How to Make an Indoor Genki Kite

On this page are a number of easy steps showing you how to make an indoor genki kite from readily available materials. 

The only materials required for this design are:

• One sheet of plain copier paper—A4 or Letter size. Use colored paper if you want to!
• 18 mm (3/4 in.) clear sticking tape, preferably in a dispenser. Narrower tape would be even better if you have it.
• A light plastic bag, at least 45 cm x 30 cm (18 in. x 12 in.) before being cut open. I used large freezer bags. 
• Any polyester sewing thread, preferably the lightest available.

The tools required, if you can call them that, are:

• A pair of scissors.
• A ruler.
• A straight edge longer than 45 cm (18 in.).
• A ballpoint pen.
• Colored permanent markers.

Note: In the photos below, yellow lines have been added to make clear where the edges of sticking tape are.

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Step 1—Make Sail

• Lay down a plastic bag, and smooth it out to remove the most obvious folds and creases.
• Measure and mark dots as indicated in the photo.

• Flip the bag over.
• Mark dots over the four showing through the plastic. See the photo above.

• Cut the bag along the sealed edge to open it.
• Cut the bag along the opposite side to the side with four dots.
• Open the bag out into a single flat sheet, with the dots on top. In the photo you can see all 12 dots. 
  

• Using the dots to guide you, rule lines as shown in the (enhanced) photo.

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Step 2—Decorate Sail

Do you have permanent colored markers? It's time to take them out.

• My approach was to put a 0.6 cm (1/4 in.) wide border of black all around on the inside of the sail outline. This was followed by 1 cm (3/8 in.) wide colored stripes down the inside of where the vertical spars go—spaced 0.6 cm (1/4 in.) away from the vertical spar centerlines. See the photo.
• You do whatever you like! Just try not to add too much weight, though. Doing "sparing line art" is how to make an indoor genki kite look good and minimize weight.

• Cut all around the outside border with scissors. Cutting thin plastic can be tricky, so take your time. Sharp scissors help!
• From here on, we will refer to the plastic piece as the sail.
  

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Step 3—Make Spars

Measure and Draw

• Take your sheet of paper, and mark dots as shown.

Note: Each white line—even if it is so short it looks like a dot—has a corresponding measurement nearby.

• With ruler and pen, connect the dots as shown.

Laminate and Cut Out 

• Lay down sticking tape to fully cover the shapes. A small amount of overlap is OK if you need more than four strips.

• Flip the paper over so you can add tape to the reverse side of all the shapes. It might help to place the paper up against a well-lit window to trace the corners. Another way is to poke holes through the paper with a pin at all the corners. Then you can see where all the shapes are.

• Cut out all the shapes as shown.

Join Horizontal Spar Pieces

• Lay down the two pieces with the widest ends, bringing those two ends together. Although there is no continuous straight edge, do your best to align the pieces as shown, by eye.
• Tape the pieces together at the join. Use just enough tape to go once around the entire join.

Fold Lengthwise

• Fold all the shapes in half, down their lengths as shown.
• Crease all the folds sharply. The thin ones are tricky, but it can be done! Just do the best you can by working along from one end to the other. Pinching between thumb and forefinger works well.
• What you have now is two vertical spars (the shortest pieces), a horizontal spar (the longest piece), and two battens (the thinnest pieces).

At this point, you're about halfway through learning how to make an indoor genki kite! The hardest bits have been done already, I'd say.

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Step 4—Attach Spars

Tape Vertical Spars

• Flip the sail so the artwork is against the table.
• Take the vertical spars, and align them to the top corners of the upper sail and over the corresponding dots near the trailing edge of the sail. Also ensure the fold angles are 90 degrees or a little less.

• At the upper ends, place a square of sticking tape across the fold line of each spar.
• Gently press down on both sides so the tape goes down then across to the left and right.
• With scissors trim any overhanging tape flush with the sail edges. See the photo.

• At the tail end of the sail, lay down squares of tape as indicated in the photo. Note how the tape is aligned to the sail edge, so there's no need to trim flush. 

Tape Horizontal Spar

• Check the fold in a horizontal spar, and sharpen the crease if necessary to get that 90-degree fold angle.
• Tape the spar in place over the sail as shown. Use squares of tape at the tips and a 4 cm (1 1/2 in.) length over the middle. In the middle, it's OK for the paper to flex a little while you press the edges against the sail plastic.
• With scissors trim the overhanging tape at the tips flush with the sail edge. See the photo.

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Step 5—Attach Battens

• Take a batten, and sharpen the crease if necessary.
• Position the batten over one wingtip, aligning one tip to the bottom corner of the sail.
• Place a square of tape over each end of the batten as shown in the photo.

• In the same way, add the remaining batten to the other wingtip. There they both are, in the photo.

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Step 6—Attach Flying Line

You have pretty much finished learning how to make an indoor genki kite at this point!

• Flip the kite over so the spars are against the table.
• Cut off about 2 m (6 ft.) of polyester sewing thread. Lay one end over the dot on the sail near the middle of the horizontal spar.
• Stick down at least 4 cm (1 1/4 in.) of the thread by lining up a 4 cm (1 1/4 in.) strip of sticking tape with the dot as shown in the photo. Press above and below the fold line of the spar to avoid flattening the paper.
• Stick down another shorter length of tape—going across this time instead of down. See the photo.

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Step 7—Flying!

This is a very low-speed kite, and it will effortlessly float up at walking pace. Be careful not to jerk the thread or pull too quickly, since this will promptly fold up at least one of the spars!

If a spar does fold up, don't despair. Just carefully pinch the paper where it failed, to get it back into that V-shape section once again. Then try again, going a little slower or smoother this time.

The Launch Technique

This is how I like to launch on a length of thread equal to your shoulder height:

• Lay the kite flat on the floor, with the thread on top, of course, and the tail end pointing at your feet.
• Lift gently straight up while taking a couple of quick steps backward.
• If the kite appears to be rising, turn around and walk forward while looking back over your shoulder.
• Within seconds, you should see the kite floating behind. Walk a little faster to climb the kite; slow down to descend. It's a fine balance!

If you have the space, try letting out more thread and adjusting your speed until the kite cruises along just short of the ceiling. Look out for light fittings and so on. Look where you're going too from time to time. ;-)

If you need even more line length, just tie on more thread, and wind it onto a small square of cardboard.

I hope you have enjoyed learning how to make an indoor genki kite this way.

 

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