One of the things I love about being a designer and artist is that sometimes, you have the opportunity to just completely wing-it. See how things go, work on the fly, making changes and tweaking things. Well, recently I decided to organize an evening bible school at my church, along with a lot of great helpers which left me time to scheme up some other crazy things. I found instructions online for making an inflatable whale and well, there is the challenge, I have to try. So I head off to the local hardware store in search of black plastic, no go, so opted for some blue tarp and a couple of rolls of duct tape. Now, the instructions didn't work with the tarp that I had, so I just plopped everything down on the floor and started taping. Fast forward a couple of hours and viola! Whale. So far it has been a smashing success, the preschoolers had story time inside, you enter through the mouth, and other classes were begging to get in as well. Sometimes, having a preschooler as a client/audience has its advantages.

The second whale, was one I fashioned out of a 4x8 foot sheet of foam insulation, painted with Krylon H2O paint and then detailed in acrylic. It makes for a light yet sturdy whale that a student can easily carry across stage. I was apprehensive about the foam and painting it, but it went exceptionally well and now have a plethora of ideas about what could be built with it. You never know where your inspiration for the next client project may come from, perhaps the sea.