In the spring semester at Parsons in 2009, I took an experimental class entitled Production with instructor Ted Byfield, one of my soon-to-be mentors and friends. Of all of the controversial assignments from the course over the semester, my most memorable and successful was one entitled Eleflate. On the last day of class I blew up a 9 foot inflatable elephant with only a small box fan and some hard-ironed willpower. The entire construction was created by melting together pre-cut patterns of painter's plastic; using wax paper as a heat buffer. I feel truly sorry for the child that missed out on the stuffed elephant that I had to destroy to get the patterns right for scalability. Tear.