How Do You Make Homemade Chinese Kites?
Though traditional Chinese kites are more often flown in festivals or regarded as works of art today, these kites once played important roles as religious, military and even agricultural objects. The making of a traditional Chinese kite is still an art form, using bamboo, silk and intricately painted decorations. But Chinese kites can be homemade, using simple materials such as construction or butcher paper, tissue or crepe paper, pipe cleaners and of course a wooden dowel and some string. Cut out two identical shapes for your kite. Good shapes include a fish, a butterfly, an insect or a dragon. Paint one side only of both shapes. Glue together the wrong sides of the shapes only along the sides, leaving the top and bottom (mouth and tail) open. Glue tissue paper strips or crepe paper strips onto the tail as desired. Twist pipe cleaners into a circle or oval shape, and glue it into the top of the kite (the mouth). Allow it to dry thoroughly. Glue 2 to 4 bamboo skewers along the inside o
