improv one

For my first one, I chose to use four corners of the given plastic vinyl bags and connect them together to create a 2D square. For three out of the four connections, I used the vinyl heat press to create hems on the inside, and for the last connection I used the same method for an outside seam. After connecting all four, I realized that there was a square shaped hole in the center due to how I cut the corners off the plastic bags. I cut a small square piece in clear and black to close the top and bottom with double sided tape on the inside of the inflatable. 

improv two

In my second inflatable, I found scraps from my classmate’s inflatable. I used pieces that were big enough and cut sides that were straight to match to another scrap. Choosing not to pay attention to the overall shape, I connected sides that were similar length with wide yellow tape. When the connected piece was big enough, I folded the piece to align the seams in a way that would create sharp edges in the inflated structure. 

The challenge of this inflatable was closing the structure with edges that were angled in a way that could be attached without much excess. Because I did not want to manipulate the scraps much except some refined cutting, I had to keep improvising on where to connect the seams.

In this second improv work, I learned from those who were working near me. My classmate who was working beside me was finding many holes in her taped inflatable and I decided to make my third inflatable with the vinyl heat press, like the first one. 

improv three

My last inflatable was made using clear and yellow vinyl plastic sheets that were heat sealed together. I wanted to create a triangular inflated structure as further exploration on geometric shapes, like my first one. To start, I cut one piece of triangle from a yellow sheet and two sheets from a clear plastic bag. I used a heat clamp to connect the three triangles with seams on the inside. 

After standing it up in a triangular shape, I decided that I wanted the last triangle to be a bleed of both colors so I cut pieces from the scraps of the big triangles. I used wide yellow tape to join the clear and yellow pieces and create a bigger triangle. Using the heat clamp, I sealed the triangles together with inside seams except for the last. 

For me, this was the most successful improvised inflatable out of the three. It went according to my expectations and inflated to the triangular shape perfectly. I also found the inside and outside seams to blow up in different ways and found this to be something I want to further explore. 

sewing practice (6)

sewn sphere (2)

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.

Improvisation #1

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In my first exploration, I was fascinated by the little details. I was curious to explore how small connections, folds, and mends could change the overall structure. I also questioned conventions of inflatables, such as the roundness and plumpness, and incorporated sharp edges and inversions. At one point I connected a lengthy clear piece, and curved it to create the sharp dome at the end of this inflatable.

Improvisation #2

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Moving on, I was curious to explore how scale would impact the construction and integrity of the inflatable. Subconciously this became an extension of my explorations in the previous inflatable. My main goal was to create a diverse planar structure, so that the point at the front would fade out into the flat portion at the back.

Improvisation #3

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For the final inflatable, I noticed that my previous explorations had been relatively flat on the ground. My goal was to create a boomerang or banana shape that could hold itself in a V shape. I also played with asymmetry a bit more, and questioned how that would affect the perception of the object.

This intro to inflatables has given me the confidence and knowledge to attempt whackier forms at a larger scale, and I am eager to keep learning.

Sewing Studies:

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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

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.

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!

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.

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inflated

Sewing Practice / sphere + patches

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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.