At the start of the first workshop I gave an illustrated talk on the historical and contemporary development of kites. A lively discussion followed when participants spoke about their experiences of kite flying in Asia and the Caribbean. This was the first time they would be sewing ripstop nylon and with only 2 days to construct a kite I knew this was going to take a lot of effort.
Using a 2.5 metre octagonal shape seemed a good way to divide the construction between 8 people. They were encouraged to use cultural visual references and appliqué techniques. Not only did they construct a very colourful kite, we also had time and enough materials to make a long banner tail, which extended the visual theme.
The kite had its first successful flight at the Preston Mela festival in August.