The Butterfly Kite

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Some Musings, Observations And Examples

Just a few thoughts here, about the Butterfly kite. To tell the truth, I can only remember seeing one actual example flying in the air. It strikes me as a rather female-friendly kind of kite. In fact, the one my wife and I saw at a kite festival was being flown by a woman. Not a child, note! I can also recall the occasional online photo or 2 of a Butterfly being flown - once again, by a woman!

Butterfly kites are arty. It doesn't seem to matter in what exact shape, size or form they come. Butterfly kites are almost always dressed up. Sometimes purely as an artwork, whether childish or more sophisticated.

Otherwise, they are made to look as realistic as possible. That takes some doing, since the living insect puts on an intricate and often very beautiful display of color.

Butterfly Kite - Authentic Chinese design in pink and blue

Authentic Chinese butterfly kite.

Pretty things sell better than plain things, so a decent butterfly design must be fairly easy to move off the kite-shop shelves. OK, walls or ceiling ;-) You know how they like to hang things here there and everywhere, like some sort of kiting art installation.

A typical Butterfly design is just a little taller than it is wide, in many cases. Hence it should be easier to get flying stable than say a Bird kite. That's just a hunch on my part. If you have made a lot of kites, would you agree? I've certainly read some stories online of how long some Bird kite designs took to get right!

Good Butterflies don't actually need tails, but often have them for looks. Also, these types are generally mid-sized. Say, less than a meter (3 feet) across.

Talking about size brings to mind a group of enthusiasts who posted a photo of their giant Butterfly on this site! There's a copy of that photo down near the bottom of this page...

The Butterfly kite has become one of the most popular creature-kites around, among single-surface designs. Other big 'creature' categories would have to include Bird and Fish kites. These ideas seem to have originated in China, centuries ago.

Try this if you're not living in the U.S.

A Butterfly Zoo

	Child's Kite Kit Photo courtesy of drachenstore.easystorecreator.net A typical small kite for kids. This one's plain, but kids can easily add their own art-work to the sail material before the kite is cut out and assembled.
	Modern Kite Shop Butterfly Photo courtesy of kiteandwind.com This hi-tech example flies stable without tails, and features a 3D appearance. Rich colors are even brighter when the sun shines through from behind. Marvelous!
	Traditional Chinese Butterfly Photo courtesy of chinakiteonline.com The real thing, in pink to be in keeping with the female-friendly tone of this page! These designs have hardly changed in terms of materials, construction techniques and general appearance for hundreds of years. Amazing.
	Massive Home-Made Butterfly This monster is almost 2 1/2 meters (10 feet) wide and weighs 4 1/2 kilos. It has a linen sail, and is reputed to be somewhat harder to land than to launch... Spectacular! By some kite-making enthusiasts from the Czech Republic. Yes, this one's not so much a lady's kite is it!