Assignment 2: Push Pull Soft Sculptures – Holly Liu

This assignment was exciting for me because we were encouraged to explore the forced manipulation of forms. I especially wanted to explore the literal meaning(s) of push-pull because there would open up an avenue to explore tension and have the form struggle with or against itself. All of my forms came from one specific idea for only an element, and the rest was built onto the initial feature.

Tomato-Web Bun

This first form was created from a baffled cube. I had almost all of the side of the cube sewn up when I decided to add four darts to two opposing sides of the cube, resulting in little pockets that you can stick your fingers into in almost all of the darts. The two centers of the darted faces were sewn together, highly exaggerating the effects of the baffle, and giving the form the appearance of an especially plump donut. Many of the people who interacted with it before I added the ‘net’ thought that the ‘hole’ went all the way through and would try to stick their hand through. I wanted to further exaggerate the appearance, so I made the net to increase the amount of tension in the form.  I think the sewing can be polished a lot, especially if I had had a proper pattern for this form instead of manipulating it on the fly. I also would have used the same colors for the nets. My original intention of using complementary colors to create more visual interest failed because you typically can’t see both sides at once. I would love to make a giant version of this to create a beanbag of sorts in the future.

Spike Knot

This next form was created completely from 15 quarter circles and lots of creative sewing. The quarter rounds were stitched together on the cut straight edges, turned inside out, and then stitched together, with each piece attaching at 1/3 circumference of each cone’s length. Once it was stuffed and stitched closed, I pulled together random spikes and sewed them together. While I was doing this, some of the edged burst and let stuffing out, which I didn’t realize until far later, but perfectly fit into the exploration of tension. I think it had to do with my seams being sewn too close to the raw edge of the fabric and the fabric fraying too much from the tension while I was pulling the spike together. I also think that the fabric I chose was too heavy/stiff for a form like this, but I think these mistakes all unintentionally added to the idea of tension. In the future, I’d like to create a larger version of this where each spike was not sewn together but had magnets sewn into the tips of them to create an interactive form/toy, maybe large and heavy enough that if a child were to try to pull the spikes together, they would need to collaborate with someone else. I would also like to create another iteration where the spikes are a lot longer and floppier but are able to be clipped together and be large enough to become a soft jungle gym of sorts.

Phallic Corseted Edamame Bean Abomination

For this push-pull prompt, I was really excited to incorporate the smocking technique into the project somewhere. Because smocking in essentially elastic before elastic was created, it fit perfectly into the idea of push-pull. The pattern I used was called a modern ladder. I started with roughly a yard of the muslin, unfolded the fabric form its doubled form on the bolt, and stitched lengthwise to create a piece roughly a yard by a yard and a half. Once I finished the smocking, I made a tube out of it and attached two circles to either end, which had a circumferences too large, forcing me to get creative with how to close each end of the form. It’s a nice huggable form, and I’ve used it for many desk naps since it was made. It’s also got some nice aerodynamics and can be thrown as a soft spear or rocket. I’m happy with this form, but I do hope to work with smocking more in the future.