Inflatable overview!

The inflatable octopus was built using basic geometric shapes such as a horse shoe like shape for the head and wave/curve shapes for the tentacles. As we cut we made sure to leave enough space for the melting. Luckily, the iron a team mate had did not require the use of aluminum foil so the process of fusing the piece began to get quicker. Last, we turned the pieces inside out to add a natural clean and curvy shape to each piece, then, with a tool that our group made, we just lay the structure down and melted all the pieces together till the octopus was complete.
Problems encountered was knowing what area of the octopus we were working on due to general size (huge). Also, there were many pieces to the structure, so keeping track of it all was very tedious. To our disadvantage, the wind was very strong. So even though our project had no problem inflating, the wind would overpower the structure and blow it down. Also, due to the increase of heat both inside and outside, hole would begin to form and would have to be patched up if it got to server. The process of making the octopus had one major struggle that was able to be solved by two of our team mates, it was making the head top (head) round instead of bulky and pointy.
The happy accidents that occurred was the wind blew the tentacles creating a nice visual, it was if the tentacles were flaying around in panic because the octopus lacked water. When we created the skirt we expected it to be completely flat but it was not and helped add to the circular shape of the octopus’s head. Lastly, for the majority of the project assembling it together was fairly easy and simple.