Lost Object

For our first 4D project, I was tasked with reuniting my friend Airy with her stuffed animal manatee. As a kid, Airy played with both a manatee mother and a baby manatee, but since then has lost the mom. She mentioned how her younger brother still plays with the baby manatee, and how special it would be to have a recreated version of the stuffed animal she grew up with. 

I first decided to sketch out a simple manatee on a piece of cloth, and used black and white acrylic paint to color it. Airy had mentioned loving how her animal was big enough to hug, so I did my best to keep the manatee's size true to her descriptions. I then cut around the shape of the manatee, and traced the shape on another piece of cloth in order to have two sides. Using needle and thread, I did my best to sew the two pieces together. This part of the process proved to be the hardest, as I had never sewn before. Looking back, I probably should have used a hot glue gun for a better finish. Although I wasn't able to finish sewing, I stuffed the animal with soft fabric scraps so that the overall feel of the toy would be plush and huggable.




Although it could have had a better finish, and the process was difficult, I enjoyed making the stuffed animal and was happy to remind Airy of her childhood toy.




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