This is the seventh year I’ve attended the annual kitemakers’ conference held at Fort Worden, in Port Townsend. There was again an excellent line-up of classes and teachers, and I returned home with 3 beautiful new kites. 
Day 1 was devoted to John Freeman’s "Goin’ and Comin’" kite. It’s a really spare, elegant design, that ingeniously uses overlapping fabric to create a 3rd complementary color. It’s a snap to assemble, and above all, it flies beautifully.
On day 2 I attended Paul Horner’s class to build the "Tensegrity" kite. The photo doesn’t reveal all the little technical details — it was quite a demanding class in terms of accuracy and attention to detail. This kite is a very active flier; it should be a lot of fun, but definitely not something you can just stake out and forget.
Finally, I built this mini-Genki. It’s a nice little kite that promises to be an excellent low-wind flier. Wendy suggested the teal color, and I rather like it. I can’t wait to get some serious flying time with these kites.
