For Clockshop's Kite Festival, build a newspaper kite using The Times' Weekend section

13 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. After more than two decades working as a journalist, I’ve heard a lot of ways that people reuse their newspapers: lining a pet’s cage or litter box; cleaning a grill; shoving several pages into sneakers to help them dry after they get soaked during a hike with creek crossings. I am a big advocate of repurposing items to keep them out of the landfill, and yet, I have never felt like any of these reuses celebrates the print medium for what it can provide beyond information. That’s one reason I wanted The Times to publish a kite design in the Weekend section in coordination with the staff at Clockshop, a local community arts nonprofit, just in time for its annual kite festival, which is from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday at Los Angeles State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring St. Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! In Sunday’s newspaper, you’ll find a colorful trapezoid kite along with printed instructions on how to build the kite as well as a QR code that links to a video of our team showing you how to build it. Regardless of whether you attend the kite festival, this edition of the Weekend section deserves to fly far beyond the confines of your recycling bin. You can buy a copy of the Sunday newspaper at local newsstands and most 7-Eleven, Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, Circle K and CVS locations. If you aren’t able to snag a print newspaper, we’ve also included a digital download where you can print a version of our kite design. The instructions are also below. Kite using newspaper | Kite using digital version The look of our kite was designed by L.A. artist Ben Sanders, who said he drew inspiration from our local landscape. “I kind of wanted it to look like gusts of wind,” said Sanders, who hadn’t previously illustrated a kite design, “and I was thinking about wind gusts on the beach and pink sunsets and the shoreline and ... maybe a sun that’s being refracted.” I have so many memories of flying kites, but I must admit: Several of them aren’t great. What’s more disappointing as a little kid than running outside with a kite in your arms, anticipating your moment of glory, only to watch it crash repeatedly? I asked Yaeun Stevie Choi, an L.A.-based artist and kite maker, what some common reasons kites fail were. “This is where the physics part of kites comes in,” they said. “Generally speaking, there are essential ingredients of how a kite flies, so if you don’t have those, perhaps it will fail.” For example, kites need to be designed symmetrically to successfully catch the wind, which is often blowing horizontally, Choi said, adding that sometimes people don’t attach a kite’s tail properly, not realizing the tail helps the kite orient itself. Or the kite maker might have attached the string in a way that inhibits the kite’s ability to catch air pressure and rise. The kite that readers can build using The Times’ Weekend section. (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times) And sometimes the ratio is just off. The area of the sail (in our case, the trapezoid shape in our newspaper) to the weight of the spars (the frame or rigid sticks that allow the kite to hold its shape) really matters. Heavier spars require a larger sail while people who build miniature kites sometimes don’t include a spar or will only use half a toothpick, Choi said. Choi estimated that around six of their first kites failed. I asked them how someone can get over the embarrassment they might feel when their kite just doesn’t fly. Choi produced a mischievous grin. “You wear a mask, like a monster mask [or] your favorite animal,” they said. “So you wear a penguin mask, so [onlookers] are like, ‘Oh, the penguin made a failing kite.’ They won’t be like, ‘Oh, a person embarrassed themselves.’” In all seriousness, building and flying a kite is an opportunity to embrace a challenge rather than view a difficult task in binary terms, a point Choi and I discussed. I also asked Sue Bell Yank, Clockshop’s executive director, how the kite festival began. The organization wanted to celebrate the open sky above L.A. State Historic Park and reclaim what could be taken if the controversial electric aerial gondola system, first proposed in 2018 by a company funded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, were built, as it would take passengers over the park on its way to Dodger Stadium. Over the years, the festival has evolved into a celebration of the artistry of kite-making, although Clockshop still views it as a “joyful protest” that brings communities together on public lands, Yank said. “There’s a sense of freedom in connecting yourself to the ground and the air and with the wind,” Yank said. “You’re working in concert with nature

For Clockshop's Kite Festival, build a newspaper kite using The Times' Weekend section

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