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:
