Della Porta Kite

[Noriko]

Well, I finally built, painted and flew my kite this weekend. Inspired by Makiwara and her Suruga Dako kite but wanting something really simple, and possibly Heian, or, barring that Chinese, I picked a Della Porta, which, while recorded from the 16th century, seems to be a Generic Asian Kite.
Plus I had no idea what I was doing.
I thought about using plans for a Della Porta online which were in Dutch and thus, Babblefished English[1] but ended up using "The Ultimate Kite Book" with a lot of modification- especially taking in account using paper and the amount I had.
I used some light brownish Japanese paper but I'm not quite sure what kind it was. For a frame, I used these reeds I found at the craftstore (elephant reed) and paper glue. The string is a lightweight twine and I wound the string around some bamboo that popped up in the garage (mom used to do flower arrangements...). The tail is some ribbon from mom's flower arrangement days. I painted a weird sort of plum blossom on it, but it looks more like a cartoonish pink flower, if anything..
I wish I had some pictures to show everyone but the camera is out of commission... Drat.
But if you need a good, quick pastime for an event, I recommend giving this kite a shot- it can be assembled in just a few hours provided you have all your supplies with you and you remember proportions from high school.


[1]http://people.zeelandnet.nl/kitepassion/della%20porta.htm

[Saionji Shonagon]

Yay for you, Noriko-hime.

I built another Suruga about a week ago, using sumi-e paper and basswood again. Prototype 2 didn't get decorated because I expected it to get beat up. Tal Streeter mentions hemp line being traditionally used so I got a roll of the kind used for jewelry making. As kite line it SUCKS! All it wants to do is tangle itself around itself. Or maybe I just need to get used to using it.....

I took #2 to the lot at work and practiced stationary launches in a breeze that kept shifting direction. I did get some promising short flights, however, the basswood does not hold up for sudden deceleration landings onto asphalt. I'm going to try to remember to order some bamboo splits from the Drachen Foundation after payday this week and we'll see how that holds up.

I also found a blue and white dotted calico that 's a surprisingly good fake for shibori to make some yugake (gloves) out of - string burns get old really quickly.

And I just found out that the Berkeley Kite Festival is, for once, not up against an event I need to be at. Whoo hoo! www.highlinekites.com/Berkeley_Kite_Festival/

M.