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.

This guy is bugging me

Posted on April 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch Sotich Hata, caterpillar tissue.

Today I have an Hata kite, which was nearly a failure.

I’ve wanted to do something with this cute little graphic, and hadn’t sat down to nail something down until yesterday. However once I had it together, I found that the silly thing didn’t want to fly right.

The tissue this is made from is particularly smooth, which I think has increased the load of the sail. Which is to say that I think the texture of the cocktail napkins takes away from the lift the sail generates.

This increase in efficiency (and another failure with the same material) lead me to try adding more tail strands, after all there is only so much dihedral that can be added. Fortunately the extra tail did the trick, but I’ll be experimenting some more with this in the near future. Stay tuned.

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Posted in Hata, Miniature Kites

Another star from my sky

Posted on April 7, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch Sotich Shield, confetti tissue.

Here’s another kite from the tissue with the stars.

I wish that I had a better kite to mark the day with, as I’ve learned of the death of a great kiteflier and friend that I was looking forward to getting to know better.

I’ve been involved in kite making and kite flying since the late 80’s, but it is relatively rare that I’ve been close to kiters outside of my local area. At the same time, there are names of kite makers and kite flyers that I’ve heard from the mouths of those of my friends that were fortunate enough to get off of the edge of the world on occasion.

A couple of years ago I was honored to accept the invitation to substitute for Sandy Gibian as Field Director at the Southern Oregon Kite Festival (this event is in Oregon, but only just barely), which I hadn’t even been able to attend for something like ten years.

There I was able to not only meet , but work with many great kiters, including Ron Despojado. Ron was a talented and hardworking flyer, just enough of a showman to help round out our show, and a real gentleman. I’m still waiting to learn the details of his demise, but the most important detail is that there is now another hole to fill in my sky (the metaphor fits whether you are watching kites or stars). I will miss the man I knew, and mourn the opportunity to know him even better.

Learning of this loss in the same week that I’m processing the first anniversary of losing one the boys from my Scout Troop is weighing on me, but now it’s time to get ready for the rest of my day. With one more start fallen.

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Posted in Miniature Kites, Shield

Tagged fallen star, Ron Despojado

Feeling like a star

Posted on April 6, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch Sotich Eddy, star tissue.

Well the holiday is past, but it’s opening day for Major League Baseball.

I don’t have any sails with baseballs so I used this star instead.

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Posted in Eddy, Miniature Kites

Happy Easter

Posted on April 5, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch Sotich Eddy, Easter egg cocktail napkin.

Well, I squeezed one of the Easter eggs onto an Eddy kite today.

On a completely unrelated note. Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of a member of the Boys Scout Troop in a head on cat accident.

My oldest son had come up through ranks and school classes with the boy one year ahead of him, and had also gone with the boy to the BSA National Jamboree. My son spent the day out of town on other Scout business, but still took a few moments to recognize the passing .

My middle son, who hardly knew the deceased boy, went out of town with a couple of his friends from the Scout Troop and created a couple memories of his own, thanks to another parent.

My youngest son and I went to see a movie at the community movie theater that was playing as a benefit for a scholarship fund set up for the deceased boy’s church youth group. It was nice to cuddle and laugh with my preschooler over a Disney movie, while reflecting to myself about the boy that most everyone in the room was missing.

I was a bit stunned and set back when I realized that I was sitting right in front of the deceased boys mother and two younger brothers. I hope the event was a step toward healing their wounds.

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Posted in Eddy, Miniature Kites

Easter is nearly here

Posted on April 4, 2015 | Leave a comment

1.5 inch freehand Easter egg kite, cocktail napkin.

Here’s the second freehand Easter egg kite.

It’s a little bigger, because I cut a larger border.

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Posted in Freehand, Miniature Kites

An egg for Easter

Posted on April 3, 2015 | Leave a comment

1.25 inch freehand Easter egg kite, cocktail napkin.

With Easter just around the corner, I decided to try making a flying Easter egg to give to a preschooler friend of my youngest son (I’ll make one for him tomorrow).

It turned out pretty well, if I say so myself.

The tail for this one even matched the kite properly because my wife got tired of seeing kites with off color tails and handed over her three cases of the embroidery thread that I’m using for tails.

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Posted in Freehand, Miniature Kites

You don’t win them all

Posted on April 2, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch Sotich Shield kite, spring floral tissue.

Yesterday I wrote about an experiment that didn’t entirely satisfy me, but it flew.

Today I get to share a complete fail. For those of you that don’t know me and the way I work, a piece of work doesn’t get called a kite, until it flies (no matter what shape it is).

1 inch Hata shaped art project

The kite above was my second project of the day, because the piece at the left did not want to fly. Which disappointed me, because I’m having issues finding graphics from this napkin to work with.

I’m not certain exactly where I went wrong, after all I had a very similar piece work fine last week, but whether it is too small, doesn’t have enough dihedral, the line or tail is too heavy, it just doesn’t work.

Oh well, you can’t win them all. However I did want to share my view on kite as opposed to art.

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Posted in Miniature Kites, Shield

Tagged Art

Another step forward, on more than one front

Posted on April 1, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch Sotich Eddy kite, cocktail napkin.

Yesterday, I had a few minutes between my chores and errands and a couple of meetings, so I knocked this kite out. I’ve wanted to play with a different sail, and this element of a cocktail napkin called to me.

One of my meetings was canceled at the last minute, but that meant I could stay longer at the other meeting, so I learned on the spot when the review of my son Zach was approved by his Eagle Board. We still need to hear back from Oregon Trail Council, but I’m looking forward to being able to say that I’m proud of my Eagle Scout. I’m proud of my son anyway, but it’s a nice feather in the cap to look forward to.

Not completely successful Hata kite.

Since I had a finished kite to share today, I decided to play with the Hata design. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts on the Hata, I’ve framed and tensioned the kites differently than my other kites.

So this one is an attempt to use the same materials as the Eddy and Shield designs, and use a bowline as well. Fortunately all the materials worked the way I had hoped (instead of the way I feared), Unfortunately it’s apparent I need some more practice with the techniques that I applied.

It works, but my OCD won’t let me be done with it. I’ll try again soon and share the results.

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Posted in Eddy, Hata, Miniature Kites

Tagged Eagle, Zach

A challenge

Posted on March 31, 2015 | Leave a comment

1.125 inch Sotich Hata, cocktail napkin.

I’m still playing with the same cocktail napkin from the last few days. One more of the butterflies was calling to me.

This little guy was wedged between a fold and more lettering, but I really wanted to see if I could pull off making it fly.

It isn’t really from a pattern, but I did use one of my Sotich Hata templates to pull it together, so I’m sharing credit with Charlie where it’s due.

The flying line is a bit heavy for this little one, but it does fly. I really enjoyed pushing my boundaries a little further, making the 2 inch kites is a pleasure, but the challenge of making this kite was wonderful.

By the way, I had a great time at the Pinewood Derby for Pack 53 in Waldport. The kids were a lot of fun, a sister entered a car (with horses on it), and they even fed me dinner.

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Posted in Hata, Miniature Kites