Category Archives: Miniature Kites

Miniature kites are art projects under 12 inches in width, which will fly when pulled through the air or taken out in very mild weather.

A new direction

3.5 inch 3-stick kite, striped cocktail napkin.

This is another of the 3-stick kites, something between an Eddy and a Rokkaku,  a traditional kite shape from Japan.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m excited about the new print I found the other day. I find  the riot of color fitting for Spring, and the wavy stripes playful as well.

Also, I’m pleased to break out of a bit of a rut. Recently my stripey kites have had the stripes oriented generally along the spine (top to bottom), and that was starting to get to me. I’m quite satisfied with how well these wavy lines flow across the sail of this kite.

 

Changing stripes

3 inch Sotich Shield, striped cocktail napkin.

A couple days ago I felt a strong desire to stop off at the local Dollar Tree store, anybody else ever have that feeling?

There’s just something special  to me about some stores. For me it’s been fabric, craft, hardware, office supplies stores, and now (that I’m making enough miniature kites to choke a horse) you can add party supplies stores to that list .

While there I found a couple new and exciting cocktail napkin prints. I’m sure I’ll get back to having fun with the 3-stick designs, but I wanted to make a straight-forward design with this striped one first.

Also, I’m getting closer to being ready to mail these out to festivals as raffle items or door-prizes, I might even use some as greeting cards (or God forbid Christmas cards). The picture above has the kite hanging on an easel card that will fit nicely in in A-2 envelope, with plenty of room for writing if used as a greeting card, a canvas textured card if the recipient wants to display the kite without embellishment, and still some room if any one wants to add stickers ( I think puffy clouds would look neat). I’m excited about getting the detail s nailed down so I can clear some of these kites out and make room to make more of them.

Miniature dinosaurs.

While I was prepping this post, my youngest son came in with his toys, and said that I needed to take a picture of his dinosaurs fighting. Do miniature dinosaurs go well with miniature kites?

More fun

3 inch 3-stick kite, striped cocktail napkin.

This little guy is just too much fun.

First it uses the striped napkin that has given so many great sails. Second, it’s another unique 3 stick kite. Next, I’ve used some negative space for the first time. Finally, it’s the first time that I’ve tried tearing part of the sail instead of having crisp clean edges all around the kite.

Come back tomorrow to see what I come up with next.

Another inspired experiment

3 inch 3-stick kite, balloon tissue.

After yesterday’s success with my first star shaped kite, I decided to stick my neck out a little further and try something inspired by a Facebook post from a class at Hiromi Paper in Santa Monica this last week.

My friends Scott Skinner and Jose Sainz have been teaching classes around the country on using three sticks in a variety of shapes and some washi paper to make unique, creative and very organic kites. While it’s not a class I’ve taken (I’ve only taken 3 classes in all my years of kitemaking), I learned tons when they held the class at Oregon Kitemakers Retreat some years ago and encourage anyone that enjoys crafting with paper and/or is a kite enthusiast to go and have fun with these guys if the opportunity to take the class is ever presented.

While the things they were making  when I  saw them at OKR were very inspiring, I was not in a place to go out and invest in new and different materials for kites that would require very special handling to survive the weather conditions that dominate my local environment. However, since I’m now playing with paper (it’s not quite as cool as washi, but it is paper), I think it’s time to see where I can go with their concepts, but in the dimensions that I’ve been practicing with.

Stay tuned to see where this goes.

A new star in my sky

2 inch Sotich Star, star tissue.

With the passing of my friend Ron Despojado last week, I wanted to make a star  shaped kite very badly. However, I hadn’t made a star before, and I was under some other time constraints, so I went with a shape I was more familiar with.

Today I made a little time to give the star shape a try, and got a nice kite on the first attempt. I couldn’t avoid one of the dots in the print, but nothing is perfect (and I kind of like the little break in symmetry).

As promised

2 inch Sotich Eddy, striped cocktail napkin.

Here’s another from the striped napkin I’m having so much fun with.

Now, back to the work search for me.  Spring is definitely here in Lincoln City, and businesses are advertising for positions all around me (finally).

Today’s kite

3 inch Sotich Shield, striped cocktail napkin.

The last few day shave been  all springy, but I’m feeling a little different today, so a larger stripey Shield kite is the order of the day.

The spine obscures an interesting detail in the print, so expect more along this line.

An early bloom

1.5 inch Sotich Eddy, cocktail napkin.

An early post today. I have to run down to Newport to run another Pinewood Derby, this time for all the Packs in the county.

This cute little flower comes from the same source as the butter flies that I’ve made previously.

It’s pretty small, and little heavy, but it flies alright. The little ones sure are fun.

I love these butterflies

1.75 inch Sotich Eddy, butterfly cocktail napkin.

I wanted something quick today, and I do love these butterflies, so here is today’s kite.

However, I find myself wanting to work on something bigger today too.

With any luck, I’ll get enough done on my work search and my other errands to get some sewing done on a Cody sail that I’ve had cut for several months now.

Kite Month

2 inch Sotich Eddy, striped cocktail napkin.

Here’s a nice striped sail for a little Eddy.

It’s not like me to announce a project before it is actually complete (It took a couple knocks, but I learned that lesson), however I’m recognizing National Kite Month by attempting to make one kite a day.

There have been a couple days that I nearly failed, I don’t consider  a kite until it flies properly, but so far so good. I’ll keep posting each day’s kite if I can keep making them.