Bob and Charmayne's gallery of kites 2004

Bob and Charmayne's kites made in 2004

Another year in kiting. Life is good. Bob has several patterns drawn, ready for me to start cutting and sewing. I saw one roll of paper labeled "Bi-Plan". Our 1st Potter kite is done and flies beautifully. We made another with the wings not attached to the cells. There have been questions as to which way was true to the original. We saw pictures at the Drachen Foundation in March which definitely showed the wings separate.

We have 2 Rudi delta's finished. Those are so fun. The third one is started. The Rudi kite is a fun German project. Want to see it? Check it out at his official web site: http://www.raberudi.com/ On his gallery pages, "hier könnten wir Euer Rudi-Foto einfügen" are our Rudi's, too!

I have finished sewing Gummibärchen. Gummibärchen? Gummi Bears! We have our 5. One in each of the Gummi Bear candy colors. Our Gummis are two times Eva's original size. Be sure to click on the picture to see the children at the White Rock, Canada festival enjoying them.

Gummibärchen

Design by Eva Dietrich

Plan from "KITES & friends"

What's in there?

Photo taken at "A Festival of Wind, Waves & Water Semiahmoo Bay Regatta", White Rock, Canada. April 2004

Our firstRudi has wiggling eyes.

He's looking at you!

Potter kite. The 2004 Fanoe classic kite workshop kite. Ours is about 2 meters high. Attached wings and the spreader is in a sleeve in back of the kite. This wing and spreader configuration was our guess at how the original Potter was made.

Robert and Charmayne with the finished class Angel Kite.

Ft. Worden class kites...

I made both Robert Brazington's Angel and Bird kites. Lovely, easy kites to build and fly.

They flew Sunday afternoon from one of the old concrete bunkers. Click on the picture to see both.

Our second Rudi has a polka dot bowtie and a beanie with a working propeller. The propeller will actually send him through the air towards us. His maiden flight was at White Rock, Canada, and he had to be watched every minute. The overly efficient propeller problem is something Bob has worked on and Bowtie Rudi now has propeller version 3. Much better!

Cloud Buster is one more of our Hi-Flier style replica kites.

Bob's bowling pin kite. The kite is his original idea for a kite, using a bowling pin to draft the pattern. It is just over 1.5 meters tall or almost 5 feet. Very sweet little flying kite.

See all 10 of our bowling pins.

Our second Potter. This one doesn't have the wings attached and the spreader is in front of the wings. Bob saw a picture at the Drachen Foundation of the original Potter showing the detached wings.

Our white Potter in flight.

Optic Rocket

Jolly Boy Kite
The Jolly Boy kite is another replica in our paper kite or "Hi-Flier" series. This one is distinctly different as it is a Barn Door kite, also sometimes called a 3-stick kite. It was flown with a tail hanging from the two bottom corners.

Charles Siple of Schenectady, New York, wrote an article for Kite Lines magazine in 1985. His brother flew these paper Jolly Boy Folding kites. They cost 25 cents in the late 1920's and could be had in different colors.
The Kite Lines editor comments gave more information. The kite was manufactured by the J. C. Ayling Co. located in Springfield, Illinois. Mr. Ayling held the patents for 4 kite designs. They were granted in 1911, 1916, 1926, and 1927.

On the original Jolly Boy kites came flying instructions including a caution:
"DO NOT FLY THIS KITE WITH WIRE AS IT IS DANGEROUS TO YOU."
Well, that holds true today, too!

Jolly Boy

Paper original kite.

The original is small, perhaps two or two and a half feet tall. We increased the size a lot and used ripstop nylon rather than paper. We first saw it in Kay Buesing's "Kites From Our Childhood" display at Kites On Ice 2003 in Madison, Wisconsin. You can see both the original and our replica in the photos to the left.

This kite is a beautiful flier. Jolly Boy does need a big tail. A lot of drag is needed to prevent the leading edge of the kite from dropping when the wind drops. The second photo shows the sparkle in his eyes.

6-legged ball guys

Line laundry. We made the first one in 2003. Spike and Mohawk Man aka Punk came along this year. All have 6 long skinny legs. I adore these guys!

Mohawk Man

3 meter bol

Jos Valcke gave us the pattern for our large bol. We made it from 6 polyester shower curtains! Check out your local Good Will or thrift shop for bargain prices.