Carried by the Wind
Play
Passionate about kites since childhood, Gadis Widiyati Riyadi delights her fans with lots of different designs
When she was a young child, Gadis Widiyati Riyadi was told by her father to engage in feminine hobbies such as sewing. Her heart, though, was already lost to kites.
“My father was very against kite flying, as he thought that kites were toys for boys and not girls,” Widiyati recalls.
She obeyed her father and learnt sewing, but she never gave up on her first love. If anything, sewing made her even more interested in kite making.
And she has much to thank her father for: her skills with needle and thread have come in handy in making kites of all shapes and sizes.
Widiyati, now 55, has been flying and making kites since she was 10 years old. “I started making basic kites such as diamond and traditional Malay kites as a kid,” she says.
Her love for flying and making kites has also become a family passion, with her husband and three grown-up children all sharing her hobby. “They are all avid kite fliers; my second son is also a kite-flying instructor. All three of them help me at kite-making workshops."
Widiyati, a housewife, has made about 100 kites with her husband, Yuwono Riyadi, 59, who works in logistics.
Her kite designs have evolved from simple, traditional ones to those that are more elaborate and creative, including inflatable kites. She spends anything from hours to a few months making them, depending on their complexity.
“The Sode Dako kite I made this year took me about three months because it’s huge,” she laughs, adding that they are also known as kimono kites.
She draws inspiration from what happens around her. Her Chinese opera kite, for example, was inspired by the Chinese opera performances during the Hungry Ghost Festival.
Inspiration also comes from the things she loves. Pointing to a rokkaku kite – a traditional Japanese kite – she says: “My family are fans of the comic book ‘The Adventures of Tintin’, which gave me the idea to make this kite with Captain Haddock on it."
Besides running kite-making workshops at festivals, Widiyati also gives talks about kites at schools, companies and museums. She is the secretary of the Singapore Kite Association as well as the Asean Kite Council.
Her passion for kites won her the gold award for the “Most Committed Kite Flyer” at the Borneo International Kite Festival in 2011.
She has attended many international kite festivals – from Cambodia and China to Spain and South Africa – and her designs have bagged awards from around the world, including from Germany and Malaysia.
Widiyati’s love for all things kite has widened her horizons. As she put it, flying and making kites have been her “passport to go around the world”.
