Making My Own Kite

Posted by vickoo under Hobbies and Toys
(18) Comments • (4368) Reads • Permalink

On 5 May 2006, the eve of Singapore’s Polling Day, PM Lee described other political parties as follows:

“They fly a kite and see if it catches the wind. If it doesn’t, they let it go, fly another one. (If it still) doesn’t, fly another one, and finally if it doesn’t fly or no wind, then they give up flying kites and go play with some other games, marbles or something like that…”

PM Lee could well have been describing my childhood hobby of kite flying. In the 1960s, the phrase “go fly a kite” had a very different meaning from what it means today. It literally meant that we went kite flying. In those days, many Singaporean families were poor and ours was no exception. Hence we made or improvised most of our toys ourselves, usually from recycled materials which were free of charge.

I will describe how I made my own kite even though very nicely-made painted ones were available from the neighbourhood mama shops for only 10 cents a piece. In comparison, the cost of my self-made kite was next to nothing. The time spent to make the kite was only about 5 minutes as I was a fast worker. However, perhaps the most important thing was the great satisfaction and pride which I derived from making my own kite.

First, the materials required:

Tracing paper, 2 Sapu Lily sticks, glue, a pair of scissors and a reel of string.

a. Tracing paper.

This item was actually the wrapper which came free with our French loaves. No Delifrance in those days, only the humble neighbourhood bakery which supplied them hot and fresh from the oven at only 15 cents a loaf. Sometimes I had to fight with my siblings over the tracing paper because they needed to use it for tracing maps while I wanted it for making my kite. For this demo, I bought the roll of the tracing paper from a provision shop for 20 cents.

b. Two Sapu Lily Sticks.

These sticks were obtained from the sweeper’s broom. Don’t ask me why the broom was called Sapu Lily. Sapu is a Malay word which means “sweep”. Maybe Lily happened to be the name of the sweeper lady then. We stole these sticks from the broom by just pulling them out. The neighbourhood kids pilfered so much of the sticks that when the sweeper picked up the broom the next morning, all the remaining sticks just fell out of the broom. (For those who do not know, the sticks actually come from the coconut leaf.)

c. Glue, a reel of string and a pair of scissors.

These items were kindly “donated” by my mother. Actually I sort of helped myself to the items in the drawer without asking my mum.

Now we are ready to get down to business.

What To Do

1. Cut out a 14-inch square of tracing paper. You can do this more easily by folding across the diagonal of the square first before cutting:

2. Break off enough of the thinner end of one of the sticks so that the longer stick that remains is about 2 inches shorter than the diagonal of the square. Place the stick on a diagonal of the square so that one end touches one of the corners of the square. Glue and fold the other corner of the paper over the stick to secure it. Cut out 2 little pieces of 2-inch square tracing paper and apply glue one side of the 2 pieces of paper. Use one piece to secure the other end of the stick and the other piece to secure the middle of the stick.

3. Bend the other stick into a curve and break off the extra length of the thinner end of stick so that the ends of the remaining thicker stick is long enough to just touch the other 2 corners of the big square tracing paper when the stick is bent into a curve. (The purpose of bending the stick is to make the kite taut enough to catch the wind when flying.)

4. Apply glue at the other 2 corners of the big square paper and fold them over to secure the bent stick in place.

5. Punch tiny holes in the kite at the positions indicated and thread a doubled-up string through the holes and secure the string. The string should be tied such that the front section of the string is slightly shorter than the rear section. (If both sections are of the same length the kite will not fly and if the rear section is longer than the front, your kite will fly backwards.)

6. Cut the remaining tracing paper into long thin strips, join them together with glue and attach the strips to the tail end of your kite to make a long tail. (The tail makes the kite more stable in flight.)

7. Paint the kite if you want to, attach a reel of string to the kite and you are ready for your kite to catch the wind.

If it can’t fly, make another one. If after several attempts and your kite still doesn’t fly, then go and play some other games like marbles.

Rating:

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(18) Comments

Posted by: chunsee
Posted on: May 7th, 2006

Victor, you beat us to it. My friend Chuck has been wanting to blog about this for a long time. But apparently you are a faster worker. I too used to make my own kites when we were kids.

Posted by: Rambling Librarian
Posted on: May 7th, 2006

Victor, excellent post re: Kite Making. Some time ago, I posted in our MR group that I'm looking for "creative learning" type of posts and yours fit the bill. http://myrightbrain.wordpress.com/tag/creative-learning May I have permission to copy the instructions for my blog? I'll link back to your blog and the Yesterday.sg of course. Also, I noticed the photos are linked to your blogger site. I understand that somehow blogger photos don't show up if we link like that sSo if you don't mind, I'll download the pictures and post to flickr. But my practice is to link the photo image to your blog. If you're ok with the above, let me know and I'll get to the post. BTW, we should really organise a READ! Singapore activity. Have you read the book "Kite Runner"? We can organise a Kite making/ book reading activity.

Posted by: vickoo
Posted on: May 7th, 2006

Thanks Ivan. Please go ahead and do what you like with my post (except deleting it from yesterday.sg). Really? My photos are on my blogger site ah? Basically, I found out about how to post on yesterday.sg by trial and error. (I must clarify that it was not Shaun's fault - he, like Siva, did offer to show me the ropes but I couldn't find time to attend.) Basically, what I did for my two direct posts so far on yesterday.sg was to post on my blogger site first then copy the entire html codes into yesterday.sg. I found out by accident that it worked the first time so I just repeated the action for the 2nd post. I simply followed the path of least resistance. No I haven't read Kite Runner. Kite making and book reading sounds like quite conflicting activities to me - one is outdoor while the other is usually indoor.

Posted by: hsiatono
Posted on: May 8th, 2006

Good post, it reminisces me of the good old times, you can also use plastic bag, instead of paper. We used to do that. Btw, I think "sapu lily" is wrongly spelled, should be "sapu lidi" right?

Posted by: chunsee
Posted on: May 8th, 2006

I am not sure about the name of the lily thing, but I know the tracing paper is called "loti chuah" in Hokkien, meaning bread paper. My friend Chuck says that he used bamboo strips and not sapu lidi/lily.

Oh yah - in Hokkien, we say 'puay layang' for fly kite.

Posted by: vickoo
Posted on: May 8th, 2006

Hi Hsiatono and Chun See, thanks for all your invaluable comments. Hsiatono, you are right. Since I put up the post, a few persons have commented (in other blogs) that Sapu Lily should've been Sapu Lidi or Lidih. I really didn't know about this. I found out this term from hearing my colleagues who mis-pronounced, or I mis-hearing, the name.

Posted by: chunsee
Posted on: May 9th, 2006

My friend Chuck, who grew up in a kampong in Hillview area, and had many Malay childhood friends also pronounced 'lily'. Maybe this is the Hokkien version of a Malay word. For example, we say "loti" for bread when the correct Malay pronunciation should be "roti", or "lui" instead of "duit" for money.

Posted by: Tan Wee Kiat
Posted on: May 9th, 2006

Hi! Victor, Your kite article is a real high-flyer; it brought back many fond memories. Wrt >Kite making and book reading sounds like quite conflicting activities to me - one is outdoor while the other is usually indoor.< You can read outdoors under a tree (when exhausted from kite-flying)! Additional trivia: 1. There is a stamp of children flying kites issued in Malaysia (Year 2000). 2. In your article you mentioned 'Sapu Lily', and that maybe the broom was named after someone called Lily. I guess you must have been pulling our legs about Lily. I think the word is "Lidih". If I am not incorrect (most of my Malay words have gone back to my Che'gu), this refers to the rib of the coconut leaf that is left after you have used the split leaf for weaving ketupat wrapping. Since we are talking about names there is another popular one, "Missy", that refers to Nurses. Some people hypothesise that there was a pioneer nurse loved and respected by the elderly patients. When they asked, "Miss. What is your name?" She replied, " I am Miss Ee". So whenever they wanted her attention, they would call: "Miss Ee, Miss Ee". As every patient benefitted from from her attention and care, "Miss Ee! Miss Ee" became a household word. Apparently, Miss Ee had made up her mind to remain single so that she could devote her life to patient-care. When asked, "But how do you keep the bachelor-doctors at arm's length?" She replied, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away". To your good health. Regards, Wee Kiat

Posted by: vickoo
Posted on: May 9th, 2006

Chun See, you are right. I asked my (Chinese) colleagues again about 'sapu lily'. They said that when spoken, it is pronounced that way but when the word is written, it is spelled as 'sapu lidi'. The word 'lidi', according to my Malay dictionary which I have not returned to my Che'gu, means 'vein of coconut leaf'. Wee Kiat, I think your stories on how some local terms originated e.g. 'missy', would make a really interesting separate post on yesterday.sg. Not meaning to give you an assignment but are you keen to do that for the benefit of the readers?

Posted by: Rambling Librarian
Posted on: May 9th, 2006

Hey, I learnt two new things already... how to make a Kite and what "Sapu Lidih". If someone tells me something's a Sapu Lidih, I won't go "eh?"

Posted by: Chris
Posted on: May 9th, 2006

Gee Victor, I didn't know I've missing all the actions here. I've always left my comments on your blog. Maybe I should do it here henceforth. Believe it or not, I've never flown a kite when I was a kid; until I have kids of my own. Then again, we used to buy them, never made them. We may decide to use our hands after reading your post, though. Cheers!

Victor, I don't think Wee Kiat's story of Miss Ee was meant to be taken seriously .... or was it.

Victor, Please tell Chun See everything that Wee Kiat says should be taken seriously. The only uncertainty in this story is whether the spelling is "Missy, Missy" or "Miss-ee, Miss-ee". Just like whether it should be Sapu Lily or Sapu Lidi. Incidentally, Victor, there is an even simpler type of kite that kids can make though it doesn't always fly well. 1. Take a piece of exercise book paper. 2. Make a complete fold at both sides of the paper. The line of folding should be about one-quarter from the edge. A cross-section of the paper resembles this character: [ 3. Punch a hole on each folded side and tie a string through the holes. The cross-section view of the paper and string looks like this: [>------ See, Chun See, this kind of kite no need to kapoh Sapu Lidi sticks from the road-sweeper's broom and risk receiving some choice words of endearment from him/her.

Chris, what a surprise to find your comments here! Now surprise me even more by posting your nostalgic blogs here too. (You must join as a member first. Instructions are at the top right corner of this page.) I am sure your stories are real gems which all will enjoy reading. I am throwing a challenge back to you. Take it up. Wee Kiat, I remember making and flying the type of kite that you described too but that design was too simple and no challenge at all to make and blog about. Also, like you said, that kite cannot fly high. No kick.

Posted by: hsiatono
Posted on: May 10th, 2006

Vickoo, congrats for such a good response to your Kite article. Btw, just a wild thought, maybe can organise a family event to make and fly kites made of sapu lidi with paper/plastic bag, can bring nostalgic memories to the parents also. :P

Posted by: vickoo
Posted on: May 13th, 2006

Hi hsiatono, thanks for your suggestion. My step-my-step instructions here are actually intended for families to experiment on their own. The kite is really quite easy to make. However, if there is demand, this is a suggestion which is worth looking at. Ivan, since you suggested the kite-making/book-reading activity first, are you keen to do the planning/admin/logistics? Erm... so how do you think we should execute this? Read at Marine Parade Library first, make our kites in the library, then walk over to East Coast Park to fly our kites? Chun See is right, the sapu lidi sticks are actually thinner at one end. Hence when the stick is bent, the curve does not look symmetrical. Bamboo sticks are better for making kites, if you can get them.

Posted by: lim seng
Posted on: June 16th, 2010

i have an even simpler way to make a kite. just a piece of paper from my old school exercise book, a little dab of glue for the tail and a spool of thread. no need sapu lily, or bamboo rods.interested?

Making My Own Kite

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