Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Looking Back on Padded Gear Experiments

Making padded gear has proven itself to be a very interesting experiment, and I thought i would share my thoughts on it.

  • Loose polyfill seems to be a good compromise between firmness and the feel of 'air'
  • Trapping just the right amount of air in the cavity can be a difficult dance
  • Too much air makes it feel like a balloon, and pushes the seams apart under heavy force
  • Not enough air feels too firm, like a piece of cheap carpet padding
  • Polyfill does not take rubber cement well enough to 'adhere' to latex, so to speak
  • Compacting the fill as you glue the seams is NOT as hard as it would seem
My ultimate goal with this is to make padded mitts similar to the Mr-s padded mitts, or a hood similar to the Puffy Hood. EVENTUALLY I would like to make a full padded suit -- the ultimate collision between latex and down/padded gear -- Visually I'm not sure if it would be horny, or evoke visions of the Michelin man, but i think it would be really stimulating to wear....

I'm not quite sure what other directions one could take this, but admittedly, making this is a lot like making inflatable gear, so the possibilities are limited only by the imagination.

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