(The garbage above this line is somebody else paying for the garbage below this line)
The basic pyramid kite
There are a thousand different kinds of kites, but this one is simple enough for a child to make and elegant enough for an adult to enjoy. The first one I made in second grade (Thank you, Mrs. Mckee, wherever you are) lasted for almost ten years of blustery springs and summers spent bashing into a cornfield.
ALERT! THIS is my OLD old old version of this page. Fortunecity keeps losing my diagrams. Please go to the NEW Version of this page--
How to Build a Tetrahedral Kite
--which has my diagrams, tips, videos and photos of this kite, the amazing history of this kite design, and more!
-- enhanced with tips on how to adapt this to make a pyramid for a school project, other kitemaking projects, videos, recommended books, my favorite (cheap) commercial kite, and more.
Materials:
- 24 plastic drinking straws
- spool of kitestring or other strong twine
- large sewing needle (not vital)
- strong tissue paper or mylar (The plastic colored wrap found in party stores works nicely, but tug on it to make sure it doesn't tear too easily)
- rubber cement or some other kind of glue
Assembly:
- String three plastic drinking straws together to form a triangle. The easiest way is to give your thread extra slack, use a heavy needle, and drop it down through one straw, letting gravity do the work for you. Tie the triangle's ends together securely, leaving as little slack as possible.
- Thread and tie on two more straws, then one, to form the back of the pyramid. Again, don't tie the thread so tightly that the straws bend, but don't leave so much give that your pyramid flops. It should stand up on its own once you've got all six straws in place.
- Place your pyramid on your paper or wrap of choice. Trace or cut out a triangle about half an inch larger than the pyramid's base, leaving off the corners as shown. The shape is like the orange safety triangles on slow-moving vehicles. If this is an activity for children, you may want to prepare a cardboard pattern ahead of time they can trace and copy. Repeat to get a second triangle.
- For each of two sides of the pyramid: Curl the edges of the paper triangle over and around the straws, then secure with rubber cement.
- Repeat steps 1-4, to create three more pyramids, each with two sides covered with paper.
- Stack the four individual pyramids into one large pyramid: three on the bottom, one on top. Orient all of them in the same direction, so that, for instance, the papered sides on all of them are on the left and right. (They're like the wings of birds flying in formation. If they're facing different directions, the wind won't be able to pass through freely.)
- When you've got all the pyramids arranged properly, tie all the corners that touch together securely, double and triple knotting, just to make sure.
- Attatch your kitestring to one of the corners where two sides of paper meet, as shown in the diagram, and you're done!
Flying your kite:
I just pick the kite up off the ground by its string and let it go. The wind will flow in the same direction as the string, into the kite, under the two "roofs" formed by the papered sides, and out the back, lifting the kite up in the air. It's a very stable, forgiving shape, and the straws' slight flexibility should cushion the kite against jarring landings.
If you have the bad habit of flying kites in very strong winds, which tends to make them crash, you may want to drop some thin support down the insides of the straws to keep them from buckling. I suspect thin shish kabob stakes would work well. I usually just jam a handy twig inside if one of the straws bends. You can also make this kite out of fancier materials, of course; the shape is the crucial part. Enjoy!
Read a short story about a kite.