SIBU: To be asked to fly kites is not a nice thing to hear, but for some creative people it is really bringing food to the table.

Here in this town, wage earners hard pressed to make ends meet amidst the global financial crisis are, well not really flying kites; they make them.

Kite maker Siaw Kho Aik, 48, makes stunt kites to supplement his income to tide over the difficult times.

“In times like this, it is difficult to depend solely on one source of income as salaries are likely to remain stagnant, with companies scaling down their operational costs to generate savings.

“Prices of basic necessities are still high and I find my monthly income stretched to the limit,” said Siaw, who works as a computer technician.

“For this reason, I find it necessary to do something on a part-time basis to gene-rate additional income to make ends meet,” he added.

Siaw said his interest in flying stunt kites gave him the idea to turn the hobby into a source of income.

He was glad that he made such a decision because, since then, he has received orders for stunt kites from Bintulu, while the rest of the orders came from close friends.

Depending on the materials, he is selling a kite for RM200 to RM300.

“There are of course cheaper ones but the materials are a bit heavy,” he pointed out.

He said people are fascinated by the unique design of the stunt kite which differs greatly from that of a conventional kite.

Its ability to manoeuvre in any direction is its selling point, Siaw said.

Towards this end, he believes that it is important for a person to be creative during these challenging times.

“The way I see it, rather than wasting our energy blaming the situation which we have no control over, we should be doing something useful,” he said, adding that there is no limit to what a person can do with creativity.

In the same boat is Ismail Jaafar, 40, who specialises in making train kites that comprise some 200 kites attached to a single string.

Ismail, who holds a full-time job, makes train kites in his free time.

Hard pressed by the impact of the global economic slowdown, he turned to kite making to make his way out of the tough times.

Although he does not market it on a commercial scale, Ismail had received several orders for stunt kites from Bintulu.

“My hobby is flying train kite and as for kite making, I do it when there is a request from someone,” he said.

“Although I don’t get very much from kite making, it helps me tide over the difficult times,” he revealed.

Asked the price, he said it is dependent upon the number of kites attached to a single string. Usually, it costs a few hundred ringgit.

He reckoned that more people would take up kite flying as a hobby in time to come. This, he said, would be a business opportunity.

Meanwhile, if all goes well, he might attempt to get his name into the Malaysian Book of Record for flying the longest train kite – comprising a total of 500 small kites.