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About this blog

Bringing my kite builds up to date with a bit of history on each kite.

Entries in this blog

Rogallo 2021 in the bag

It was an incredible Weekend With The RAF, WoW crew and Kitty Hawk Kites. The Rogallo festival this year had WIND, Kites, Sun, WIND, a few Sprinkles, WIND and did I mention WIND!!! Thank You @Nags Head Flyer for pulling together some World Class flier to make this a Rogallo to remember. Other Forum Members that I saw come by are @Ejay @John P @Tim P.  

riffclown

riffclown in Sponsored Event

Rogallo Prep Continued

So the packing is done, arrangements made and just last minute prep for the trip.. I make make a run to create a test dogstake to try out this weekend. hoping also for a night fly since I'll be staying down there.. Truck is getting full.  

riffclown

riffclown in Sponsored Event

Overkill and Getting up the hill

Those who know me know I can't pack small no matter how hard I try.. Rogallo Festival is this weekend. First big event since the pandemic. Lots of kites to fly, lots of stuff to try BUT, Jockey's Ridge does have one downside.. IT is not the most accessible site to fly at. Closest parking is at Kitty Hawk Kites across the street but that's a long ways to carry 4 kite bags, Umbrella/chair/canopy/cooler/camera equipment etc.  As much as I want to carry "everything" it just isn't in the cards. FWIW,

riffclown

riffclown in Sponsored Event

Playing with Composite images

Lately I've been playing with pulling stills out of video and overlaying the frames to have a still image "show" motion.. Thought I'd share the efforts. Some of these you have seen. Some are new but from older footage.  

riffclown

riffclown

Doubled Up

While checking my second Rainbow Sail, I caught a glimpse of some very pretty colors when the fabric doubled up on me. I maximized the effect here to share.  While this will never be a kite this way due to needing two layers for everything, it's still a very cool color play that I thought I'd share with you.

riffclown

riffclown

Group Photo

Hadn't taken the time to snap a photo of the kites I carry in my bag in a while.  

riffclown

riffclown

Tools of the Trade

I've been asked about what I use to do particular things for kite making.  Thought it'd be a good opportunity to share a quick overview of pretty much everything I use.  Some are more obvious than others. My kite making tools.. I use a sewing machine (obviously) 2 - 6' Long Metal rulers 2 - 3' Long Metal Rulers 1 - 18" Ruler (metal) 1 - 12" Ruler (metal) A Fiskars Rotary cutter. A Paper Cutter (Office Style) The normal assortment of Scissors (Including a heavy duty pair for

riffclown

riffclown

Closing the book on 2018 kites.

I don't have pictures of them all but 26 kites were finished in 2018. No kites from tails this year. all from either RSN or Icarex. A few meshes and a couple of very unique attempts at doing something new. I'm not counting the one I considered failures that became flags. I'm blogging it here to keep from blasting out the gallery.. You seen probably most of these pictures before.  

riffclown

riffclown

A silent solstice bridle check

Finished my latest Diamond Mesh Mashup and wanted to give it a good bridle check. Winds less then 5MPH and kite designed for 3-4 times that so was indeed a challenge.  Hopefully winds tomorrow will support a bit of video.. Pleased with the kite so far..

riffclown

riffclown

A Day at the Park (Djinn and Phoenix find the sky)

Anxious to try my new Djinn, I contacted @Khal to see if we could meet and fly today. Yesterday at Atlantic Beach was nice but the winds were far too high to consider a full sail. Today our normal flying location wa a bit gusty and more the mid-vent range but very flyable. We met and started flying not only my new Djinn but the Phoenix Mid-Vent as well as my Trick or Treat kite. All in all it was a nice day to fly with variable and a bit gusty winds at times. A few of Khal's kites also expe

riffclown

riffclown

Gray III

Completed Gray III today and gave it a quick bridle check.. Due to the gustiness outside, I used very short lines and flew in the swirl of the building.

riffclown

riffclown

Diamonds Colorizer-Planning ahead

So I found an older colorizer over on GWTW and adapted it for the diamonds design.. It's not web based but gives me a pretty good idea of how I can set up my color schemes. Here are a few quick samples.      

riffclown

riffclown

Gray Fade

Finished up this kite today and did a quick Bridle test.. Hoping for flight test this week.

riffclown

riffclown

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