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soft warrior / masque

Drawing: Soft Warrior, by Mike Carroll, a stylized picture of a Japanese warrior on a hata-like kite face.

This is a mock-up of a kite I designed sometime in the mid 1990's. I used tracing paper and felt-tip pens to rough sketch the face, then taped it to a window to see how the kite would look with sunlight behind it. I found the drawing buried in a box of rip-stop scraps, which is why it has the interesting waves and creases in it.

The design was actually for playing with the eyes, which I'd first used on another kite.

I did finally make two copies of the kite, but it wasn't as interesting in the sky as I hoped. In flight the left and right tips of this type of kite are flexed backward by the wind. This deforms the face: the crest and mouth are squeezed and look weird. I donated the kite to the American Kiteflier's Association annual convention, where it sold for an ego-destroying small amount of money in the silent auction.

You can see my copy in the air here, during the 2003 Junction Kitemakers' Retreat.

soft warrior / masque
mike carroll
circa 1995
11.25" wide x 11.25" high
tracing paper, felt-tip pens

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