WORKSHOPS

PROFILE
KITE GALLERY
KITE WORKSHOPS
CONTACT
INSPIRATION
KITE FESTIVALS
SAHARA
LINKS
Sahara group kite
Sahara is a voluntary organisation providing support for women in Preston who are from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Staff speak English, Gujarati, Urdu and Punjabi. There is also access to Bengali interpreters. Sahara organise courses at their Preston premises in IT, English literacy and other leisure interest areas. It is in this context that I held a 2 day kite workshop there.

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.

Sahara banner tail
Sahara kite workshop