Category: Z023

Inflatable 1

I approached my first inflatable with a general idea or concept. Initially, I wanted to create an object composed of multiple corners of plastic bags in order to create a “spiky” effect. However, I quickly realized how hard it was to tape several corners together at one point. In order to maintain my initial idea, I decided to heat seal several of the corners together to allow for more air to stay within the object itself. This led to some pieces of plastic being sealed entirely and sort of having a dangling effect on the inflatable. Although this wasn’t in my original plan, these strips gave a little more life to the inflatable and complemented the spikes that ended up inflating.

Inflatable 2

In order to explore some more geometrically oriented objects, I decided my next inflatable would have the shape of a star. In order to add complexity I broke the star into two shapes. The center – which is composed of a pentagon, and all the corners which were made using the corners of the plastic bags. The center of the star was made transparent on purpose to allow people to view inside the star and compare the inflated versus the not inflated object. It also added a perspective aspect – since spectators could directly observe the person manually inflating the star through the transparent portion.

Inflatable 3

For my third inflatable I chose to have a more “freestyle” approach. I decided on a color palette beforehand and cut different shapes of these colors. I wanted the base of the object to be transparent and use the pink and green colors to create a patching effect throughout the entire inflatable. The base was made transparent intentionally to allow for different perspectives of the inside and outside of the object as well as to highlight the contrasting colors of the neon green and bright pink patches.

Sewing Samples & Ball

I used the basic pattern for the ball and forgot to take stuffing with me and ended up deciding to improvise and stuff it using feathers from a pillow I had laying around. I also misplaced the sample with my initials 🙁

Graana Khan

Inflatable 1

This first inflatable was made only from rounded and curved pieces, and taped together. My first challenge was getting the pieces to match because of the different tangents of the curves, as well as getting enough coverage from the tape along those curves. I liked the color palette in this one and the lightness of it. Although not my original intention, the overlaps of certain curves look interesting with the translucency of the plastic material.

Inflatable 2

This was my second inflatable and I wanted to make a form that had all the seams facing outwards. I used only rectangle shaped pieces and double sided tape. I think this one had nice contrast to the first one in the way the seams added a sense of “sharpness” and edgy-ness to inflatables which typically are associated with being soft. This one also unintentionally ended up looking a bit like an animal.

Inflatable 3

This was my third inflatable which used polygons and a mix of outward facing seams and inner seams. I also wanted to try attaching different forms together that were made separately. I made each form individually and then attached them together. Since there wasn’t a plan for any of my forms, I found it difficult to secure the pieces together without any gaps. I hadn’t planned for the connections of the 3 pieces so it was a challenge trying to get them stuck together. Still, I think the outcome is interesting and goes well with the balance of the 3 different colors.

Sphere

I used the zig zag pattern for the sphere. It was pretty intuitive once I looked at the instructions! My roommate’s dog also loved it.

This was a good exercise in a new material, and I had a pretty good time playing and seeing how I could piece them together to get some fun irregular shapes. Getting the last piece seamed in place was always the hardest part.

I started with a larger rectangle of plastic and cut slits as if to create darts. Instead, I added more material which didn’t exactly turn out as I expected (acute angles are very hard to heat seal) but I created an interesting shape nonetheless.

This one played with translucent/transparent plastic, which was fun in the sense that you could see the ‘guts’ of the object and also see through it as you were blowing it up, and conversely, people could watch you get lightheaded as you blew it up.

Honorable mentions to the sphere that finally looks like a sphere.

And also to the sewing samples that lived in my backpack for a week.

My approach to the first inflatable was that I wanted to make a beach ball and I wanted to use fun colors. I used the purple and silver bags and cut strips, and then used the heat sealer to seal them together until I ended up with a long line of purple and silver stripes. I then realized that it was not looking much like a beach ball and that the best I could do was make a cylinder, but I wasn’t sure how to make the circle parts, so I decided the just heat fuse the sides together. I originally was intending to put the seams on the inside of the inflatable, but I realized I really liked the dimension that the seams added, so I left it on the outside.

For my second inflatable, I did more research into what a beach ball is made up of. I saw that the pieces were flower petal shaped and connected to each other and then had circles at the top and bottom. I wanted to put the straw in one of the circles to have it better mimic an actual beach ball, but that was too hard, so I put it in the middle. I only used double-sided tape for this inflatable, but I sealed it up on accident before I could turn it inside out, so now the outside of it is sticky, which makes it harder to inflate. This inflatable took a long time to seal together because it had curved sides all over, and it was also hard to seal completely because there were a lot of gaps and holes. It is also the one that is the hardest to inflate fully. I am very excited that it turned out looking like a beach ball!

For my final inflatable, I knew I wanted to use the heat sealer again after spending so long taping. I was also curious about the idea of an inflatable within an inflatable. My original plan was to take 4 corners of bags and heat seal them together and put that inside of an inflatable, but I could only figure out how to put two corners together, so that is what I did. I snipped a hole in one side of the square and blew up the triangles (they are together and the air is shared between them, even though they look like they are separated) and then heat sealed over that hole, so the triangles are always inflated. Then, I put the triangles inside of a clear bag and heat sealed that, with the straw inside so it can be inflated and deflated. I like this one a lot, and I definitely want to explore inflatables within inflatables again in the future. Using the clear bag and seeing the steam inside when I orally inflate the bag was unexpected, and reminded me how cool it is the we are using our mouths to inflate pieces of plastic!

In this project, I wanted to test the strength and limitations of plastic, utilizing tape and a heat seal as connection.

Inflatable 01.

For the first inflatable, I had a clear vision for what I wanted to create. My idea was to have clear spherical forms bulging out of one larger main body. I decided to execute this utilizing a royal blue plastic and a clear plastic to emphasize the form’s dome protrusions.

deflated

inflated

Making this inflatable turned out to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated. The first and biggest challenge I faced were creating the protrusions. I had imagined them to be domes and assumed that cutting circles would lead to the desired form. I quickly learned that to not be the case and instead requires way more material than I had assumed. Although I was not able to figure out how to create the perfect dome, I experimented with the sizes of the protrusions by increasing/decreasing the amount of plastic I left as excess when taping it onto the blue body. Another challenge was making sure that the pieces were all attached securely to each other. I had a lot of trouble inflating my piece since there were many holes which I could not locate upon inspection. I had to reseal each addition to resolve this issue.

Inflatable 02.

For my second inflatable, I chose to experiment with using only triangular and quadrilateral geometries. I layered a few plastic bags on top of each other and cut them all diagonally which gave me a set of shapes. I decided to try sealing this one with the heat seal since my first inflatable was sealed only with tape and caused a lot of trouble. I enjoyed how this piece takes on round forms despite its sharp edges. I also found the variation of visible seams interesting and unique. I tried to have a good balance of clear and solid plastic to allow for a more dynamic visual.

inflatable 2 geometries

inflatable iteration 2

Inflatable 03.

My third inflatable was an exploration of connection and restriction. Initially, I had cut strips from green and white plastics and attempted to create a singular object with sections. However, it was difficult to connect each strip with the overlaps and I had trouble using the heat seal. The air was also not travelling or filling the spaces properly. I then took individual strips again and sealed them individually into tubular forms. I left a section open at the top to connect all of them together which create a curved spine. I secured this area by taping over it. This inflatable was fun because it was interesting to understand how air travels and the potential that has for other explorations. The way in which it inflated also allowed for it to take on a performative experience.

deflated

inflated

Sewing Practice / sphere + patches

Screenshot 2023-01-31 213417

Screenshot 2023-01-31 213438

Inflatable 1

For the first inflatable, I decided to improvise by cutting up the bags in random unorganized ways, thinking that I would be able to get unique geometrical properties through this methodology. While I was correct, the inflatable had many issues since it did not easily inflate due to the holes and weak connections between the strips.

Inflatable 2

For the second iteration, the fix I made was to be a lot more mindful of the geometry I was using and pay attention to how they would connect. I cut out more rectangular strips to be able to attach the pieces so that there wouldn’t be many holes. I used the tape to connect the pieces together and allowed the form to arise naturally with the alternating color schemes of black and white.

Inflatable 3

The final iteration of the improvisational inflatables was the one that was the most well-built. I restrained myself to create strips that would allow me to create strong seams with the tape. I accommodated for seam allowance and this resulted in a final piece with no holes and inflated the best out of them all. I also played around with attached scrap strips onto the “head” of the column in an effort to create more dynamic characteristics of the simple cylinder.

For our first assignment, I started off with exploring different methods of attaching the pieces of plastic together. In my first inflatable, I used scraps of plastic from previously cut bags and pieced them together. I did not have a plan going into this first attempt and mostly just trimmed existing scraps so that their edges fit together. My resulting inflatable reflected this freeform approach; it did not really have a structured shape and had a patchwork pattern.

I used the heat gun, double sided tape, and colored tape. The double sided tape afforded me more flexibility in piecing together smaller scraps, but I realized that I often inadvertently created holes where the plastic was curved. For me, the heat gun was the most reliable in creating closed seams.

For my next inflatable, I wanted to create something that was was more intentional in form. I struggled with planning for how my first inflatable was going to “close” at the end, and so I took a more modular approach in sealing together the plastic. I started by creating a cube, leaving the last side unsealed. I created six of the unsealed cubes, and then I joined them all together on their unfinished edges. Making each part separately made this inflatable a lot less intimidating to put together. Since each part was still the same shape, I think the resulting inflatable was still cohesive in structure. I used the heat gun for each section which made the inflatable relatively secure when blown up.

For my last inflatable, I wanted to attempt creating a circular object. I started by creating elongated oval strips and attaching them to a circle. I used double sided tape to secure each long length edge together, but the curved side made it difficult to attach edges without creating holes. Since my second inflatable had been created square shapes and the dominant form of this shape was circular, I wanted to attach a “stand” to my last inflatable with a pyramid shape. However, I miscalculated the edges needed, and so the “stand” portion of this object inflated to be more of a pillow shape rather than triangular.

My last inflatable had a round “top” portion that cinched in the middle and expanded back out.

Sewing samples and ball:

For this project, I wanted to experiment with how different shapes could come together with straight or curved edges. For my three inflatables, I constructed them using different kinds of seams and different colors of plastic. Throughout construction, I took risks in not knowing what the final structure would look like, but also focused on making sure it could inflate with air in the end.

Inflatable #1:

For my first inflatable, I cut two layers of a white plastic bag into an abstract shape with smooth round edges. Instead of connecting these two pieces directly together, I used an equal-width strip to connect them and add more volume. I found it challenging to use the double-sided tape to connect curved edges, since I could only use a very small strip of tape at a time to maintain the curved shape.

Inflatable #2:

For my second inflatable, I experimented with connecting many smaller pieces of plastic to create a larger structure. I began with cutting small circles and then folded each circle into equilateral triangles. I used tape to connect the straight edges of the triangles together while leaving the round edge of the circle exposed outside of the seam. I discovered that triangles are a very versatile shape in making 3D structures, since not only were they easier to put together, but also inflated easily into this final structure.

Inflatable #3:

I approached my third inflatable by challenging myself with using one continuous piece of plastic cut in an abnormal shape to create a structure. I cut pink plastic in a continuous spiral and reconnected the spiral on an angle to create a 3D structure. I was surprised by how much this structure expands when inflated with air because of the layers of the spiral. This structure also reminded me of candy after construction, so I decided to use a longer straw to complete its resemblance to a lollipop.

For my first inflatable, I wanted to explore cylinders and round shapes. I immediately noticed that using a rectangular heat press to seal round shapes meant sealing them at many different angles to cover the circumference. Other than working with round shapes, I also wanted to use bright colors like white and yellow to see if the light would pass through them.

When I placed this inflatable to get light from a nearby window, I saw that the light passed through the bright sections and almost the entire inflatable was illuminated. As shown in the video below, the light passing through the warm colored plastic also exposed all of the areas I taped and heat sealed.

For my second inflatable, I wanted to make something that resembled something we see in everyday life. I also wanted to experiment with heat-sealing harsher edges and corners, as opposed to rounded shapes. Using yellow duct tape, I made the body and the neck of the bee, and heat-sealed it with strips of yellow and black plastic bags. I then went with the yellow duct tape to patch remaining holes.

Inflating the bee was evidence that inflatables aim to conform to spherical/round shapes. Even though the body of the bee was rectangular, the air in it made it swell up on the sides and resemble a cylinder. Also, I’m not sure if it was because the shape was narrow or because there were holes, but this inflatable deflated quicker than the others I made.

For my last inflatable, I wanted to explore random shapes using the scraps of the plastic bags I used for my other inflatables. My method was attaching random segments of the plastic bags together (some with heat seal and some with tape) and then trying to wrap it around to make it 3D. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be because a lot of the jagged shapes I cut did not properly attach to each other without gaping holes. I eventually pieced it together by overlapping pieces and using tape to cover holes.

I really liked how on the back of this inflatable, extra plastic remaining after heat sealing created a border-like outline around the inflatable. I also liked how it looked like a patchwork design because of all the different colors.

Overall, this assignment was a great way to use our creativity to explore different shapes of inflatables. I’m super excited to continue exploring and developing my skills!

Also, these are my sewing samples: