I don’t know about you but I don’t do wind. I mean I know there is supposedly nothing as bracing as charging down a windswept beach head on to a raging gale, bent forward at the waist, deaf from the incessant howling in your ears, hair streaming out behind you, thrilled with the prospect that at any moment your clothing could literally be ripped from your body. Alive, right? You just feel so alive. Not me. I just feel cold…and a little whiney if the truth be told.
So how did somebody like me end up in the wind business – making kites and windsocks for the past 18 years? Well, way back when, my husband Pete and I had three young boys whose main goal in life appeared to be simply to run around in wide open spaces. Kite flying came naturally with the territory of all those boys so we gained an interest first and not long after our business, Windwerks, was born. Test flying our many kite prototypes and growing collection of “flying things” became a family pastime and I had to go along for the windy ride or lose out on being part of their magical world of flight.
And it was magical. There is something transforming about holding a kite string in your hand and mastering the art of keeping the dancing, spiraling, ever earthbound sprite at the end of the line aloft. In that moment you are a joyful five year old again and few things on this planet can take you to that place as quickly as a kite.
For several years we made some pretty fun kites but when good quality cheap kites began flowing out of China we cast around for a closely linked alternative and came up with windsocks, a whole new world of colour and movement with the added bonus of not having to stand around in a howling gale pretending it was fun. We have watched many Aussie kite makers fall by the wayside in the ensuing years, so we know we made a timely choice.
To this day we keep one beautiful little kite in our repertoire just to keep our hand in but we produce thousands of windsocks every year – from garden varieties to commercial airport socks – and are the leading windsock manufacturer in Australia.
Sometimes as I spot a windsock spinning in the breeze outside my window it is satisfying to realize we have designed our colourful business to suit our lifestyle and it works well. I love the fact that we make beautiful products that can be enjoyed from the comfort of a cozy house without a windswept beach in sight. Our business might be all about blowin’ in the wind but you don’t have to get a single hair ruffled on your head to appreciate a fabulous windsock when you see one.
Cheers,
Kim
November 2010