Kites Newsletter

'MBK Flying Skewers And Plastic'

This kites newsletter arrives in your email on the last Friday of every month. It's a fun publication for single-line flyers and builders. Is that you?

In its early days, I thought it would only be of interest to novice kite builders and fliers. However, it seems the full range of single-line kite people are enjoying my bamboo and plastic creations! So even if you are a designer from way back, consider signing up to keep up with the latest kites from MBK. Do you do workshops? You can't get much cheaper than skewers, plastic and tape!

Currently, this kite newsletter features:

• some comments about this month's kite design, plus a link to complete instructions for making it out of skewers and plastic
• some comments about one of the MBK Skewer Kites made so far, plus a link to a selected blog entry featuring that kite - from this month's posts
• something about single-line kites that has been recently added to the website, with a link to the new page

By the way, if you would like to keep up with all our kite flying activities, just click on kite flying blog up there on the left!

More About This Newsletter...

The construction of kites is a big part of this website. In fact, a different kite made from bamboo skewers and plastic is featured every month! Hence the title, 'MBK Flying Skewers And Plastic'. These materials are probably too fiddly for very young kids to work with. However, the finished kites are easy to fly. The 1-skewer series have very low pulling force. The 2-skewer kites can also be flown by kids in any age group, provided wind strength is low enough.

Almost no tools are required. Besides the bamboo skewers and plastic, just about all you'll need are scissors, sticking tape and wood glue. Plus a hard flat surface at least 1m x 1m (3ft x 3ft).

Also, all measurements are in terms of one skewer length. For example, half a skewer length or 0.3 of a skewer length. Your skewers might be a different length to mine, so this approach should make things clearer. Heck, you don't even have to use skewers! Any reasonably light and strong sticks up to a meter (3 feet) long will do.

Finally, just about any kind of light plastic will do the job. Our small 1-skewer kites are made from freezer bags, which are extremely light. However, the current series of bigger 2-skewer kites use orange garden bag plastic. This shows up much better against a blue or gray sky!

Last updated: 26 Jul 2008