Tools and Materials:

• Scissors
• Wire cutters (the cheap ones with the square notch in the blade seem best) or garden snips.
• Ruler or other straight edge.
• Pencil or pen.
• Sticky tape.
• Paper, about 20cm square. (just about any kind except heavy card or stretchy crêpe paper. An off-cut of cheap wrapping paper or the shiny liner from a cereal packet would be good for this kite.)
• Sewing thread (if you are making a larger kite, say from wrapping paper, use light string).
• Two bamboo kebab skewers (although you may need more to allow for errors in construction).
• A candle or other small flame.
• A tail (see below for the exact requirements for the tail),
• A reel or winder.
• Optional: a tiny metal washer, “super” glue, a four-hole shirt button.

What to do:

Take a square of your paper, with the length of the diagonal slightly shorter that the length of your skewers. Fold it carefully in half along a diagonal (this will be the centre-line of your kite). Mark a point one quarter of the way along this diagonal. Draw straight lines from this point to the left and right corners of the kite. The original square should now be split into two parts: one, a squashed-looking diamond, will be your kite sail; the other, a wide inverted V, will be scrapped. If this is what your kite looks like, you may cut along the lines and throw away the V shaped piece. The corner that you cut off is the front of the kite.

Now is the time to decorate your kite to your taste. While any paint is drying (although you should try not to use much paint, as the weight will affect the kite’s flight), you can prepare your [spars].

Using the wire cutters, trim one skewer to be about 5mm (about ¼ inch) longer than the centre line of the kite. This spar is now finished. Light the candle, and find the middle of a second skewer. If you warm the skewer at the centre point in the candle flame, there is a brief moment, just before the skewer catches fire, when the bamboo softens. With a little practice, you can use that moment to bend the bamboo into a new, permanent shape without breaking it. For this kite, you need to bend the skewer to an angle of about 135° to make the kite’s [dihedral angle].

Tape the bent skewer across the kite, corner to corner, and trim it to length with the wire cutters. Tape the other skewer (that you have already trimmed to length) to the sail as well, along the crease, with the extra 5mm sticking out at the back of the kite.

This kite can be flown without a [bridle]. The thread is your flying line and the reel it is wound on is your winder. Please remember that sewing thread often comes in 100m reels, but the law only allows kites to be flown to a maximum altitude of 60m. Thread your flying line onto a needle, thread it through the sail from the front, and tie it around the two spars where they cross.

The only thing missing from your kite now is the tail. A generous length of videocassette tape, or a strip of plastic bag about 3m (10feet) long and roughly 1cm (1/2 inch) wide would make a good tail for this style of kite, especially if it is about 20cm square. If you do have these handy, or you wish to use something different, you may need to check [this article] to select the correct tail for the size and weight of kite you have made. Please also check this article on [kite safety] and this article for instructions on [launching a single-line kite].

Adding a bridle.

Although this kite flies without the complexities of a bridle, it can fly better with one. Instead of tying the flying line directly to the kite, take a 50cm length of thread and tie it in a loop from the front to the back of the kite. You now need the tiny metal washer. Thread a loop of the bridle through the washer. Reach through the loop with your finger and thumb, take hold of the washer and pull. If the washer is now tied to the bridle, congratulate yourself, you have just tied your first lark’s head hitch. You now tie your flying line to the washer, which will allow you to adjust the flight characteristics of your kite. In lower winds, move the washer further back along the bridle, and in high winds move the washer forwards.

Alternatives

This kite can be made with a number of variations. Small decorative tassels can be added to the ends of the cross spar, perhaps bunches of thin ribbons or short lengths of tinsel. The proportions can be altered as well – a kite that is relatively tall and narrow is more stable, but a kite that is relatively short and wide has greater lift. A big variation on the theme is to add a bow instead of a dihedral.

The dihedral angle set into the bamboo by heat can be fragile, cannot be adjusted, and some people just find it impossible to work bamboo in a flame. Instead of bending the cross spar over the flame, trim it to be about 1cm longer than the kite is wide. After fixing the spine of the kite, fix the cross spar to the kite so that 5mm sticks out at each side. Take a length of the thread you are going to use for your flying line and tie it to one end of the cross spar. Gently curve the cross spar upwards and wrap the thread around the other end of the cross spar. The cross spar should be curved enough so that the distance between the spine and the thread is about 10-15% of the width of the kite (for the 20cm kite mentioned in this article, the gap should be 2-3cm). If you are happy with the kite, and do not plan to adjust the kite later, tie off the thread and lock both knots with a drop of “super” glue.

To make an adjustable bow, the thread used to hold the bow shape needs to be about 5cm longer than the width of the kite. Tie it to one of the spar and thread it through two holes of the button, make a loop, and thread it back through the other two holes of the button. Tie a knot in the end of the thread that is large enough to stop it sliding back through the button. The other end of the spar needs to have a narrow notch filed in the side that faces the front of the kite. Gently bend the spar, and then loop the thread over the end so that it sits in the notch. The button can be slid along the thread to pull the cross spar into the desired curve.

This method has two advantages: The kite can be stored flat, so it is much more likely to survive until the next time you wish to fly it, and it is adjustable. Pulling the cross spar into a tighter curve reduces lift and makes the kite more stable in a higher wind, whilst loosening the curve to make the kite flatter creates more lift so that the kite can be flown in lighter winds.

Combining the advantages of the bridle and adjustable bow makes this kite a very versatile addition to your kite collection, especially since it can also be made from longer-lasting plastic or ripstop fabric.