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The first inflatable I made was a cube with a handle. I wanted to start out simple with the primary forms we’ve learned in class. Originally, I planned to have protruding semispheres pop out from every face of the cube, but I had cut the pieces too small, so they ended up fitting perfectly. This made my cube look like a quirky die with one dot on every face. When I was about to sew the object up, I realized that it may be a bit too empty as just a cube shape, so I added a cylindrical handle (without the circular top and bottom faces). This was a good decision because it made this object more interactable and you can hold it on your arms or carry it like a shoulder bag. In general, this first object was a test trial and the hardest part was holding the circular pieces together with a million pins when I was sewing them on the cube.

Snail 1

Snail 2

Snail 3

Snail 4

This snail-like object is the second one that I made. This is the most improvised piece out of the three that I created. At first glance, some people thought it was a squirrel, which I found interesting because I never intended it that way and I never saw it that way. I am content that it created “confusion” and made people curious about what the true form was. In the beginning, I wanted to use this brown fabric to make a teddy bear form. I had a pentagon sphere pattern and two circular cutouts prepared. However, when I was sewing the pentagon sphere pattern together, I wasn’t paying attention to which edges I was working on, so it ended up being a shape like a half-moon. For the two circular shapes, I sewed them together and it formed a flattened sphere. I realized that these two could come together to form the snail shape and that is exactly what I did. Afterward, I used some scrap fabric and buttons to decorate my object. The most difficult part of this object is sewing the two forms together because I hand-sewed that part and was trying to make it so that the object does not tip over.

heart 1

heart 2

heart 3

heart 4

The last object was created through Rhino. I had a hard time with the software so I didn’t make something too complex. My idea was a seashell shape and I added heart-shaped embroidery on top of the final object to decorate it. The theme I had in mind was “a seashell delivering love.” It turned out that I was unable to make protruding circles in my first object but this one had that protruding feature. This object is fun to hold in my opinion and whenever I have it in my hands, I just want to throw it like a football. That is an unexpected effect that the form has. My object was pretty small so it was really difficult to sew it on the machine. I had to hand sew most/all of it. I found hand sewing a lot easier and more enjoyable because I could see the form come together slowly. And the satisfaction of hand sewing is just different from the sewing machine.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UbFceLnluVOHH-P4O5LeupZCL8M_76dz?usp=sharing

star2

star

This is the Starburst Sculpture part of FriendsWithYou, which is an art collaborative based in Los Angeles, California. It is made from lightweight breathable nylon, measuring 300 inches in diameter. It has a colorful palette and a dorky face that makes me smile. The sculpture was first shown in the Luminato Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity in 2010 and later in other exhibitions as well. According to the article, Starburst has the message that “Through our emotions and ideas we are constantly changing, exploding and being reborn as each day dies. This is a figurative expression of all the daily emotions and the constant movement and flow of our feelings.” I think it suits the inflatable really well and you can truly see the “burst” of emotions, especially with the colors because people often associate colors with emotions (e.g. red with anger). In addition, the spheres and cylinders in the inflatable stand out a lot, taking away a lot of the rigidness of the inflatable.

Link to learn more: https://friendswithyou.com/project/starburst-unique-inflatable-sculpture-2010/

Inflatable 1 -2

Inflatables 1

My first inflatable mainly consisted of random small pieces that I cut out from the plastic bags. I tried to keep the color scheme random as well because I was going for the mosaic design feel. It was successful at first, but since the pieces were small, it became harder to tape the pieces together. In the beginning, I tried to make it so that tape is on the inside of the inflatables, but I realized that I have a royal blue colored tape and it would be nice to show that. This first inflatable had an end result of an asteroid or spaceship shape. It was intriguing to see how it turned out to be even though I struggled the most on this one.

I wanted to utilize more of the corner pieces of the plastic bags in my second inflatable. At this point, I already realized that bigger pieces will be easier to work with so all my cut-outs were big, random pieces. I started out with the two orange corners and taped the other pieces onto them. I also used a lot of cut-outs that w ere cut at the folded edge of the plastic bag to make symmetrical shaped (similar to how you can one cut a snowflake with paper). It was less time-consuming than the first inflatable. The main issue in this one was that corner pieces are hard to tape together as you have to alter them to a certain angle before you can apply tape. In addition, I ran out of my blue tape before I could finish it, so I had to use some green tape. This may have changed the aesthetic of the inflatable a little bit, but I think it still overall fits the mosaic feel. The end result looked like a pillow with lots of different colors.

Inflatable 3

My third inflatable was the least improvised piece. I had been experimenting with random shapes from the plastic bags in the previous two inflatables, so I decided to make something different: a longer inflatable with a star shape figure somehow. This “long shape with star” reminded me of my childhood times when I watched cartoons about magical girl protagonists who would use their magical wand to help solve the crimes around them. Inspired by that, I needed to figure out how to make a star. I searched up how to one cut a star, but since the plastic material is so slippery, it did not turn out to be great and took a couple of tries before I felt like the star pieces could fit with each other. Then it was the white part of the wand, which was originally supposed to be a wing shape, but that was too difficult and I decided to improvise that part. The bottom was just cylindrical with a smaller red cylinder shape. The hardest part of this inflatable was taping them together because there were so many creases and angles that tape could not entirely cover. Even now, air would escape quickly after I inflate it, so it would deflate almost immediately. As my friend says, the speed at which my wand deflates is how long my magic will last.