How can I make a wrought iron basket?

Question

I'm want to know how to make something like the wrought iron shapes as shown in the picture.

Answer 1

You can do this by using modifiers on a very simple mesh. This is the result:

Because of the complexity of this I have given general steps, which will be helpful to most people, and included the blend file at the end if there is still confusion:

1. Add a single vertical edge which is the height of the required basket. The origin (orange dot) is set away from the edge as it is about this point that the edge will be rotated later:

2. A Subsurf modifier is added, set to 'simple' subdivision to give the edge enough detail to twist. Because this mesh is so simple you can set it to something unusually high, like 5 subdivisions.

3. A Simple Deform modifier is added, set to twist. Increase the deform angle to twist the mesh as much as you require and adjust the limits so the ends aren't included in the twisting:

4. An Array modifier is added to repeat the single twisted piece of iron as many times as needed. An empty is used to control the rotation of the array - it is placed at the object origin and rotated on it's 'Z' axis (a rotation of 51.42 for an array set to 7, or 360/Array Count):

5. A Lattice modifier with 6 'v' divisions is added to scale up the middle and scale down the ends of the basket. The lattice is connected to the basket with the 'Lattice' modifier - scaling and moving the vertices of the lattice (in edit mode of the lattice object) will warp the basket. Here I have scaled up only the middle vertices, causing the basket to bulge:

6. A Skin modifier is added to give thickness to all the edges. If the 'skin' is too thick then Tab into edit mode, select all the vertices of the basket mesh and press Ctrl+A to scale it up or down:

7. This is the final order of modifiers:

All modifiers can now be applied if you wish or you can just leave them all active.

Further modifiers can also be added such as a bevel modifier for beveled edges or an additional Subsurf modifier to smooth things out.

Because of the complexity of this setup I have included the blend file here:

Answer 2

1. From the Front Ortho view Numpad 1 create a segmented vertical curve (you can also convert segmented edge to curve with Alt+C).

2. Select the middle point and with proportional editing on (O) define the amount of bulging the basket will have:

   

3. Add a plane and convert to curve to get a square profile. Set this profile as the bulged curve's bevel object:

   

4. Turn off proportional editing. In editmode Tab offset the bulged curve from origin, duplicate the piece around and arrange like this:

   

   Move it around, set origin point to 3D cursor, duplicate with Shift+D, cancel move with RMB and rotate with R. You can also use the Spin tool for this. Make sure the ends of curves form a square

5. Turn on proportional editing, this time set the type to Linear. Select the top vertices and twist the curves around Z axis:

   

   For the curve vertices a Mean Tilt value can be specified to control the rotation of the square profile. With such control nice basket endings (and transition to the rod) can be achieved.

6. Optionally subdivide the profile curve, convert the basket to mesh, add subdivision modifier, recalculate normals: