Make a kite

i copied a simple design once, made it out of paper.
i worked fine but was not very stylish.
i want to make a really stylish, japanese-looking one. and fly it on a beautiful day, from a hilltop

It’s really important to me that I make this kite in the same way that my dad and I used to make them. He showed me the way that he did when he was a kid growing up in Fiji. He would use flour and water for glue – newspaper and pieces of a Fijian broom (as above). The only one that is still in the family after he passed away is at my ex-boyfriend’s house. I’ve recruited both of my sisters who still talk to him to get it back but it doesn’t look like it’s coming any time soon. My life is so great right now, I’d rather fly all the way to fiji to get one than call him! Whichever happens first – that’s what has to be done to get this goal crossed off.

for ambition to show its face anywhere near me, or sneak up behind me, or just send happy thoughts my way

another project for which I already have the supplies, as well

I may be needing to get “stop procrastinating” a little higher on the priorities scale

I’m going to consider this one done because I made a kite in my art/computer class (hard to explain). We had to design and build a kite, which I failed miserably at, but I still did it.

After having this goal in hiatus for a couple months, today at a garage sale, I bumped into this kite string!! Now, I just have to make the kite ;)

After the disastrous experience with the newspaper kite, I just haven’t got myself to get the materials for a better one, and I need to get the book from the library again…

There a park around the corner from my sister’s house that I took my nephew to play – and that’s where I’m going to go to fly my not-yet-made kite.

We tested the kite this past Sunday, and we could never get it to fly without running. I think the model I worked on has the flaw that it doesn’t have a crossbar, so it does not resist the air very much but rather folds in half, leaving no surface onto which the wind can blow against :S

And not only did we lose our breath running to get that kite to fly, but I actually injured my back in the process. So I’m quitting on this model, and I’m onto making a better one from the book. Just got to get the materials.

It was really fun making it. It’s going to hang on our wall. It is big, red and has a long traditional tail. It wouldn’t fly though. It just kept crashing. I’m just going to keep trying.

So I started with the book Best Ever Paper Kites. The designs are gorgeous but, ironically, require a material called Tyvek instead of paper.

So meanwhile I get that material, I started doing an easier kite with an idea from a fellow 43er.

I haven’t yet finish it —I guess there’s not enough motivation since it has been really windy for the past two days…

Spring is almost over, and the weather has been gorgeous… and I have this lingering goal in my 43things that I really want to accomplish.

So I took a look at the library’s webpage, and it came up with at least a dozen books on kite making. So I’m starting with one: Best ever paper kites.

Well, that’s a start :)