Category: Kite Building

Day One of the Kite Building Workshop

As I sit here yawning, I thought I had better give an update on day one of the kite building workshop. We have seven participants and two instructors attending. The instructors put together kits for everyone containing all the necessary ripstop, spars, reinforcements and step-by-step instructions. Including illustrations. The kite involves a two color background with three kokopelli figure appliques. Most of us have had some sort of experience sewing kites, however, there a couple of newbies. The pattern is a challenging one and the newbies are not finding it easy. With lots of guidance from the instructors, they are persevering. And, of course, there is one person who is reversing the color pattern in order to have a distinctive kite. There is always one in every group who is an individual.

I have managed to get all three figures appliqued but only two trimmed. As per usual, I was the last to leave. I am a slow sewer and as it turns out, the workshop photographer as well. I was also informed today, I am supposed to be the on-site reporter and write an article about the workshop for the Kiting magazine. With photos, of course. I fully intend to get a group shot with the completed kites. So I either have to find and accomplice or use the timer and a tripod. Hmmm.

If any readers of this have visited the kite builders forum, they have seen a photo of the workshop kite.

Kokopelli

It is a Ohashi kite with a single tow-point.  I saw the prototype of this kite at our New Year’s Day fly.  The single tow-point amazes me.  While this kite has a blue and coral background, our workshop kite is teal and raspberry.  Just can’t seem to keep away from some sort of “pink”.  It is a good-looking kite.

Tomorrow we have to get everything done.  Sewing, hemming, reinforcements, sparring.  Then Sunday morning, at our regular weekly kite club fly, we will put all the kites in the air at the same time.  Should be pretty magnificent.  Stayed tuned for the final result.

Fair Winds All.

Looking Forward To Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the beginning of a two-day kite building workshop at the beach. Several of my friends will be there. I am really looking forward to it. As I understand it, we’re going to be making a single tow-point Edo. I’ve never worked with this type sparring before. It doesn’t appear too complicated. And I’m still amazed at how well this rectangular kite flies with just a single line attachment at the very top. I got to see the prototype for this kite at the New Year’s Day fly. I have no idea about colors but I do know that we will be appliqueing a kokopelli on the sail.

My only request to the workshop organizers was that I not have any pink in my kit. This dates back to a kite made in this style that had pink as a background. It became known to a few of us as the “Pepto Bismol” kite. Of course there always is the possibly I will end up with pink on purpose. Random comments do often come back to haunt you.

I will try to remember my camera and take breaks now and then from sewing to take pictures. A Sunday morning fly is scheduled for all participants to fly their finished kites. It should look pretty spectacular. More later.

Fair Winds All.

Wonderful Flying Day

At long last we had a good day for the kite club fly.  At first, the winds were swirly and light.  Kites were falling out of the sky.  But after about a half an hour, the winds picked up and flying became great.  There were about ten of us on the beach.  A couple of flyers brought out their Revolution quad line kites and flew them exclusively.  One of our friends flew a couple of his dual line stunt kites, including the Trick & Track by Premier.  The rest of us put up couple of single line deltas,  a box delta with long tails, a small Eddy train by New Tech, an EO6 by Prism, a small blue flame dragon, one of the snowflake kites by New Tech that were featured in the Starbuck’s commercial and the Xelon trio by HQ kites.

Yes, I finally got all three of my Xelons up together.  I even remembered to bring my camera and made sure that I had enough room on the memory card to snap a few shots.  And then, just as I’m composing the image of all three kites in the air, the camera shuts off.  Well, I was puzzled at first.  I turned the camera back on and then saw the dreaded icon in the viewfinder.  The battery image was flashing at me.  Yes, the batteries died.  No warning.  Just a quick view of the flashing icon and then nothing.  I did manage to get a couple of images by shooting once and then turning the camera off for a while and then grabbing another image and turning the camera off again.  Some days I can’t help but wonder why I even try.

HQ Xelon I
HQ Xelon II

Things looked up, however, when I found out the owner of the local kite shop brought a couple of new quad line kites to try out.  One was the Volks Quad from New Tech and the other was the Vamp Devil from flying wings.  Now, I’m not a quad line flyer.  But as soon as I saw the Vamp Devil, I knew I had to learn how to fly that kite.  It just looked like so much fun.  So when the field trials of the Volks Quad were done, I got my chance at the Vamp Devil.  It was as much fun as it looked.  And this from a rank beginner at quad line flying.  Vamp Devil looks like a large cartoon bat with two white fangs and big round eyes that are actually mesh.  It has a removable forked tube tail that slows the flight down and looks great trailing behind the kite as it flies.  When the winds were light, we took the forked tail off the kite.  It flew easily and was very forgiving of my jerky line movements.  As the winds picked up, we put the tail back on.  It didn’t take long for me to be doing loops and spins.  And I was able to recover from a couple of mild crashes without resorting to the “walk of shame”.  (Meaning having to stake the handles and walk to the kite to untangle it and set it upright for launching.)  I have decided this is a must-have kite for my bag.  Now I just have to decide on colors.

Work is continuing on the Penelope Cat kite that I am making.  The stitching for the applique is done.  Now I have to start cutting away the fabric I don’t want and reveal the colors I do.  This won’t take as long as the Pepe Le Pew kite.  There are fewer details on the cat.  Hopefully, I can finish it before I leave on Tuesday.

I’m going to be out-of-town for a few days this week.  Which means there will be no kite activity.  When I get back, I’ll be attending a kite building workshop.  That should provide some interesting tidbits to write about.  Until then…

Fair Winds All.

Kite Making Continues

The winds have not been favorable these past couple of days.  Did finally see some sunshine.  Since flying was out of the question, I contented myself with sewing.  Seems I do my best sewing in the mornings and late, late at night.  The outlining on the Penelope kite is almost done.  It’s gone a lot faster than I expected.  That leads me to conclude one of two things.  Either I’m getting better at sewing for applique or this pattern is much easier than Pepe.  Let’s massage my ego a  bit and say I’m getting better.

Tomorrow looks like it will be a good day for our weekly Sunday morning club fly.  Our “fearless leader” will be staying in town this weekend and, hopefully, will be bringing some new goodies to try out.  I have requested that he bring the Vamp Devil quad line kite.  I had sworn off quad line kites until I saw this little cutie.  It is a fun bat-looking kite, so different from the Revolution style quad line kite.  So I’m giving quad line a try.  Leave it to me to fly something so different from what everyone else has.  That’s been my style.  Fly something different and distinctive.  You can usually tell when I’m flying before you get out of your car.  Just look in the sky for my White Bird dragons or my Xelons or a vintage dual line kite.

Charlie Chaplin Dragon by White Bird

Plans were completed today for a kite day at a local grade school.  I will be out-of-town so the honors go to my flying partner and husband.  He is getting help from the kite shop staff and friends.  Hopefully, they will be able to put a couple of kites in the air and then help the kids launch and fly theirs.  They’re flying on a soccer field so there’s no telling how the wind will be.

Well. I’ve either got to sew or go to bed now.  There’s no sleeping in tomorrow morning.

Fair Winds All.