LaceWings and Metalwings

Shadow work with a Lacewing Flame by Tim Elverston and Ruth Whiting. Ruth Whiting's shadow. Jose Sainz's winged rokkaku. Spread Eagle stainless wings by Bryan Tedrick of Glen Ellen, CA. Photos by Ian Lauder. Perhaps out most amazing day at BRC last year 2008.

Tell Someone | new painting by Ruth Whiting

I personally love this new direction for Ruth's painting. These are a few shots of the new work she is doing. I find the story so simple and powerful. The final image will be rendered to a very fine degree. I can't wait.




No this isn't flash photography, Ruth is projecting a sketch as a guide in the above two images.

Our facebook page

Here is a little page on facebook where you can find some info about what we're up to.

WindFire Designs Facebook Page.

Hand-tied iPhone Case

After resisting the urge to buy a case from the at&t store - I have a strong dislike of retail these days, I made this iPhone case using some scraps of kitesurfing kite bridle line. I figure it beats buying yet another thing with lots of packaging. Since having knots in this stuff in this context wouldn't work, I pierced through with a bridling tool and used spectra to bind it at the key points. This protects it well from being dropped on the corners, and stays out of the way of the controls and the invisible sensors on the front of the screen that sense brightness and holding it up to your face. Second gen might be sewn at the white points using the machine.




So, I couldn't stand it. I went through and replaced all the spectra with bar-tacks done with the sewing machine. Here is the design all cleaned up and nice looking.

CubenGami Kite - Mark 1 - It Flies!

I'm so excited, this is a long time in the making, at least in my head. This is the first of many and it still needs some tuning. The shape when it's loaded with wind pressure is outstanding.

Folded cuben fiber, carbon, spectra, stainless steel. No adhesive=happy Tim.

Major inspiration from Anke Sauer. Look under pyramid>pictures.

Great in case I forget where our best friends are

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.

People seem to like boxes - Painted photon number 8 in a box

This painted mini photon is one of only 8 like it. This one is number 8 and it is leaving the nest. We thought it needed a suitable way to travel and a place to stay when it gets where it's going. It was purchased as a birthday gift from a sister to a brother.





This is a stainless steel winder that I made. It clips into the case and is easily removable. Kiters will see that it is a simple classic design that holds the 10 pound spectra neatly in a figure 8. I got a lot of positive response from the box I made for a necklace which I gave as a gift to Ruth's mother. This is my second presentation box that I've made so far. This one is made from black foam-core and self-adhesive dacron.

Ruth's Camera Kite | Process shots of the painting

The second layer of paint on this amazing quadline kite.

Ruth's Camera Kite | Process shots | painting first layer

This is the beginning of a quadline kite that is conceived of by Ruth Whiting and will be finished by Tim Elverston. This is on Cuben fiber and done with oil paint. We realized that we needed a way to chase the photographers that are always chasing us. More process shots to come soon.

Wing tip

Building a mini photon

Here is a time lapse of the final stage of building one of these little kites. This particular kite is sold to Scott Howlett - thanks Scott! I'm first putting clear reinforcements on the tips, then black fibrous reinforcement which gets hot-tack welded to prevent creep, and black bridle point circles. Then I hand bend the stainless fittings for each tip and fit and adjust those to the carbon frame, assemble the kite, and tie the bridle. This is nearly two hours of actual time with a photo taken every 5 seconds. Kite designed by Tim Elverston and Ruth Whiting of WindFire Designs. Carbon, spectra, cuben fiber, oil paint, stainless steel.

Clicking the HD button once the video is playing will increase the quality dramatically.

Painted cuben micro morpho

The painted mini morpho glider. I have made only one prototype that is blank. Ruth designed these graphics and this is number two. Shown here lying against a window patiently receiving her beautiful design.




Ruth continues to develop her style painting on cuben fiber. Here she is putting on the second layer of color after the first layer was dry. This is stuck to a window using water so that she can see in real time how the color will look when backlit. I will post images of the finished paint job in a few hours.

Foil design jig

I decided long ago that while computers are perfect for many jobs, they were not suited to accomplish the entire task of designing the foils that I wanted to fly and make for ourselves. While I do indeed use computers for much of the process, the core of the shape is done very like lofting a boat. These kites really are far too much work to be for sale, but this is how I sculpted them with a life-size model. This jig is used to to find the non-intuitive shapes of each cell. These were taken in 2001—hard to believe it's been so long.

Flying the MiniMorpho under the streetlight

Well, we really like this kite. Graphics come next, Ruth is excited. We were worried that it wouldn't glide, but luckily we were wrong. This thing almost flies itself.  We were getting 30 and 40 second runs with totally slack line.

Cuben MiniMorpho Glider | Snipits from the build

I built this very small cuben morpho glider last night. I haven't flown it much yet, but it seems like a lot of fun. There is a problem at this scale with the stiffness of the cloth, and I think this might come into play with this kite. We'll see.