Traditional
Chinese kites are mainly made of paper and silk,
while modern man-made fiber textiles or non-woven
fabrics, plastic films and other new materials are
also used.
1. Paper:
The paper used for pasting kites
requires long fibers, toughness, thinness and
lightness, small air permeability, good
colorability, and small deformation due to
temperature changes. The paper used in traditional
Chinese kites is mostly hand-made long fiber
paper, such as cotton paper, leather paper,
rice paper, elegant paper, and Korean paper. There
are many machine-made papers used in modern times,
such as Wenzhou machine-made paper, Mino paper,
oil-sealed paper, capacitor insulation paper, etc..
The choice of paper depends on the size of the kite,
its parts, flight conditions, coloring requirements
and many other factors, among which the size of the
kite is the main factor.
Generally,
the smaller the kite, the thinner and softer the
paper. For example, some small kites need to use
high-strength leather paper, Koryo paper, etc.,
while the paper used in large kites must be mounted
together in several layers.
2. Silk material:
Silk is a kind of very thin textile,
light weight, high strength, and good coloring
performance. It is a common mask material for
traditional Chinese kites, but it is very costly and
not suitable for beginners. Now there are some
textiles that are thinner than silk with man-made
fibers, such as power spinning (insulation spinning)
and foreign spinning***. They are lighter than silk,
with higher strength and less air permeability.
Therefore, spinning is often used instead of woven
silk in making traditional Chinese kites. To apply
the kite with textiles, most of them need to go
through pre-treatment, that is, soak it with a
mixture of glue and /or Gutta-percha solution or
else. Afterwards drying it and iron it before use.
This has two effects. One is to reduce the air
permeability; the other is to be easily colored when
painting, and the color will not bleed. In addition,
the silk treated with alum is also stiffer, not as
soft as untreated.
The traditional formula ratio of colloidal
pre-tratment solution is gum (Gutta-percha) 2, alum
( potassium aluminium sulfate) 1, and water
36. If no Gutta-Percha is available, you might
traditionally use bone glue. That is, 20 grams of
bone glue, 10 grams of alum, and 360 grams of water
are heated and dissolved into a liquid. But some
kites are masked with "raw" silk that has not been
treated with alum. Another special effect.
3. Composite materials:
Traditional large kites often use
composite materials to cover, that is, use tissue
paper or leather paper to hold the silk. This
material has high strength, good airtightness, and
good colorability, and has performances that can not
be matched by paper and silk.
4. New material:
The above-mentioned traditional
Chinese kite masking materials have two major
shortcomings: one is that they are not
water-resistant, the color fades when they get wet,
and the mask is damaged. The second is the poor
strength, unable to withstand the test of strong
wind or high-speed flight. I remember one time when
the author flew a traditional Chinese giant phoenix
butterfly kite at a kite show abroad. The wind speed
on the ground exceeded level 5, and the wind at high
altitude was even greater. I took this kite in half
an hour later. Its wings and tail were all It was
torn into strips, and the nylon silk kite of
foreigners was safe. In order to solve this problem,
we should consider the application of new materials.
Here nylon silk, brocade silk, non-woven fabric and
plastic film are all good materials. They have good
air-tightness and are not afraid of water. The first
three are far stronger than paper and silk. There
are many varieties of plastic film, some are
extremely thin, and the weight is only 1/10 of
tissue paper. But it also brings new problems, such
as coloring and gluing can not be used new methods.
Questions in this regard will be discussed later in
"pasting" and "painting".
And
more serious: if using New Materials, the kite is
obviously no longer a genuine "Traditional Chinese
Kite".
____
***
"power spinning fabrics" are spun silk woven from
mulberry silk (see mulberry cocoons), but not
using traditional pedal-operated weaving stands
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