these fighters are the first, in what will hopefully develop into a style of unique skin decoration, based on the art of various indigenous groups and tribes of people ...

background ...

africa, the continent of my birth, is rich in it’s traditional culture and art ... the styles vary from tribe to tribe, with the underlying shapes and colors that are rooted deeply in the past ... inspiration and ideas have been taken from the southern african ndebele, zulu, basotho and xhosa tribal dress and especially from the brightly decorated homes ...

the paintings on these three kites are based on the art and decoration style of the ndebele people ... pronounced “nn-duh-beh-leh” ... they use and apply the same type of basic geometric shapes, in personalized beadwork and on the walls of their homes, both inside and outside ...

as a child, i used to see these homes out in the country side, every time we went on a trip/holiday to the famous ‘kruger national park’.

top left ... woman and children sitting outside in courtyard
bottom left ... mother and child at work on their wall
right ... entrance to courtyard and home
note ... the homes are built from mud and thatch

woman in front of home

two women with displaying beadwork

the kites ...

the plan of these kites is a small version of the basf, as suggested by bruce ... bows are 0.06 cf; indian spines; 0.04 battens and the skins are orcon. all three are ‘off the bench’ and ‘table-tuned’, but as yet, have never flown ...

made for woody ...

made for bruce ...

‘thinking of africa’ ...
fighter kite and reel
raffled at nafka’s wintersunfunfighterfly in tucson, az
[feb 15/16, 2003]

‘2003 nafka standard’ ...
plan copyright chuck lund 2003

‘untitled’ ...
‘fatdog’ plan copyright bruce lambert 2003

‘africacan face’ ...
to be auctioned on ebay [may 2003]

‘africacan fire sunset’ ...
to be auctioned on ebay [may 2003]

‘dreaming of africa’ ...
fighter kite and reel [sold]

that’s all for now ... more to come soon ...

african inspiraions
[back to pics]

fighters:
... the monroe
... copyright
... phlying phish
... eye-con
... big indian fighter
... red lips 1ne
... yellow xprmnt
... israeli flag fighter
... red lips 2wo
... basf xprmnt
... stryke #051
... african inspirations

kites:
... under construction

flying days:
... under construction