For this inflatable, I did not go into it with any particular idea; I just wanted to improvise and see where my instincts took me. I wanted to try using the heat sealer, so that was the main method I used to construct this. I started cutting out various different sized rectangles, squares, and diamonds and placed them in various arrays to make this inflatable. I started to become interested in the texture that the heat sealer was creating, so I utilized it almost to make these creases/seams throughout the piece. I also liked the idea of utilizing the clear plastic to create panels where you can see into the piece, so I put shapes behind the clear panels, so it looks like they’re almost suspended. The final thing I tried to execute was having strips of plastic that hung off the piece, so they were not completely included in the part that inflated but instead added another dimension to the inflatable.
For this inflatable, I went into it knowing I wanted to create a flower. My initial idea was to make a flower with a stem attached to it, but making the flower took a lot more time, so I decided to simplify the idea. Even though this piece is small, it was pretty difficult top construct. It involved a lot of tracing and making tiny shapes and a lot of difficulty arose in taping the inflatable because even the smallest hole caused it not to inflate. Another issue I noticed was that blowing into it too much caused the tape to lose strength, so I would have to retape it a lot. Despite these issues, I liked how it turned out, and I like that the straw almost mimics the stem that I initially thought of. It also gave me more knowledge on the issues I should watch out for for my next two inflatables.
For this inflatable, I went into it knowing I wanted to make a lot more of a basic structure, and I also wanted it to be larger since my first two were on the smaller side. Since I was just taping straight edges together, it was a lot easier to assemble, and I did not really have that many issues with holes. I used a shopping bag for the white aspects of the cube, and it was interesting that they inflated a lot more than the other plastic (but when not inflated, they did not hold their shape as well). It was a lot easier to assemble something to already be three dimensional than it was to create like a double sided two dimensional piece and then inflate it to make it three dimensional. This piece was the least time consuming, but I think it was the best executed and was also the most successful at inflating.
