What's Best for Making Kites?
Kite paper can be just about any kind of paper, but making kites flyreallywell requires more than just ordinary writing paper. The main properties required are strength and lightweight. Gift wrap's not bad. Having said that, I'm going to touch on thewhole variety of paper used in modern kite-making.
MBK Paper Delta
Modern paper kites cover the whole range, from super-quick designsthat barely fly, through to carefully crafted traditional kites thatshoot up high on the barest puff of wind.
Many years ago, the veryfirst kite I ever bought from a shop was an Indian design. Made fromcolored tissue and bamboo, it was an exceptionally good flyer over awide range of wind strengths!
So,in general, what kinds of kites are made with paper sails anyway?
Afew moments with my thinking cap on resulted in three very broadcategories, to answer that question. Curiously, my MBK Paper Seriesdoesn't really belong in any of them! But never mind.
One category is covered in each of the sections further down this page.
On this site, there's more kite-making info than you can poke a stick at :-)
Want to know themost convenientway of using it all?
The Big MBK E-book Bundleis a collection of downloads—printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.
Every kite in every MBK series.
Western Kid's Kites
Going back to at least the middle of the 1900s, kites for childrenwere available in shops. The bulk of these used paper for sail material.Although shop-bought kites now use mainly plastic or nylon, kite-makingworkshops for kids still often feature paper or tissue for sails.
The simple diamond is a common choice, since it is so easy tomake and is such a reliable flyer. The longer the tail, the morereliable :-) Rokkakus are often made of paper too. Another choice forthe more artistically minded is butterfly kites, which tend to be paleimitations of the real flying art-works from China.
The kite paper
Here, the range of options is pretty wide. For a kite with aframe, such as a diamond or rok, almost anything works to a degree. Aslong as it is not so porous that it lets air through! A perimeter linegoes around the tips of the spars, and the paper or tissue is madeslightly oversize. Hence, the sail can be folded over and pasted downaround the edges to help keep it flat and resist tearing.
Let's see, bearing in mind lightness and porosity, you could try:
- gift-wrapping paper
- rice paper
- origami paper
- writing paper
- newspaper! (the poor man's sail material)
This is not to mention a host of other materials that are not wood products, such as Mylar and Cellophane.
Minimum Kites
A single sheet of copier paper
I'm not sure if there is such a term really, but it seemed appropriateenough. Some kite designs these days are meant for absolute minimum everything. Minimum
- complexity
- construction time
- materials cost
- kite-maker ability!
Not surprisingly, this approach tends to result in ... minimum performance too, but that doesn't stop loadsof people enjoying the thrill of making something themselves and thenseeing it fly! Long tails are often required to keep the kites stable,and they won't fly at all in light winds since the paper and tape can berather heavy. Of course, kids can always tow them around to make them fly.
The majority of these kites probably fall into two categories—sleds and paper planes. Yes, one of the most well known of these doeslook somewhat like a paper plane, except that a bamboo skewer or strawis taped across it to function as a horizontal spar. Due to the smallsize of these designs, most of them can be flown on sewing-threadlines.
The kite paper
What's the most commonly available kind of paper on the planet?A4 or Letter-sized sheets of course, as commonly used for photocopying. These are too heavy for greatperformance but can be coaxedto fly as proven by the kite designs already mentioned. In fact, thepicture up there is our Minimum Sled design. It's crafted from a single sheetof A4 and precious little else!
Any reasonably thin and stiff type of paper could be tried andshould work to a degree. For example, wrapping paper, which could havesome great patterns preprinted on it. However, flimsy tissue or crepepaper would be less suitable.
Traditional Kites
Exquisite "leaf" in tissue and bamboo
Although kite-making tradition goes back 100s or even 1000s of yearsin various locations, modern kite-makers in Asia are still churning outlarge volumes of paper kites which are very faithful to ancienttraditions. Often, the kite paper and techniques used are virtuallyunchanged.
China, India, and Japan have kite making entwined through their cultures.
Themajor sail material for traditional-style kites is paper or tissue.
You can see this in the closeup photo of a Taiwanese leaf kite. It's a pretty good representation of a leaf don't you think?
Andin the next photo you can see the whole train of traditional Taiwanesekites that we saw at the Adelaide Kite Festival one year. They are tissue paperand bamboo; all are attached to a singlenatural-materialflying line.
Mostof these kites are superb flyers. I will never forget my Indian kitewhich I bought as a teenager. It was my first experience of ahigh-performance single-liner.
Tissue and bamboo kite train
The kite paper
Apparently, the art of hand-making extremely strong butlight kite paper originated in China before finding its way to Japan. InJapan, this "washi" paper is often created from the bark of mulberrytrees.
The final product is laminated from thin layers of fiber, one ontop of another. It's the long length of the fibers which gives the extra strength. Commercially-made paper created from wood pulp just can't compare!
Indian fighter kites are traditionally made from tissue paper andbamboo strips, although modern versions often use such materials asMylar or plastic sheet as well.
Modern recreations of these kites workadequately well with tissue sheets from newsagents or gift shops. As long asthe tissue has relatively low thickness, weight, and stretch, it is fine.However, the Indian makers of the best fighters have their own specialsources for tissue paper.
Have fun experimenting with all kinds of kite paper! I might try a big newspaper kite myself one day. I'm curious!
As mentioned earlier, there's more kite-making on this site than you can poke a stick at :-)
Want to know themost convenientway of using it all?
The Big MBK E-book Bundleis a collection of downloads—printablePDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.
Every kite in every MBK series.
