Let’s fly high together! Making a paper kite

Workshop run by Ennigulart for Manacor History Museum.

Introduction:

There are some incredibly special works of art in several of the museum’s rooms: graffiti. These are drawings made on the wall itself. Some are engraved into the lime and others are painted with charcoal or red ochre (iron oxide).

Some seem as if they were produced by expert hands that have mastered the technique of figurative drawing, but others are more casual and freer in their approach, as if they had been drawn by a child. Imagine if we could fill the walls with your drawings!

There’s a huge variety of motifs: boats, religious images, knights, representations of battles, coats of arms, etc. But there is one that stands out from all the others. It’s a man wearing a hat and wide trousers, flying a kite over a church and having fun!

Materials needed:

• Kraft paper (for wrapping) 40 x 40 cm. The paper has to be strong but also light. You can recycle gift wrap or join several sheets of newspaper together.

• 9 strips of the same paper, approximately 4 x 9 cm.

• Skewer sticks.

• Sticky tape (Sellotape, insulating tape, Washi tape, etc.).

• White glue and brush.

• Scissors.

• 2 clothes pegs.

• Thin, strong cord.

• Fabric strips or bow.

• Something to wind the cord around to make a spool (a stick, a piece of wood, a carboard tube, etc.).

Steps to follow:

Start by taping the skewer sticks together to create the two spurs of the kite. Insulating tape will make the bond firmer, but you can use any other tape. The longitudinal spur needs to be 55 cm (1) and the cross spur (shaped like an arc) needs to be 65 cm (2).

Place the shortest spur (1) on the diagonal of the paper square and secure it at the edges with two small glued rectangles. Secure the spur in the centre with another strip of paper.

Repeat the operation with the longest spur (2) so that it crosses the other one forming an arc. Fix the ends as before with two strips of paper glued at each end.                                                                                                                           

While the glue is drying, use the pegs to hold the kite together so you can continue making it. Glue two strips of paper where the two spurs cross each other.                            

Make two holes in the bottom and two where the sticks cross for the cord to go through.Thread each end of the cord through the holes and tie, holding the paper onto the sticks. Shorten the cord with a knot so that it makes a 90° angle between the two cord segments (3).

To make the kite’s tail, stick two 2 m long strips of fabric at the bottom tip of the star (4) and two more 70 cm long strips along the edges (5).

How well the kite flies depends on the weather and practice. The tail’s weight should be adjusted depending on the wind. If it’s flying uncontrollably, attach fabric strips to the tail to add weight so that it stabilises. If it doesn’t fly, you’ll have to remove weight from the tail.