After nearly 40 years of making Bermuda’s smallest kites, craftsman Brian Doars has come out of retirement for another miniature.

“It’s a good thing I’m a Libra — I have got a lot of patience,” said Mr Doars of his creations, which he creates from matchsticks and scraps of coloured paper. “I think this is my last year doing them.”

Added Mr Doars: “But I would like to see somebody beat me in a smallest kite contest. If they can beat me, I’ll definitely retire. I’m getting too old for this.”

A long-standing employee at Warwick’s Surf Side Beach Club, Mr Doars has been giving away his signature mini-kites for years.

He said part of his inspiration to try his hand at another miniature came recently when a visitor from the US returned to the Island for one last trip — and presented him with a kite Mr Doars had fashioned 14 years ago.

Mr Doars, who first took up the hobby back in 1975, said he gets asked every Easter if he’ll start making the kites again.

His first mini-kite was for a contest at the Southampton Rangers Club, he said.

“It was a contest for the biggest, so I said I would go for the smallest.”

Asked if the kites can fly, Mr Doars said his boss, Bryony Harvey, had contacted the Guinness Book of Records to see if Mr Doars’s kites could earn a place in their pages.

“They told her that for me to get in the book, the kite would have to fly,” said Mr Doars.

“I might get it flying by tying it up in front of a fan. She might disappear after that, but the kite would still be flying.”