Week 13: Wildcard (inflatable)

PART I | Training and Learning

  1. training

    This week is wildcard week, and I joined the inflatable group.

    We got some training on the sewing machine.

    I praticed with a three-sided pyramid volume, then adding a tube onto it for pumping air into it.

  2. learning

    We also looked into lots of precedents for inspiration and instructions.

    I love the "INFLATOCOOKBOOK" site. Also many of the works done by our instructor Agnes herself are super helpful.

    It is also a surprise for me when Agnes told us that the inflatables don't need to be air-tight, as long as they have constant air supply, they are fine.

PART II | Designing and Cutting

  1. design

    The challenge(prompt) I gave myself is to make a inflated wearable that de-optimizes human body in at least two ways.

    I made the design parametrically using Rhino.

    The idea is to have a core donut piece that fit to upper body, then a second donut attaching perpendicularly along eye-level so that vision would be impaired, and finally a third donut piece hanging in front of the person's feet/legs so that mobility would be interrupted.

    However, later I realized my design exceeded the materials that is available to me.

    So I shrinked the design and modified the eye-level donut to two seperate pieces of cones.

    Originally, I also planned to build forms 3D in Rhino and then unroll. However, the donut shapes are too complex to be easily unroll. For time sake, I decided to cut pieces planarly and simply stitch them togoether along edges (like life ring in water).

  2. cutting

    Now it is the time to cut out these pieces on ZUND!!!

    The two cones are cut seperately by hand to save time.

PART III | Sewing and Inflating

  1. sewing

    I thought sewing would be easy, but it is not...

    Since there are holes in holes, the inversion process became a hustle.

    We ran into problem of loop inside loops...

    The solution is to cut some holes up so that they are open holes, then stitch them back later after inverting everything inside out.

    We do have lots of fun with the pumping tube though...

    To make sure the person who wears it can move around and away from the air pump, we created very long tubes for air pump connection.

    These tubes turned out to be very funny, like those advertisement inflatable puppets along highway...

  2. inflating

    Now it is the time to inflate and try it on!!!

    I really love this wildcard week!