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Bob's and Charmayne's kites in 2019 |
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Bob's and Charmayne's kites in 2019 |
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Kay Buesing sent us an article from KiteLines, suggesting we make this kite.
It is the Eight-Winged box kite designed by Mike Bithell. It is a
variation of a Dymaxion Box which was part of a series of kites he was working
on. This is what Mike said in the article, "Both designs use square pieces of
fabric for the outer wings. The squares are connected along their diagonals to
the four outer edges of the central box." That gives the 8 wings. It is a
great little box kite. Easy to build, assemble and fly! Do you want one of your own? Look for issue KiteLines Winter-Spring 1987, Best of Show series. |
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← from the side from the back → |
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| The UCVGP Fanø project in 2018 was suggested by Frits Sauvé. We did not go to Fanø, instead opting for a trip to Egypt this year. Even so, we made our entries for the event. This was a set of three little (really little) kites made from cotton. You can see how little! And this was the largest of the three. Part of the challenge was in regards to the weight of the little kites. |
 First, no lift. |
 Bob working on the bridle. |
 Then too much lift resulting in that nasty zig zag zooming flight... |
 ...until it slams into the ground like a rocket. The tail-like thing is a bag of sand. It was in the directions. Yes, a bag of sand or pebbles. |
 Bob gets his way and it flies! Note the sand bag is now at the end of a long line. |
 Speciality bag for the 3 kites! |
 Nicely rolled up. |
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This is the big brother to a small bird mask kite I made for Bob's Christmas present one year. Similar in size to our cat kites, it needed a set of tails to be stable in the air. The eyes looked very dimensional with the shiny white fabric centers. This kite is about 5 feet tall, needs no tail and has the same deep eye socket look. I did the appliqué work on this while Bob tore out several layers of flooring and a Murphy bed in the kite room, working around me, moving the sewing table around the newly exposed concrete slab. I had the easier job by far. |
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| Marzlie Freeman gave us a kite kit at Long Beach this year. John had bought it from Frits Sauvé but did not get to make it. We did. Deep blue cotton with creamy white edging make this Pearson Roller stand out in the sky. Thank you, Marzlie. |
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| Bob gave another bird a dusting of brown paint. |
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| Bob has wanted a star for a long time and this year it became a reality. This is based on a Malinski star. We did not have a good set of directions, just a few photos from Jim Day's actual Malinski star. It was an incredibly difficult kite for me to sew. I could not "see" it and figure out what to do when. How many times can a kite skin get wadded up and thrown into the corner and still be completed? Bob kept coming to the rescue (the kite skin's and mine). This kite flies beautifully. Just don't ask to see it on the ground! These photos were taken while the wind was blowing a steady 15, gusting to 18.5 mph. A bridle line slipped off but it did not care. |
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Not too many kites were built this year.
Guests and grandchildren, my quilling convention, a new kite room floor which
we installed ourselves, some travel including Egypt, several trips to Long
Beach, a camping trip, and kite festivals (including Jamestown!) kept us busy.
It was another good year of retirement. The final kite of the year is Bob's 2019 Christmas kite. The Alox ROCKET SHIP. |
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