|
Bob and Charmayne's kites made in 2007 |
|
|
Bob and Charmayne's kites made in 2007 |
| We seem to be racing though 2007. Kites we have made this year include several made for friends we see on Fanø, more cotton and wood historical kites plus modern material replicas, and reworking a kite with lots of rods into a soft kite. |
 Arno Haft bird replicas. We did this kite for a class at the Kite Museum. With just a few students signed up, I cut out one at home and had plenty of time to sew the skin during the workshop and then did the rods and bridle along with the rest of the class under Bob's watchful eye. We gave this red bird to our friend Didi on Fanø. Torsten had also made a bird so the 3 kites made a happy little flock. |
 As always, we make several kites getting ready for a class. We added the eyes the larger Haft bird had and a beak.
|
I made Kevin Sanders' Shard kite in his class at Ft. Worden in 2007.
|
 The theme for the Fanø Classic this year was French kites. The Antoinette was the workshop kite, led by Falk Hilsenbek. We did our research, drafted the pattern, agonized over details and made our Antoinette at home before leaving in June. It is unbleached cotton with red edge binding with wood spars and hemp twine. A classic! We tried very hard to be true to the original with the exception of needing to cut the wing spreader in half for transport. |
This picture is of Bob showing Kay Buesing our kite just before it's maiden voyage during our Kite Museum workshop.
Our Antoinette has flown well. Like the rest of our classic kites, it allows the wind to pass through the sail. It needs more wind than a replica from ripstop nylon would but will fly with more stability in less than perfect wind. |
Little kites for an arch. A "Fanø" friend met in 2006 asked us to make a kite for his arch. We took him these this year. Simple and quick to do. I think maybe we also need an arch. Ceri's arch will be flown in Dieppe in 2008. Look for our contributions! |
|
We decided our Celtic star woman kite was too hard to put together with about a million sticks, all through sleeves and all tied together. This appliquéd round kite has always been one of my favorites and has seen very little air time. It had to be bowed out of round to fly and was nasty around others! Out came the rods, off came the sleeves, on went a back and we turned her into a soft kite. We have spent a couple of kite days working with the bridles. It has been a chore but we are happier with her now. One more soft kite to our growing number of kites you shake out and toss into the sky... |
 
|
If one is good, more are better, right? That theory works for us. 12 Hi-Fliers, 3 Arno Haft birds, 2 Rudi the Crow kites, a pair of Lester Swallows, a train of Felix the cats, etc. I wasn't able to take Ralf Maserski's Ft. Worden class but bought a kit from Ralf. In May I spent hours digging through mountains of scraps. I ironed them and Bob and I cut out a seemingly endless number of rhombs and little strips. Ralf uses a Guillotine type paper cutter for the strips. We had to cut them the hard way. Each kite was only about a 4 hour task once I had all those strips made. We love these little well behaved kites and their huge flowing tails. |
| Our second and third cotton kites this year were the Voitländer. We used a combination of the original plan and Gerd Schaller's class kite plan when Bob drafted the pattern. The stick sets were made by Gerd. Our first was a red bird which flew beautifully at the coast one Sunday afternoon in September. I took a short movie of it flying. I really like the way the rigging forms ribs in the wings. |
  |
 |
 |
Bob's Christmas kite! Flat Stanley! Flat Stanley is a children's story book character known and loved the world over. The book was written by Jeff Brown. We took him to the New Year's Day fly in Seattle but alas, no wind. Marla Miller did ask for a photo with Flat Stanley. He is always happy to oblige. |
Finally in February 2008 we got a weekend with nice kite flying weather. Off to the coast we went. Flat Stanley went up and flew for hours. What a champ! Since then he has been an international and domestic traveler.
|
