by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
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come by. It is helpful if one of your collaborators is connected with a school, because a gym or auditorium stage is ideal. A PATTERN?Among the most readily available patterns are stuffed animals. Every orifice of the world explodes with unwanted stuffed animals, so acquiring one shouldn't be a problem. You can create your ovm pattern, but this requires extra skills. If you go this route, make a paper model first, and throughout the remainder of this recipe substitute the panels of the model for the parts of the stuffed animal.
Tape measure Permanent marker
Scissors
Utility knives, X-acto knives, or razor blades
For our demonstration we vn\l be using a teddy bear because of its availability; there are plenty of simpler shapes to make, for which all these instructions also apply.
Begin by making a drawing of your teddy bear from the front and from the back. It doesn't have to look good; you just need it for reference after you've cut up the bear.
Measure the length, vridth, and height of the stuffed animal. Note these measurements on your dravidng.
Carefully take apart and label each panel (e.g. right leg, left front torso). Indicate on your drawing where each panel goes {figure 12.1). Do not skip this step?when all your pieces are cut apart, it will be very hard to tell a right leg from a left front torso.
Instructions
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12.2
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12.4
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If you have not already done this, trim each panel along the seam Hne where it used to be sewn together. The shape of the piece of fabric may be quite different from the shape outlined by the seam lines.
On graph paper, trace each panel {figure 12.2). These tracings will serve as your blueprint when you lay the shapes out on the plastic.
Now decide how large you want to make your inflatable, and work out the ratio between the length of your small teddy bear and the length that you want your inflatable. For example, the teddy bear we used was about eight inches long, so to enlarge it to 40 feet we made each square inch of our blueprint grid equal to five square feet of plastic.
Unroll and unfold your plastic; if you want to be especially conscientious, you can make a grid of one-foot marks along all four sides of your floor so that you can easily align the imcut plastic. Make sure the grid you lay out is square (90 degrees).
Armed with your blueprint, permanent marker, and tape measure, transfer your small plans onto the plastic {figure 12.j). With care you should end up with a very close (scaled up) duphcation of the shapes on your graph paper.
Cut out the pieces of plastic and label them as you go so you can remember how they fit together and what part they belong to.
When all of your pieces are cut out, tape them together. I suggest doing the parts (torso, arm i, arm 2, head, etc.) separately. When you have completed all of the pieces, assemble them into your final shape.
Taping is the most labor-intensive part of the project. We have developed a system of taping in pairs while seated on the floor. Person One tears pieces of tape into 6" to 12" pieces (12" for seams that are straight, 6" for seams that are curved). Person Two holds the two pieces of plastic to be joined flat together, like two pages in a closed book. Person One applies the tape lengthwise onto one piece of plastic, so that 50% of the wddth
hangs over (figure 12.4), and then folds the overhang onto the other side. When you open up the plastic, the two pieces should be joined edge to edge with the tape centered along the seam. While Person One is tearing off more tape, Person Two squeezes the seam to make sure it is sealed tight.
When the inflatable is assembled, cut a round hole somewhere in the body, approximately the diameter of the fan you will use. Make an air tube from another piece of plastic and connect it to the hole. Be especially thorough with your taping; this will be a high-stress connection. Tape the fan to the other end of the air tube.
