Updated Making-of Gallery | ColorWing Flames

A glimpse into the long build process for some of our favorite show pieces. Two ColorWing Flames weighing only 4.2 ounces, 119 grams. See the gallery here.

Gravity Flying

Prepping a bunch of new colors for a major installation.

Making 3 ColorWing Morphos

This is a time-lapse that shows the incredibly lengthy process of painting and building these kites. Included is the complete paint and sewing job of one of the three. There is a total of 13 hours per kite of painting, and roughly that of cutting and building as well. The paint when dry adds about 14 grams to the total weight of the kite. The actual process of painting takes many days however, because there are 4 layers per panel and each layer has to dry completely before the next is added. There are a few things this does not show like the initial cutting of the panels and the complete framing processes. The kites are Morpho Gliders designed by Tim Elverston. Graphics and related technologies are by Ruth Whiting. The wing span is 14 feet each, or 4.25 meters. Weight of each finished kite is around 285 grams, or around 10 ounces. Thanks and enjoy!



If you are enjoying the video, it is VERY worth setting playback to 720p HD and clicking full screen.

Music is by Floex and is used with permission from the artist.

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Also, some backstory:

Pictured briefly at the end of this video are deltas made at Jordan Air kites. I designed these deltas at jordan air after being exposed to George Peters kites via Kitelines Magazine back in 1993 and also a small 2 foot plastic delta [giant by Charlie's standards] made by Charlie Sotich in 1995 which kind of started my entire obsession with glider-deltas. I never made any more like them. But after finding an old one in a friend's garage, dean recently revisited the design and has made a few - check out his site for the story. Kinda cool to have it all come full circle.

New Morpho Grandes

First I cut them, and then Ruth paints these for about 13 hours or more. Then I meticulously build them, and then they fly. They're 4.2 meters wide and weigh 284 grams. This is the first of three.

Double hinges

A spine and two articulated arms that will be leading edges for two wings.

Articulated carbon

These are fittings that I developed as hinges for my counterweighted lamps. Here I have miniaturized them for use in a kite I'm working on. Images of that to follow.

Paul builds his foil - a WindFire Zyzzle 1.4

This foil is a 1.4 square meter buggy kite that I designed with gracious help from dean jordan back in 2000. Paul is making one for himself in this series of shots. It's an incredibly fast and responsive small kite. Unlike trainer foils of a similar size, this kite has no shortcuts taken with the design and has a full bridle and rib count. It's amazing for high-wind buggying and because it's also built as an ultralight, with no unnecessary reinforcements, it can also fly in near zero wind. Revisiting this kite makes me want to design some more, almost 10 years later, wow how time flies. Here is the first flight.