How to Make a Chinese Silk Kite

A colorful drawing of a kite

Chinese silk kites not only serve as entertainment on a breezy day, but they also provide the home with decorative accents. Making a Chinese silk kite at home also provides entertainment to individuals or families with children. A creative and simple craft, making a Chinese silk kite adds enrichment to a sunny spring day, or a bare wall in your child's room.

Things You'll Need

• Roll of Chinese silk material
• Scissors
• 10 bamboo sticks (measuring 12 inches in length)
• Fabric glue (max strength)

Instructions

1. Cut out two squares of silk measuring three feet by three feet each.

2. Set one of the squares aside and turn the other diagonally in front of you on a flat surface. The diagonal position of the fabric makes it resemble a large diamond shape.

3. Squeeze a line of fabric glue from the topmost point of the material, all the way down to the bottom point.

4. Squeeze a line of fabric glue horizontally across the fabric from the left point to the right point, intersecting the vertical line of glue.

5. Place a bamboo stick into the glue starting at the topmost point of the fabric. Place another stick beneath that one and repeat until the final stick's tip is right at the bottom point of the material.

6. Repeat Step 5 by laying the bamboo sticks horizontally across the other line of glue.

7. Squeeze glue in a line diagonally at the edge of the fabric to connect the outermost tip at the left to the top tip of the fabric and place a bamboo stick in the glue. Repeat this process with the remaining three sticks, placing them around the perimeter of the Chinese silk.

8. Squeeze glue over all of the sticks that are adhered to the fabric.

9. Place the other square of fabric over the glued sticks, in the same diagonal position. Press on all of the edges firmly to allow the glue to stick them together.

10. Allow the kite three hours to dry.

Tips & Warnings

• Embellish the Chinese silk kite with fabric paint in Asian-inspired designs using stencils.

• Secure kite string to the bottom point of the kite by both knotting it and gluing it.