My fascination with kites stems from the way they capture light as they move in the wind. My own work has developed primarily in handmade paper, and I have yet to design my own kite, but I recently found a book on my shelf that I’d had since childhood called “Drachen Basteln” (Craft Kites) which I must have purchased or been gifted when my family lived in Germany for a year when I was sixteen.

 Introduction by Ali Fujino

When you combine a love for nineteenth-century literature with a love for kites, some interesting things happen. As I began researching nineteenth-century kite literature, I realized that there was preciously little material on the subject, even though nineteenth-century stories involving kites abounded.

 Tom Van Sant is that type of artist. Professionally trained he has been on the cutting edge of art and design for decades. Like the masters, he works in a way that incorporates everything in his life into his art — his personal life, his professional and technical skills and his passion to know about the world in which he lives.

Introduction by Ali Fujino Throughout time, there has been, what I refer to, as “the force of great ideas…” They can be big or small in nature, but to qualify, they must evolve from the unique vision of an individual who has the ability to put them into action. FLOAT Beijing is one of these great ideas, a participatory design, mapping and open source data visualization project using air quality sensing kites. I came across this project in one of my weekly passes reviewing stories of kites on the internet.

The walk up to Pat Hammond’s house is just as I remember it, a jungle of plants under a canopy of arching oak trees. Statues of lambs carved in stone guard the path leading to her home. At the door, I am greeted by a set of numbers written in rusty old chains laid out on the ground: 3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5. It’s a chain letter. Literally.

Cheang Yarin and Sim Sarak have proven to be very special kite ambassadors for their home country of Cambodia. After publishing Khmer Kites in 2003, and after countless trips to the countryside to teach kite making and ferret out lost Cambodian kite heritage, Cheang and Sim have now published an updated version of Khmer Kites. Illustrated with many more photographs, the new edition continues to shed light on the obscured past of Cambodian kite culture.

For over twenty years, the center of North American land-based kite traction has been the unlikely Nevada border town of Primm. Lured by the funky ambiance and inexpensive hotel rooms in this casino-town, and by the Ivanpah dry lake bed just outside the back door, kite buggy enthusiasts from around the world have been making pilgrimages to Primm ever since kite retailer Fran Gramkowski brought his son Fritz to the desert to celebrate a spring break. Fran and local Vegas retailer and buggy-enthusiast Corey Jensen have held numerous events over the years – each growing ever-bigger – until the North …

I have never met Julie Scott in person, but like many stories at Drachen, they begin with a simple encounter through the phone, email, or letter. This particular collaboration started with an earthquake, not a small one, but a large one that has left a small island a disaster. The nature of many earthquakes renders the residents in much despair and tragedy, shattering their everyday living patterns to that of survival. You know all the asks: “Where do we get uncontaminated water, building materials, medical supplies?”

About a year ago, at the Cervia Volante kite festival in Italy, I was lucky enough to bump into one of my favorite kite people; Carl Robertshaw.