Hey Alex,
Awesome! I am looking forward to your project results.

""""" trying to get my head around the forces required """""

This is what makes it fun, yeah!

So with the non-developable shape, how is it best to get there.. (Dont get me wrong Alex, you are a very impressive Artist and metal worker. I am playing along to also learn or work through these things)

A few years back Michael shared a software that helped me with this alot. It's called Lamina Design

https://laminadesign.com/

Even if you dont use this for result model, it can show you alot about the shrinking and stretching of your sheet. (This link is for people to follow easier. Dont be offended) Looking at the "Process" link on his page, shows output from lamina software. Note the "Paper output" because paper doesn't stretch or shrink

THis video is just a basic on stretching and shrinking metal to equate it to the discussion:

https://youtu.be/YjGBZhGwxwg?si=0eeKJGGzQ2Y8cyzO

So with these tools, I would analyze how to shrink and stretch a flat sheet to do the non-developable Mobius.

I could use MoI to get some dimensions of "How much" and "Where to shrink or stretch" in my process. Also I can make decisions because if you look at Lamina's "Unfolds" you will see it "Slices out" the shrink or "tears open" the stretch. For ME, this is because for a fabricator, you need real numbers and accuracy to get you model to work. If you shrink or stretch metal after you model it, then the dims will be different. So it really depends if you can be totally organic is easiest. If you are trying to make and actual object that "Meets specific requirements, like Dims, then this is the hoop i am trying t shoot for. But that means I need to make my Sheet metal "Based off of my model"

I'll try to show in a video on how I would use this model I uploaded to get the "Stretch information" that is happening, so I can reverse it back to the metal.

Give me a bit to get at a computer where I can make the vid...