WHAT'S NEW IN OUR WORLD OF KITES?
fire
water
July 2025
Mertagon aka Vexagon. What to name a new kite?
A hexagonal frame with a sail made of six identical triangular panels. Each panel is cut and joined in a way that creates vents within the sail. Thanks to this vented construction, the kite performs well in both, light breezes and strong winds.
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A new kite deserves a new name. Its maiden flight took place on Mertasari Beach in Sanur, Bali — and that’s where the name Mertagon was born. An alternative name came from Karl Longbottom, who followed a similar logic of combining “hexagon” with a defining feature of the kite, suggesting Vexagon.
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So far, Mertagon - Vexagon has been created in three colour combinations, each featuring two panels with hand-spray-painted patterns.
May 2025, Kaunas - Zapyškis, Lithuania
The most unusual place I’ve ever sewn a kite? The altar of the church in Zapyškis.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Kaunas District and the 20th anniversary of the Zapyškis Kite Festival, I was invited to design a special series of kites. In collaboration with EžerÄ—lio KultÅ«ros Centras, we created ten kites featuring municipal coats of arms, all made during a workshop held before the festival.
The guiding idea was simple and meaningful: to create kites that connect communities.
The workshop took place at the School of Applied Arts, where pupils and teachers worked side by side to build the kites —and completed them 4 hours ahead of schedule!
On Saturday, the day of the festival, the kites began their journey in an extraordinary setting. They were exhibited inside the historic church standing on the banks of the Nemunas River—one of the oldest brick buildings in Lithuania.
The kites were arranged on the church altar, with a sewing machine placed at the centre. There, in front of the audience, I sewed the final kite of the collection, bearing the Kauno Rajonas logo. Visitors could observe the entire process as it unfolded.
Sewing a kite in such a space—where history, craft, community, and quiet concentration met—was an unforgettable experience on many levels. Full photo report here.
Photo by Szymon Krawczyk
April 2025, Artevento festival, Cervia
Together we can lift meadows into the sky!
It’s wonderful to build something together! During Artevento 2025, together with workshop participants, we’ve created a flying meadow of poppies.
It was a time of shared (and international!) work, helping one another, supporting each other, joy, and friendship. All of it crowned with a beautiful collective flight. There were so many emotions on stage and in the arena when we presented the result of our work to the world!
When I was designing the kite for this year’s workshop edition, my first idea was poppies on Eddy kites—each one different, but together forming a single coherent image. The background was originally supposed to be white, and the kite I made as the model for participants indeed had a white background.
A bit at the last moment, I changed my mind and decided the background should be green. I didn’t have time to make a second sample kite on green, so I took a risk and went with the experiment, not knowing how the green would look once the kites were finished.
It turned out to be a perfect choice—because the green made a true meadow appear in the sky! Full photo report here.
Photo by Ralf Maserski
Photo by Cassie Shook
April 2024, Artevento festival, Cervia
Flamboyance of Flamingos sewing kite workshop
In April 2024, during the 44th edition of the Artevento International Kite Festival in Cervia, Italy, a kite workshop for adults was held for the first time. Another wonderful fruit of the collaboration between Artevento and SzalSky Kites.
This time the participants built a Hexagon type kite with a Flamingo motif, referring to the theme of the festival.
Each kite that was created is unique and part of a whole - a flock of flamingos. Full photo report is available here.
Photo by Szymon Krawczyk
October 2023, One Sky One World, Cervia
Kite workshop in collaboration with Artevento
On the 2nd Sunday of October 2023, as every year, we celebrated One Sky One World. This time in Cervia in Italy, where we organised a kite workshop for adults through a wonderful collaboration with Artevento.
Two participants started building kites on Friday and finished them on Saturday morning. Another two started and completed the creation process on Saturday. For two of the participants, Agnieszka and Elisabetta, this was their first ever kite sewing adventure! And although everyone was pushed a bit out of their comfort zone while sewing on the letters ONE SKY ONE WORLD, everyone excelled in the challenge.
On Sunday all the kites flew high carrying good energy into the world.
More about One Sky One World here.
Photo by Szymon Krawczyk
KAP by Pierre Lesage
KAP by Wolfgang Bieck
February & March 2023
SEWING WORKSHOPS preparations started
The beginning of 2023 promises to be very exciting. Alicja will be running a kite workshop in Finland in February, and 2 workshops in the USA are lined up for March! Although these events are still a few months away, we are already updating and creating handbooks, preparing materials and making travel plans. Once the participants have chosen their kites and colors, the intense work of preparing the workshop kits will begin. We will keep you updated!
Click images below to get more information about USA events.
More about sewing workshops here.
August 2022
LOTUS HEXAGON successful maiden flight
The design of this kite envisioned that by overlapping layers of fabric, when the sun shines through the kite, an interesting visual sparkle effect would be created.
The end result exceeded our expectations.
Can one person handle a train of Hexagons? Check it out!
June 2023
Kite Aerial Photography session, Fanø, Denmark
KAP - Kite Aerial Photography is the art of taking photographs with a camera attached to a kite line. Practitioners of this art often construct their own equipment for KAP, use various types of cameras and test new technological developments. Added to this is the skill of flying the kite, feeling the wind, the distance, the angle. A fascinating activity.
In June 2023, during the International Kite Fliers Meeting at the Danish island of Fanø, we made an excursion to one of the WW2 bunkers on the island, to photograph kites flying over the bunker. We were super happy to collaborate on this project with greatly skilled KAP masters.​
Nature slowly takes over the bunker at its own pace. Kites decorate the sky lifted by the wind. Wonderful cooperation and creativity bring joy and beauty into the world. It was a magical morning. Let's create, not destroy.
International Dieppe Kite Festival, September 2022
The Earth in the spotlight. UPCYCLING PROJECT
In 2018 Alicja received a used paraglider wing from Tomek and Iza, with the intention of transforming it into kites. Two years later "The Earth in the spotlight" theme of Festival International de Cerf-Volant de Dieppe became a perfect opportunity to bring this upcycling project into life. The 2020 festival, as well as the project, has been postponed due to pandemic. This year, a week before the event in Dieppe, we finally finalised it. The maiden flight took place during the festival.
We strongly believe that minimal resources unleash creativity potential. After 80 hours of work, we have built 51 kites, and we could build at least 100 more from the recovered materials.
Work, effort, time, and a bit of talent are the key.
More about upcycling projects here.
February 2022
Kites for Ukraine
When Russia brutally attacked Ukraine, we felt the need to do something symbolic to show our solidarity with our friends in Ukraine. Together with Karolina and Filip, who had never built kites before, within 3 hours we created a chain of 27 diamond kites and flew them by the Waal river in Nijmegen.
More about this project here. Photo: Filip Placzek.
