a Sunday morning.

In fact, Bermuda's kite king Mr. Vincent Tuzo has made the Guinness Book of Records several times for making kites of all shapes and sizes and keeping them in the air for hours.

Yesterday The Royal Gazette met a local woman who is determined to make sure the strings of tradition are not cut.

And her other ambition is to meet the king of kites himself.

Miss Janet Abraham of Devonshire has made hundreds of kites over the past 22 years. She has also sold up to 50 a year.

But the 32-year-old kite enthusiast said while her talent for kite-making developed out of necessity, she now does it as a method of relaxation.

Growing up as an only child in a predominantly male neighbourhood, Miss Abraham said in order to fit in she had to prove she could do what the boys could.

And she said she soon realised that if she "wanted a decent kite every year'', she would have to make it herself.

"I started with flannel sticks and paper bags, then graduated to fish tails,'' she said.

"Every year I got cuts from using razor blades to thin down the bamboo sticks.'' But that did not stop her from entering her first kite competition at age 10.

While she did not win that contest, she picked up some tips on improving her kite making skills.

And by the time she was 13, she was selling her home-made tissue paper kites.

"I first made three to sell,'' she recalled. "But the lady who ordered them did not come for them. However, I did not mind because I got to fly them.'' Since then Miss Abraham, who can make a kite in less than two hours while watching television, has made and sold up to 50 kites a year.

But, she confessed, she still hates to part with her work.

"I wasn't going to sell them this year,'' she said. "I was just going to give some away to friends and keep a few.'' But people who have seen others with Miss Abraham's kites are demanding to have one.

She has sold six already this week and is expected to sell 20 this year.

But Miss Abraham, who made kites on Good Friday while at school abroad and has put together a few during slow periods while driving cab, stressed she always makes at least one `roundy' for herself.

"I love kites,'' she said. "I act like a kid and get excited on Good Fridays. It is one of my favourite holidays.

"My desire is to one day have an empty room and as Good Friday approaches fill it with all kinds of kites so people can come to look at them and pick out exactly what they want.'' KITE-MAKING QUEEN -- Miss Janet Abraham is deserving of that title after making hundreds of kites over the past 20 years.