Push/Pull Part 2 – Joseph and Molly

For this project, Joseph and I wanted to create a piece that incorporated both of our favorite details from Push/Pull Part 1. For me, that was the gathering on the snake and bird, and for Joseph, nothing was more exciting than the zippers. From here, we thought about various ways in which we could incorporate both into one piece.

 

 

Originally, our idea was that we’d have an egg which would have two zippers; one would reveal a bird and the other would reveal a snake. We made a test out of fabric at 1/4 the scale. From this test, we decided that the bird had to be larger to match the overwhelming size of the snake.

 

 

 

From here, we started constructing the final version. Joseph took lead on the sphere as he has had more experience with zippers than I have, and I took command of the snake and the bird. The first thing finished was the snake.

After finishing this snake, Joseph and I soon realized it wasn’t a snake but a tentacle. This lead us to deciding that our final form shouldn’t have a bird, it should just have two tentacles. With our final form finally decided, there was just a lot of sewing to do.

 

 

 

After hours of sewing, we were able to finally blow it up in the hallway. After doing so, we realized there’s still something missing: eyes. To mimic the eyes that I had laced on my bird in push/pull part 1, we cut out star shapes from felt and hand stitched them onto the form.

 

 

 

 

Once we tacked the eyes on, we moved it upstairs to make sure it looked good in the environment we chose. We wanted an area big enough for the whole structure to spread out. We also wanted the lighting to be warm, as we felt that would make the creature seem more welcoming. We chose a space on the fourth floor.

For this project, we wanted to make sure we paid attention to all of the details of the creature. Special attention was given to the eyes, the zippers, and the gathering on the tentacles, all of which can be seen in these photos.

Attention was also given to the air tube to make sure it was placed in the back. We also had to include loops to which we could tie the sandbags that would actually hold up the inflatable.

Our inflatable turned out nicer than either of us expected. While we personally love how it flops down when being unzipped, we have thought about potential ways this could be fixed in the future if it’s not desired. One more thing we could have done was add one more sandbag to the bag to make sure it didn’t lean forward after being opened. Overall, it was a really fun project to work on and we’re very proud of the product we made.