Making History at Kite Makers Conferences
Several years back, the Drachen Foundation board of directors thought to give $500. scholarships to kite workshop retreats who would bring international kite makers to their venues to bring together new approaches to kiting. The criteria for participating was simple,work with Drachen to invite an international kitemaker of excellent quality either in contemporary or traditional kite making, send us proof of their airfare, a certificate of your non profit status, and we would support your choice by cutting the check.
Since this program was initiated, we have seen representation from the Philippines, Germany, France, and Colombia, just to name a few of the countries and cultures.
This year, Fort Worden Kitemakers Conference invited Paul and Helene Morgan to teach the “Basque Kite.” Below is a charming report by FWK board member and activist, Ron Miller:
Wow! The Fort Worden Kitemakers Conference of 2008 celebrated their 25 th anniversary! Once again the Curriculum Committee was a victim of it’s own success. The most numerous feeback comments we received is that, “there are too many good classes and not enough time.” Personally, I like that problem. It means we are doing our job.
In April of 2007, after the conference of the same year, the Curriculum Committee starts looking at a new search of future teachers for 2008. One of the names that stood out from our evaluation form was Helene Morgan, and her “Basque” kite. Paul and Helene Morgan had taught at the conference in 2005 and Helene had brought along a kite she had made in years past for a raffle donation. It was the “Basque” kite. The kite is a cheeky design by Helene, and when made, each one is different either in color or in decoration. They are decorated with bows, ribbons, feathers and lace. Each come with a matching tail. Attendees loved it, remembered it and asked that we invite Hellen to teach it. So we started the process of asking Helene to fill out our “application to teach.”
In the end, she and her husband Paul became one of our 2008 teachers.
The Basque is just one of the wide range of kites made by Paul and Helene Morgan of Sky Bums who have been designing nad building high quality high performance kites in Shropshire, England since 1986.
Both Paul and Helene went to Shrewsbury Art School before going ot Art College. Paul took a course in illustration and Graphic Design in Cambridge a nd Helene studied Fashion and textiles along with business studies in Brighton.In 1982, just before the birth of their second son, Dominic, they took two year old Jonathan on holiday to the coast and bough an inexpensive plastic octopus kite. Jon had as much fun splashing in puddles and eathing sand, but the kite was flown all day and the Morgans became hooked. From that day forward, kites became a bigger part of life until in 1986, Morgan Kites was setup, and they sold kites to the public and other kite retailers.
In 1991, they wrote “The Book of Kites” (published as “The Ultimate Kite Book” in America), and in 1992, changed the company name to Sky Bums, which coincided with the opening of their shop in Shrewsbury. By 1995, they decided shop keeping was not for them and returned to what they do best, designing and building kites. Paul and Helene still work full time from home and produce all their kites themselves. They run workshops for schools, teachers, art centers and kitefliers and can be found on the field at kite festivals most weekends throughout the summer. In 1998 they also took over the organization of their local Shrewsbury Kite Festival. Today, Paul and Helene can offer you a special custom kite, one off the shelf or just friendly help and advice. Contact them at www.skybums.net.
I took their class at Fort Worden and it was fun, fun, fun. Need I say more?”
Look forward to more international kite making and classes at Fort Worden Kite Retreat (http://www.kitemakers.org/) and AOK Kite Retreat in Oregon. (http://www.oregonkiteclub.com/index.htm)