Just for fun . . .

[Torus34]

A few years ago, the 'Project Runway' show had a group of clothing designers scavenge materials from a garbage barge and use them to create an outfit. It was a delight to watch this -- a fine lesson in ingenuity. Now, I'm not advocating a trip to a garbage barge. Not at all. But we can tap into the scavenge and ingenuity aspects without insulting our noses.

Many of us live within easy reach of a 'Dollar' store. These stores have all sorts of, for lack of a better word, 'stuff'. Some of this stuff can be used in kitemaking. And while not as cheap as garbage, the purchase of a few items in such a store won't put the rent money at risk.

So . . . is anyone out there in 'NetLand interested in building a kite from 'Dollar' store items? Would you like to try this and share the results? Should we try to make this into a contest? Should we limit the materials to, say, $5 worth, excluding tax?

What say you, Kitebuilders?

[cerfs-volantstylistes]

Those kites are made with gift wrapping paper from the dollar store. They look great at night.

Ephemere kite

Ephemere

[John Barresi]

Beautiful!

[cerfs-volantstylistes]

Oh thank you !

Here are two more photos and no, they are not retouched.

It's just to show that with a few dollars, it's possible to create fun looking kites.

[ant man]

those are cool

[kiteguy]

those are cool

I have made numerous kites from Dollar Store items/materials. I will see if I can dig up some photos. And take a photo of my latest. (Two days ago.)

[kiterdj]

Hi Guys & grls,

There is a classic kitemaker that you all should be aware of. His name is 'Stormy Weathers', see: Stormy & his kites. He lived up to kiting, after a long and sometimes difficult life. See the description by Drachen foundation and see the pages with his kites. Made of materials that have almost no value: straws, packaging plastics and so on. They fly great, if you are lucky enough to build it with the good feeling. My experience is that you need some patiency in tuning these kites, but then in the end they will fly up to Stormy in heaven, even with almost no wind. For the plans you need to take a look at this Victory star but be aware: this is a luxury version and it is huge, much larger then all the originals. Try to do some downscaling of this plan.

I like it a lot.

[kiteguy]

Here is one Dollar Store kite that I made.

And another:

And yet another:

I like this version even better:

This rok was made from a plastic table cloth from the Dollar store. It is a great, light wind, kite. Very light weight.

I make a lot of kites from Dollar Store materials. Great give away items for kids at the park.

[Jeepster]

Hey Dave, great to see you posting on Kitelife.

I've really got to comment on this thread though. You posted about making kites from Dollar store materials and said "I will see if I can dig up some photos." That was in December of 2009 ... is your shop really that messy that it took almost three years to find the kites and/or pictures?

For those of you who have not met Dave on the Kitebuilder forum, he's a very prolific kite builder. Not the intricate, detailed, multi-celled kites, but less complex kites that make you smile. Ask him about his fighter kites. Or the kites he builds for his grand kids ... or just the neighbor kids.

Cheers,

Tom

[Jynx]

KiteGuy ~

Kudos to you, your kites, and your generous give-aways to little future kiters!