This project was really, really fun!  Every year, the art department holds an open house, called ARTBASH, where all of the different art majors showcase their students’ works in unique and creative ways.  Every year the WARP students (WARP is an entry level art studio) make giant inflatables for the show.  We were grouped together, and each group was tasked with making a big inflatable “utopia” out of trash bags.  By using an iron, it was possible to fuse the ends of the trash bags together, making one continuous piece of material.

My group decided to make a giant star.  First we had to design it, to make sure everything would actually fit together and not break when inflating.  Designing and building it took a few weeks, but when we finally blew it up without a single problem, it was all worth it!

At the show, we had visitors write a wish of theirs on a paper star and stick it to the inside of the inflatable (the backs of the stars had tape on them).  Everyone who visited the inflatable loved it.  I still say we had the best inflatable there!

Here’s my original description of the project:

Coolest. Project. Ever. For this project the class was separated into groups of five or six (our awesome group had six). The assignment was to create an inflatable, made out of garbage bag-like plastic, which would be presented as a utopia. Our group decided to make a planetarium of sorts. We designed our inflatable to be shaped like a big star and then have people come inside and place glow-in-the-dark stars, with some of their wishes written on them, inside the inflatable. You could also just go inside, lay down, and relax (which was, in fact, very relaxing).