First work off the new pliers

Got my german surgical pliers today. Fantastic tools, and basically jewelry in and of themselves. This is a necklace I'm working on as another present.

Finished Necklace

This is a gift. For whom? I cannot mention here. Stainless wire, onyx and jasper.

New Necklaces

Here is the start of a new design. This is about 25% of it. Higher quality shots to follow.

Scan vs Photo

Recently Ruth and I have been in image capture hell. Or, to put it more mildly, we have learned a lot about what makes a good image capture. Here are two examples showing side by side crops at 100%. These are Ruth's original oil paintings on paper. They are about 25" x 15" overall. We need to capture for Ruth's upcoming book Lonely Bird's Friend. Of course it's obvious that a scanner is going to have higher quality than a camera if it is possible to use a scanner in a given situation. This experience really drives it home though.

Prior to seeing the scans, we were blown away by the image quality from our recent shoot on the Nikon. The right hand frame on each image here is from my Nikon D90 with a 50mm prime at f5.6 on a tripod and using diffused halogen lights. The left side is from a sheetfed scanner at 600 dpi, the right side is from the nikon at 300 dpi and 12 megapixels. To compare, the nikon's raw images are about 12-15 megabytes. The scans are 376 megabytes. So what's the catch? The scanner at our print shop is perfect in every way except it leaves banding and lines in the images making them unprintable–we think the scanner is out of adjustment. We go for an appointment next week to another print shop to try another scanner. High hopes for it.

Good advice, for some.

Don't fly kites near power lines. It is pretty good advice. Like many rules however, some can be bent, others can be broken. We often fly in our front yard. It has some really beautiful lines right above it. Getting close to them can be really photogenic.

Ruth in the studio - nearing completion of the book

These are among the final images which have to be done to complete Ruth's book - Lonely Bird's Friend

Finished lamp - carbon, stainless, spectra, cuben fiber

The makings of a counterweighted lamp

Two weeks ago I made this lamp. I'm working on the second. This one has a wooden base, the next one will be all carbon. This is a wall-mounted lamp that is counterweighted so it can be adjusted with two fingers to go anywhere within the 5 foot radius. It started with an idea for a bent wire junction.

Leather Jacket

In process, this is the first leather jacket I've ever made. I knocked off a patagonia jacket that I have and really like. The templates were very hard to get, so i used clear plastic to lay over the patagonia pieces. I traced the shapes onto the plastic, then I backlit them and traced them into paper templates. It turns out that I got the shapes within about 2 mm because the leather went together perfectly. I will post more images as I continue to finish this out. It's really soft, and not quite as shiny as this shot might suggest.

Raw silk shirt

I'm learning how to use this raw silk. It is a dream to sew. Amazing the way it takes stitching. I want to do gusseted dresses next.

Rust Wire Mobile

I made this when I was living in Australia. Ruth was taking a sculpture class and I was sitting around in the studio. There was a huge roll of this fantastic wire that had a really nice finish and took a curve really well. This was just a quick doodle and it came before this silghtly more complex wire mobile that I did from stainless steel.

How to make Dust Goggles.

I made these goggles for the dust in the desert at Burning Man. I am posting these images as instructions for those of you who might want to try making some of their own.

Good goggles for the desert are hard to find and they are very expensive if you do.

These are made from an old leather jacket, and from two pieces of tempered and UV resistant glass that I got from the halogen 'puck style' lights. I popped the glass out of the plastic ring. They also sell tinted circles that can be used for torch brazing which would be great. I wanted these for night also, so I'm leaving them clear.

The whole process took about 3 hours. If you have any questions please email me. You can get the address from our website.




Here is the link to the main page on our site. How to make leather and glass goggles.

Silk is amazing

So I finally finished this shirt. The strength of this sheer silk is beyond belief. I must admit that I had no idea that silk was as strong as I'd always heard. Like many things in life, they don't make real sense until you experience them for yourself. I can't wait to make some more clothing from silk now. Between silk and merino, I think I have my fiber requirements for my clothing totally covered for life.

Painting - Ruth Whiting - Tell Someone

Near completion, this is Ruth's first painting in this series. It's called Tell Someone. It's 3.5' x 5' and oil on canvas, I love it.

Mike Emery's Razzle Dazzle Flame in Finland

This is a razzle dazzle Flame designed for and living with Mike Emery. It's Flame number 16. Ruth and I designed it with the idea of the world war I camouflage scheme for the british and american ships. This flame is cold, but seems very at home in the snow.

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.