Kite Makers Conference 2014

This is my 2014 project from the annual Fort Worden Kite Makers Conference: a Robert Brasington “Listeners” kite.

It was a very intense and very productive weekend. I spent about 16 hours sewing and assembling this kite – which isn’t really very much for a design of this complexity. Fortunately Robert had already done a lot of prep work ahead of time, cutting the fabric and assembling all the fittings.

Despite it’s unusual shape, this is not a very technically difficult kite to build. The most critical thing is accuracy in assembling all the panels – there’s plenty of opportunity to get things mixed up or misaligned. Luckily I did not have to do much “reverse sewing” while putting this together.

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with one of my kiting heroes: I have long admired Robert’s sense of color and design. But being from Tasmania, his visits to the conference are rare. The last time I took a class with Robert was back in 2004, when we built a small version of his White Angel. It was great to have a whole weekend to learn more about his design process and style of kite building.

And in case you’ve been wondering, the kite is called “Listeners” because the color scheme of the first incarnation was inspired by this Weaver Hawkins painting of the same name.