Randy's Galleries
Eye Nebula :: large, 8mm polished crepe
I guess you could say I was having a good day the day I made these. They look cool standing still and even cooler in motion. They beg to be flown dramatically slow and maniacally fast - preferably at the same time, in what I’ve termed "non-linear time dilation" mode.
Flying these always felt really good. After I saw Phillip fly them though, giving them to him to keep felt even better. (at least that’s what I keep telling myself.) :-)
I rarely talk to my flags, except to give thanks now and then... but I had a long conversation with these guys about why I was giving them away and the very special person I was giving them too. I wanted to make sure they understood.
Whaaaat? Why you rollin’ your eyes like that? Whatsamatta, you never talk to your flags?
Blacksap :: standard size, 8mm habotai
This was my attempt to get over my fear of black dye. Andy in Seattle was doing such cool stuff with it, that I had to try.
I like to get these out when the music is dark and there isn’t a lot of light in the club - they seem to fit the mood better than something more bright and happy.
Exploding Tulips :: giant, 8mm habotai; latex-based pigments
This was an experiment in water-based latex. It dries like paint, then you set it with an iron.
Then you spend the next 2 days peeling dried latex off your iron.
At first these were really rough to fly - the pigments really messed with the "feel" of the silk. Now, after a couple of years of being flow, they are almost as smooth as dyed flags. (A lot heavier, though - all that paint really adds to the weight!)
Midnight Caldera :: standard size, 8mm habotai
Much like how every woman’s wardrobe should include a little black cocktail dress and a pearl necklace, every flagger’s bag should include a blue-green-purple set of flags.
SF Pride Parade 2003 :: large, 8mm habotai (2 identical sets)
I led the Gold’s Gym float in the 2003 SF Pride parade flying these - into the wind, of course.
I made two sets but we never lined up a second flagger... and at some point, unbeknowst to me, the second set fell into the tank of liquid soap on the float’s bubble machine. It sat submerged in the soap for over two hours before someone noticed as we were taking the float apart after the parade. They handed me the soap-soaked flags and, horified, I rushed into the locker room and began rinsing them out. I fully expected them to be reduced to a pale brown mush of non-color. But in fact, only a little purple rinsed out!
The picture is of the set that fell in the soap - *after* they had been rinsed out and dried. The set I actually flew in the parade - it’s purples somewhat more intact - I gave to my friend Jeff in Seattle.
Spiral Tiger :: large, 5mm habotai
My second, somewhat bolder attempt to play with black. Also, a pretty cool intentional (or so I’ll continue to claim) use of white space.
Up from the Deep I :: giant, 5mm habotai
Dyed in a single piece with Up from the Deep II. These have a really neat "melted crayon" effect that I hope to figure out how to reproduce again.
These belong to Dan now. I wanted to give him some flags to thank him for being my friend and to reward him for being such a stellar flag pup... but I just wasn’t inspired to make anything worthy of giving him at the time. So, I did the next best thing: I told him he could take any set of mine he wanted as his gift.
This is the set he chose.
Up from the Deep II :: large, 5mm habotai
These are fun to play on the tips... you can get all sorts of "whips of fire" effects doing so. Of course, long-term tipping of large 5mm flags is a little hard on the silk... I fully expect to be playing them some night and suddenly be standing there with just the weights in my hands.
Windowpane :: giant, 5mm habotai
These have barely left my flag drawer in a year. I was going to send them to a friend, and decided I wanted to take them out one last time first.
As it turns out, they were -so- much fun to fly that I can’t part with them now. They are almost effortless to play big, and they shimmer like a sheet of burning alcohol or something. (Watching Phillip fly Dan’s Fire&Ice in Chicago gave me a whole new appreciation for my old 5mm giant flags, I guess!)
So... my friend will just have to get a brand new set of flags.
(Hope I don’t really like those, too! It’s SO HARD to be generous sometimes!)
Yellowbridge :: large, 8mm habotai
My current loaner set. They look fairly cool, are easy to fly, and they have survived messy boys stepping on them, throwing them off the stage, making out with them, and droping them onto a spilled drink.
CourtesySweat :: very small, 8mm habotai.
These are only 14"x20" or something like that. They are for flagging in tight spaces and teaching children how to flag; they also double as sweat rags. (So, I guess you could say they are best suited for teaching sweaty children to flag in tight places!)
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