When kites take to the skies tomorrow, at least 100 of them will have been made by one pair of hands: those of Janet (Queenie) Abraham.

What began 30 years ago, first by entering a school kite competition, then competing with the neighbourhood boys, and finally at age 13 selling them to earn pocket money, has today become an annual cottage industry for which Miss Abraham begins preparing at least half a year in advance.

By the time the last kite was made this week, she had cut countless sticks and tissue paper patches, assembled frames, cut and glued the patches, and affixed the all-important hummers.

Naturally, after so many years' experience she has not only become extremely proficient at her art, but also she knows the science of flight for every size, shape and weather condition.

“Mathematics is very important. Everything has to be precise and even for a kite to fly. I always tell children that,” Miss Abraham says.

“Occasionally, if you are off you can balance it out with a little bit more tail. Sometimes things do slip a bit, but on the whole math is very important, and when I go to the schools I tell the students to stay in school and learn.”

Having said that, however, the skilled kitemaker once found that a defective measurement proved to be just right. Destined to fly in the Department of Tourism's ‘Let Yourself Go' promotion in New York, she wanted it to be up to her usual standard.

“But the kite just wasn't measuring right so I took it all apart and did new measurements. When I got through papering it it was about one inch smaller than the normal 27-inch kite, but I said, ‘Let it go',” Miss Abraham says. “Tourism had kites from other makers as well, but on the day there wasn't enough breeze and mine was the only kite out of 80 that flew.”

The same meticulous attention to detail that goes into getting her calculations right also applies to every other facet of the kite-making process so that assembly generally goes like clockwork.

An important part of the kitemaker's art is the design, and Miss Abraham says she makes no two alike.

There was a time when she first drew out the designs on paper, but today, with so much experience behind her, she goes directly from what she envisages to the finished product.

Her trademark is the layered tassels (the lacy “rosettes” at the kite's centre).

“I am known for them, and it takes me just as long to make them as it does a kite,” she says. “In fact, I could make more kites if I didn't make (such fancy) tassels.”

On average, with all the components pre-prepared, it takes her an hour to finish a kite, and in terms of design, she makes everything from “roundies” to box and stunt kites. In fact, she often works through the night, grabbing a few hours' sleep just before the sun rises.

“My best work comes after midnight when the house is quiet and the night is still,” she says.

She has even been known to make them in the back of her taxi (she has been a full-time driver since 1987, and also delivers pizzas).

All kites are made to order, and her customers include private citizens and companies like Belco, the latter of which has been giving them to winners of its annual colouring contest for the past three years.

In fact, so pleased are they with Miss Abraham's work that she says they have already booked her for 2004. She makes kites for tourists to take home, and has also shipped them abroad.

It is a great source of pride to the Devonshire resident that there is still a market for handmade Bermuda kites because she sees them both as an art and an important part of our cultural heritage, and she worries that today youngsters seem to prefer to take the easy route by buying cheap, ready-made plastic varieties instead.

“I believe local kite-making is a dying art,” Miss Abraham says. “Kids don't want to spend the time. They're buying video games instead. They have too many other interests going on.”

So, whenever an opportunity arises to spread the word about perpetuating this aspect of our heritage and demonstrating her art, the kitemaker takes it.

She has spoken in schools, to church groups, and other interested parties, and was included in the team which went to Washington, DC for the Department of Tourism's ‘Great Bermuda Kite Fly-In' in 1996.

She also has a letter from former Premier Pamela Gordon commending her on the beauty of a kite she presented to her in 1998.

Looking to the future, Miss Abraham says there are two wishes she would like to fulfil.

“During the traditional kite-making season I would like to do a project at No. 1 passenger terminal with children and their parents, and if I could find an inexpensive way to successfully ship kites abroad I would make kites a full-time profession.”

In fact, so passionate is Miss Abraham about kite flying that she does not feel it should be confined to just one day of the year, or even a season of the year, but should be enjoyed year-round, given Bermuda's good weather.

Meanwhile, having filled all the orders she is going to fill for tomorrow's big day, Janet (Queenie) Abraham will at last make one for herself.

The sky is, after all, the limit.