...decorated with silver colour...
(And, in this case, cut out roughly with scissors, leaving a margin of at least a centimetre on each side. Normally I won't do that until after the next step, where the leaf is taped onto the template again.)
So, the leaf is taped onto the template once again and put upon the lightbox to mark out the folds. This is a crucial step, since it's EXTREMELY important that each fold gets in the right place... :-{ (Not too easy, since the leafs always get a bit wavy from all the watercolour paint, which is obvious on the picture below.)
The creases are marked out on both sides.
The leaf is pleated on a special board.
The lower edge of the leaf is trimmed (the upper one should not be trimmed until after the leaf is mounted onto the sticks - to avoid tears and swearing and a ruined fan.)
The leaf is glued onto the sticks. (Also a very crucial step - if one uses too much glue the folds might glue together in some places *aarrgh*!) And the upper edge of the leaf is trimmed with scissors, very, very carefully on the closed fan.
The edges are painted with silver colour. And as a final step, I make a nice, period correct fan box out of rolled cardboard, tape, scrapbook paper and glue.
Et voìla! :-)
