Make sure it swirls in the opposite direction of the first finished piece. Now add part 5 and then at last part 4 (the one with the full cone) as before. Proceed as described for cone #011.

And files for cutting: cone 012 cut 1 ; cone 012 cut 2 ; cone 012 cut 3 ; cone 012 cut 4 ; cone 012 cut 5 ; cone 012 cut 6

Cone #011

Anna has designed this upside down Gingerbread pattern for a cone. Actually the cone Anna made is much more complicated than this one. But it is prudent to start out with a simplified version. Weaving requires some skills to obtain a pretty result.

Print/cut the four parts of the cone in the colours of your choice. Part 1+2 together form the first piece and Part 3+4 form the second.

These are two important tricks for weaving:

TRICK #1: It is all important that you start weaving in the right way. The two pieces must be lined up perfectly. Any inaccuracy will grow as you weave and the result will not be pretty. A good way to start is to place part 1 and 2 flat on the table, line up, and glue together – the pointed part facing the table. Now take part 3 and weave into the first two. Still flat on the table. Take care that the pattern is lined up perfectly. The base fits the base of part 2. Fix with glue. Now take part 4 and do the same. Form the cone and use the flap on the pointed piece to keep everything together. Before you use glue to fix it, make sure that the cone does not crease and that the other colours do not show. If they do, you may cut away a little of the base of part 2, 3 and 4. Line up carefully there must be no open space between arms where they meet. After gluing you may start to weave, see Cone #001.

TRICK #2: To guide you into forming the perfect cone cut out, form and fix the cone of Part 5. Insert the guide cone into the cone you are weaving and tighten by pulling the arms gently. When you have done all weaving use the paper clips to  fix the cone to the guide. Line up your cone by removing one paper clip at a time. Work your way around the cone a couple of times until you are happy with the result. Take another turn and fix the four parts of the cone together with glue. Remove the guide cone.

And files for cutting: cone 011 cut 1 ; cone 011 cut 2 ; cone 011 cut 3 ; cone 011 cut 4 ; cone 011 cut 5

Cone #010

This Valentine cone is a mix of ideas. It is a development of Anna’s pattern for Cone #009 and of Carol’s inspiring suggestion in her comment. Cone #010 is rather easy to weave. Just glue down and fix the top centre of each heart as you go along.

Some may prefer -.pdf files for cutting

Pattern Cone 010 Part 1 

Pattern Cone 010 Part 2

Cone #009

Anna also devised this bubble pattern with open spaces. The first 2-d picture looked a mess because of the holes. The picture would not show the cone’s transparent qualities. I had to put a solid cone inside to make it look less confusing. The close up may indicate the 3-d effect.

The cone is easy to weave because the circles of the two parts should be lined up as you go along. You may even glue them together from time to time while you weave to fix the vivid strips.  In the last part you omit weaving to get the monochrome top edge. Take care not to glue too often near the top. This may force the strips into unnatural angles causing creases and wrinkles when you line up the top edge.

Cone #008

Anna made a script in Rhino making it possible to generate cone patterns automatically. Parameters are: Overall angle, number of strips, number of sub-strips, height of bottom cone, height where sub-strips start, radius of cone, distance between strips and sub-strips, a number of points along the curve of the basic strip that may be pulled to change its shape  - and whatever else I might think of. The program presents an outline of the final cone – so that I may change parameters until I like the result. When the cone looks interesting, the program generates the -.dxf files for the cutting machine… I still, however, have to do the weaving.

To illustrate the principle, Anna designed this Cone #008.

Cone #007

Cutting out this cone by hand is a huge task. If you venture into this project make a simpler test version first to get familiar with the weaving. This may prevent you from making mistakes and crease the delicate snowflakes when weaving. The cone is constructed like Cone #005. But I left out every second snowflake. This means that before weaving you must check that the joined snowflakes will meet.

I must admit, I did not cut the pattern by hand. For Christmas Anna presented me with a cutting machine to ease the work. But off cause I had to test its potential.

Cone #006

Cone #006 is constructed using the same principle as Heart #035. You cut out the four pieces and join them two and two before weaving. Weaving is just like making Cone #001.

Cone #005

This cone is partly joined, partly woven. You may find it time consuming to cut out all the parts and the cone not quite so easy to make.

It was fast enough to construct the ornament and in principle everything fits, but it was a challenge to figure out, how to put it together. I tried various methods neither gave me the perfect cone – until I decided to give up all good manners and glue stick the whole thing exactly where I wanted it before weaving and joining starts.

Do as follows. Print in 3 different colours. Cut out all the 26 parts needed for the cone. Do not cut along the red lines. Glue stick the outside of the small heart pieces (6 of each of 4 sizes) to the inside of the inner cone piece (that with the long strips) at the squares marked. The edge shall follow the red lines exactly and the smallest heart go closest to the base cone. Then form the cone and glue the base. Now you weave/join starting from the base. You weave and join hearts from every second strip. Make one set at a time going round and round. It may take some speculation to get it right. At last you form the outer base cone and join it to the small hearts lowest in the cone. This is easier (and you won’t damage the point) if you turn the cone upside down when you join. Add a handle.

Cone #004

This cone takes some time to cut out and to weave. See Cone #001 for instructions. It is fairly easy to make the cone but the challenge is to weave the cone beautifully. Make sure to line up and pull the strips tight when you weave. Do not weave to much before you proceed to the next strip and make sure the small squares form a straight line radiating from the point towards the edge.

Cone #003

It is actually simpler to weave this cone than I thought. Weave as described for Cone #001. Start weaving by weaving “sets” of two wide strips in different colors. Look at the picture to get started in the right way. Then the rest of the strips nearly weave themselves. Line up carefully by pulling the strips in place. Remember to use the paper clips. You may have  to go round the upper edge a couple of times before gluing. You may also like to shape the cone a bit by fixing the star and sky between with a little glue. Cut out a handle and the small hearts to cover its base inside the cone.