Materials
Six things the bench trusts
We are not purists by religion; we are purists by evidence. Fifty years of repair work has opinions about cloth, and we listen to it.
Reed paper
Coloured, waxed and unmarked sheets from a two-hundred-year-old Japanese mill. Tears at the crease, which is a feature: a paper kite that must land is a kite that can land.
Sea-glass silk
8 momme habotai in nine colours, dyed for us in Kesselford. It catches light the way sea glass catches sky, and sews like a rumour.
Bamboo spar
Split and spliced by hand, Tonkin cane only. A good spar survives a gale; a bad one files for early retirement at the top of the climb.
Ripstop sailcloth
40-denier, silicone-coated, in six hues. For kites that work rather than kites that rest; honest cloth, no opinions.
Halyard line
Braided polyester on the reel, cloth halyard on the vintage stock. Named for the rope store we work beside.
Pennant cotton
The tail cloth. Cut, hemmed and hand-stamped with the works rose; a forty-foot tail takes a whole day and two radio plays.