Traditional DIY Chilean Kite 'Volantín'

Inspiration and History

The Traditional DIY Chilean Kite 'Volantín' is a simple, fast printing and light structure inspired by the Chilean Volantín folkloric game and tradition. We sure did not invent the kite, but it became a very integral part of our national culture, specially around our National Holiday on September, which is a pretty windy month, just as the spring starts in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Milivoj Sherrington/Flickr

Our most simple version of the kite consists of one main structure made from coigüe tree thin sticks (a native tree from this region) or bamboo sticks, kite string or thread, and a square of papel volantín a special kind of papel that you may find under the name of tissue craft paper or tissue wrapping paper. Typically, it's not very big, it's about 40x40cm.

Although you can find volantines being sold in every park around the month of September (big, plastic, colorful ones too), it is very popular, especially among children, to make your own.

Source: https://www.salidaseducativas.cl/tour/taller-de-volantin-chileno-boris-prado/

Directions to make your own

Printing the structure

My printer is quite small, so it ended up being a mini 18x18cm version but if yours is bigger you can make a full size kite of about 35 or 40cm. 

Bonus: I printed my model with Cicla3D filament (https://cicla3d.cl/). Cicla3D is a small business that manufactures filament in Chile. Actually, they are the only ones in the country to do so! Every other filament you can find is imported. They have a filament product line which incorporates copper (Chile is very rich in this material, you may remember the 33 miners). This makes the filament ideal to make stuff with antibacterial/antiviral properties. 

Tips:

In order to make the structure as light as possible I used this settings (Cura):

• Layer Height: 0.3
• Wall Line Width: 0.4
• Top Layers: 2
• Bottom Layers: 4
• Infill Density: 15%
• Infill Pattern: Lines

Feel free to suggest better settings.

You'll need:

-the printed model

-glue

-string or thread

-craft/wrapping tissue paper

Steps:

1. Cut a square of the same dimensions of your print + 1cm.

2. Fold 1cm of the edges of the square and glue it. This is done to give the paper more structure.

3. Glue the printed structure diagonally, from tip to tip.

4. Cut the string 4x the length of the kite (e.g 4x 40cm = 160cm).

5. Thread the string through the holes of the curved line and make 3-4 knots on each.

6. Stretch the string to the lower hole and before threading it, make a knot.

7. Make sure the strings are balanced by taking the kite from the central knot and letting it hang. If you notice it's not balanced, go ahead and fix the strings by making more knots.

8. Once everything is perfect, tie the end of the rest of the string and fly your volantín!

You can also watch this video of Francisco Espinoza, volantinero (artisanal volantín crafter), to learn the traditional process.

I would love to see your volantines so please upload your makes and enjoy spring if you live anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, I'll have to wait till September to fly mine.