A chinoiserie fan

My latest work is heavily inspired by this 1770s or-80's fan found somewhere online (probably eBay).

Original (as you can see from the ornate ivory sticks)

My copy (and yes, I wish it had been possible to make a wider leaf).

The original silk leaf is not just embellished with sequins but gold thread embroidery too. Something that would take a long time to reproduce, not to mention that it would make the fan awfully expensive. 

So I made a single paper leaf as usual, with glued on sequins (to avoid ugly threads that would need to be covered up on the reverse). The plain, unpainted bamboo sticks from Nehelenia Patterns were sawn off at the bottom, taken apart and painted with red lacquer and chinoiserie patterns in gold. And as usual, the rivet was replaced with a tongue piercing barbell (with a matching red paste stone!)
Of course, I couldn't resist painting the reverse too, to make it look more like the original fan and besides, there is no such thing as too many roses... ;-)

Despite everything, the fan took at least eight to ten working days to finish and ended up ridiculously expensive. About as expensive as the real thing, or a new gown... A limited number of less pricey, customisable printed copies of this fan will soon be available in my Etsy shop, however!

Droughtlander fan art!

I have always found the concept of time travelling paradoxes puzzling to the point of annoying (and besides - had it been possible, I wouldn't really like to live in the 18th century  - the lack of hot baths and modern comforts and medicine would surely put me off.)  So I never picked up Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels and was reluctant to watch the TV series... until I stumbled across the thing on Netflix two years ago. And suddenly I found myself spending the long ”Droughtlander” months making fan art (pun intended!) in honour of Mrs. Gabaldon's and the Starz channel's work. Resistance is futile!

Printed and hand coloured paper leaf  with "mother of pearl
fragments" on painted wooden sticks.

The classical motif of Mars (Jamie Fraser) laying down his arms at the feet of Venus (Claire Fraser) appearing in a cloud (out of the stone circle to the right) with attendant putti, was heavily inspired by a printed and hand coloured fan from the 1720s or 30s in the collection of the Fan Museum in Greenwich.

Having spent my own ”time travelling” and fan making projects mainly in the latter part of the 18th century, this was the first time I ever tried to reproduce an early 18th century fan. I do think it's quite good for a first attempt, though, and also a great but subtle way for an Outlander obsessed reenactor to show their love for Mrs. Gabaldon's universe (or Sam Heughans physique, or whatever ;-) )
For those interested, printed copies of this fan will soon be available in a limited number in my Etsy shop.

Je suis prest!

Another new fan

Here's my latest piece of work, based on the design from the most recent find in my collection of antique fans. A printed central vignette and patterns hand painted in white gouache and silver...

I must admit that the fairly sloppy painting on the original leaf was a challenge to reproduce. Modern metallic colours are generally much too thick to allow any light and carefree brushstrokes (to my great annoyance). 

Anyway, this fan is available in my Etsy shop today! More fans are in the making...  :-) 

A fan for a man

While the fan has been regarded as a feminine accessory for hundreds of years in the Western world, men who used fans were of course not unheard of in the 18^th century. For obvious reasons, this phenomenon was more common in the Mediterranean climate. In Northern Europe, it was usually seen as exclusive to effeminate fops. 

I may have failed to find a picture of an
18th century "man fan". So here's a
picture of a man who definitely did use
fans: Lord John Hervey (1696-1743),
aka "Lord Fanny". Image source:
Wikipedia

For example, an Italian who visited Stockholm in the early 1700s stirred some attention when he fanned himself with a small Chinese fan ”in the manner of women”. This attitude seems to have changed as the century progressed, however. Many men bought tourist fans (much like the ones of today) on their Grand Tours and travels, and most of these men probably didn't abstain from using them when they needed to cool themselves off. Fans with hidden erotic motifs also seem to have been popular.

Fans for men are usually described as quite plain, unadorned things which were generally darker in colour than their female counterparts. (Which I find interesting, considering the fact that the 18^th century man was not afraid of wearing bright colours, sparkling jewellery and elaborate flower embroideries.) Anyway, during all my years of research, I still haven't come across a ”man fan”– at least not one that has been identified as one of those plain, dark things made specifically for a man. Some examples from previous centuries, like a leather fan that reputedly belonged to Charles I of England have been preserved, but so far I have yet to see one from the 18^th century.

Italian "Grand Tour" fan, ca 1790.
Image source: www.ventagli.org

So when I was assigned with the task to make a fan for my friend Armand, I had to rely on guesswork. Using a set of plain black wooden sticks, I made a leaf out of black laid paper, with a monogram letter and silver sequins as the only decorations. Simple but very elegant.

(And no, the leaf is NOT stained. I just couldn't be arsed to remove the strange dots/dust particles/whatever in Photoshop. The photo happened to be taken in a very haunted house, by the way... ;-) )

Sources: Kulturen 1976- 1700-talet (Kulturen i Lund)

Aristocrats- the illustrated companion to the television series- Stella Tillyard

A 1790's fan

Well, I'm back, after a rough year with house moves, a book release (not 18th century related, but you can read about it here) and a big art exhibition, to mention just a few things. And even though I haven't been able to attend more than two costume events during this time (!), I have managed to make myself at least one new fan, based on an original from about 1790...

It started with this lovely little thing that I won on Ebay a few years ago. (as you can see in my earlier posts, I have made two other fans based on this design, but I never tried to make a full reproduction of it before.)

I like that hat :-)

I have no idea of its country of origin, it was bought from Ireland so perhaps it is British. Anyway: it has a double paper leaf with a plain white reverse side and sticks of cattle bone. The leaf is adorned with a stipple engraving of what appears to be a dairymaid resting by a tree, and sewn-on sequins, Just like the other fans in my small collection, it is quite tattered. The leaf has stains, the right guard stick is broken and the once golden sequins have turned into a matte verdigris. I hope it would be possible for an expert to restore it to its former glory someday, but since antique fans shouldn't be used anyway I was determined to make a reproduction of it. Or the leaf at least, since I couldn't make a replica of the sticks.

I used a set of plain bone sticks from the late 19th or early 20th century. The vignette is a printed photo of the engraving, and the patterns are hand painted.

My inkjet printer is quite good really, but
this copy still ended up a lot paler than  the
original engraving... :-/

The result is pretty, albeit not quite as pretty as the original must have been about two hundred years ago. Because of the modern paper (which is always too thick, no matter how thin it may seem) and the bone staves which are also a bit thick, it is MUCH heavier than the original fan. My copy has a few other flaws as well, but I'm still glad I finished it - as a matter of fact I started working on it back in 2014...!

A fan for all fans of the Queen of fashion

I just could resist the temptation of making a peachy pink Antoinette fan. Pink, black and silver sort of takes me back to the 1980s but despite being a typical colour combination of that much maligned period in fashion history, these colours really do go well together. And it's excellent for the 1780s too.

https://www.etsy.com/se-en/listing/241302619/18th-century-style-fan-antoinette

Smell the roses!

Wehey! I'm at it again... this new fan is all hand painted with a classical motif in the form of flowers (oh yes, there's always flowers: roses - pink roses, blue roses, forget-me-nots and god-knows-whats) and urns and sparkling gold sequins.

I matched the design with black wooden sticks painted with chinoiseries... While it is impossible for me to imitate elaborately carved and gilded sticks made of ivory or mother of pearl, these sticks are supposed to look exactly like what they are made of: namely black and gold painted wood.

Anyway, no matter how long you've been doing it, fan making is ALWAYS about trial and error (and inventing new combinations of ugly words), at least when you're not working full time in a fan factory in the 18th century. The thing turned out imperfect because of my experimenting with a new, super thin antique looking paper. Because of the thinness of the paper, I was determined to make a double leaf this time, which ended in a slightly wrinkled leaf... and major headaches!

I'm crazy for doing this sh**, year after year...

Anyway, this product of my enduring madness is still very pretty, and due to its imperfections you can get your hands on it for less on Etsy.
More fans (which hopefully will be perfect) are in the making... (why am I doing this?) ;-)

Dairymaid fan

Finally, there's a new fan available in my Etsy shop: yet another one of those simple but elegant 1790s style fans with a printed vignette. An original fan from my small collection provided the inspiriation as well as the print - I will show you that pretty little specimen in a later article...

Shepherdess fan

I just managed to finish yet another delightful, glittering little thing in late 1780s-1790s style (available for purchase on Etsy, as usual).

I have used a print in the vignette yet again... It's not that I'm lazy, but they used printed leaves a lot back in the days and it does save time for me. Still, this fan ended up as quite expensive because of all the work I put into the sticks, and the fabric covering on the reverse side of the leaf etc.etc.

 Oh yes, the Chinese bamboo sticks turned out to be a challenge... as is so often the case. I used "natural" (unpainted) ones this time, and in order to make them look a *little* more like real 18th century sticks I sawed off the annoying extra 2 cms of obviously-modern-Chinese fan-stick-length below the pivot... and sanded it to shape. I also had to take the whole thing apart to be able to paint the sticks in ivory colour - and put the sticks together again and replace the pivot, of course.

I do wonder why those sticks are never available in white. They are always black, unpainted or brown. Oh well...

The fragility of Beauty

Yesterday I finished a new lovely fan (featuring an engraving* by Bartolozzi after Cipriani called "The triumph of Beauty and Love") and was just about to take some photos and put it up for sale on Etsy...

And what happened?!

SNAP!!

After opening the thing, very carefully, for the third time or so...

Well, at least it made me gather strength enough to update my blog after all those months of inactivity. At least no one had the misfortune of buying it before it broke. And at least I know that I should NEVER ever use recycled plastic sticks again, since plastic has a sad tendency to become more fragile with age. Why then did I use these sticks in the first place? They were a gift, and they could pass for 18th century and tortoiseshell at a quick glance, even though they are too small for the period (about 23 cms spanning a mere 43 cms) and have that annoying pseudo-19th-centuryish U-shaped loop attached to the pivot (which can be removed anyway).

Now what should I do: mend it and keep it as a disposable fan or just throw the darn thing away? Or is anyone mad enough to buy it for less than half the intended price of $227 = $75?

...

*A printed COPY of the engraving of course ;-)

Mourning attire & winning a costume contest

For obvious reasons, mourning fans are probably not on top of anyone's wish list, but I have still missed a matching fan to go with my black polonaise... Halloween was the perfect excuse to finally make that fan - and wear the dress again, anyway.  (Has it been five weeks already? I guess I need to update more often... Oh well.) The fan was inspired by an original found somewhere on the net (probably Ebay). Interestingly, it sports one of the most simplistic and naïve paintings that I've ever seen on an 18th century fan. Because of this, it was also unusually quick and easy to copy.

 The polonaise mentioned was originally made to be worn on stage when I was a backing operatic-style vocalist in a band quite long ago, which is why it might not be completely historically accurate...  In any case, on 18th century events I have mostly been wearing it on the yearly memorial service for king Gustaf III in Riddarholmen church in Stockholm, and on some masquerade balls...

I may look bored, but I'm supposed to be a vampire, you know...

Of course it's a rather heavy thing to wear on a night out, but it's still perfect for Halloween. Especially if you're going to a party with a costume contest, which I did on this particular night. And guess what - I actually won the whole thing! :-)
Not only that, my zombie friend Lena placed herself as number three in the contest as well. Sadly, however, I didn't manage to get better photos from the occasion than these...

My zombie friend and I

A sticky problem, partly solved.

As you probably know by now, I almost always have to compromise on the authenticity of the sticks on my fans. Sometimes though, I manage to find materials (and inspiration) to make my sticks almost as pretty and period correct as my fan leaves.
Inspired by the design on the Chinoiserie fan below, I couldn't help but try to make something similar after purchasing a couple of the plain black wooden sticks from Nehelenia Patterns...

A fan from my small collection (from 1780 or so, according to the Ebay seller), made of paper and lacquered wood. It has a rather odd shape since it hardly even measures a quarter of a circle when fully opened. I guess that has to do with the fact that the leaf was glued over with silk on both sides in the 19th century.

And here is the result... not  too bad, in my opinion. It didn't take that many hours to paint, either.

This design on the guardstick was copied (well, almost) from the antique fan above.

 But not perfect. Because unfortunately, the shape at the bottom of these modern sticks always have the annoing extra 2 cms of stick below the central pivot, as you can see here:

I might, just might, bother to replace the modern loophole rivet with something fancier and  more period-looking.

Oh well.

As for chinoiserie designs on fan leaves, I don't really feel tempted to copy a traditional "exotic" Chinese leaf for this fan, it would remind too much of those cheap, modern Chinese things that most reenactors tend to use... But I'm sure it would look lovely with a green or red leaf with flowers and urns/birds in vignettes and sequins... preferably a silk leaf. Unless anyone out there with a better idea feels like ordering a custom fan? ;-)

Decoupage fans!

There were many kinds of decoupage fans in the 1700s, and among those, paper fans with punched holes imitating lace are common on many specimens from the mid-to-late part of the century. Fans with leaves of real lace with paper vignettes and figures decoupéed onto the leaf have also been seen, if not so frequently. (There is a common misconception claiming that lace leaves did not exist at all in the 18th century, which they did - but they were very expensive and are extremely hard to find today. See Katmax page on Livejournal for more info on the subject.) And as the 1790s approached, there were also fans with cut out prints, or engravings - often depicting classical scenes or portraits, which were sometimes hand coloured. The prints were glued onto the leaves, which could be made of paper, silk or sheer organza, and "secured" by sewn-on sequins around the edges. Sometimes the prints were cut into strips and mounted on brisée fans entirely made of intricately carved ivory or wood.

A simple and very pretty original fan found (and, alas, bought by someone else) on Ebay some months ago.

I have lately discovered that the simple decoupage fans with single, cut out prints are relatively easy for me to make, as long as I use a copy of an original 18th century print, a paper leaf and a modest amount of sequins. Moreover, the designs often match the simple wooden sticks that I have to make do with most of the time, very well.

So if you're into the fashion of the late 80's or the 90's, it is now possible to get a lovely fan for a very reasonable price, both as ready-mades and on commission - the prices for my decoupage fans start at $154 (1100 SEK), while you have to pay at least twice as much for a hand painted fan! By the way, to keep the prices at that level, they are normally delivered without boxes.

A nice cream coloured fan made by yours truly a week ago or so. The print is an engraving after Angelica Kauffman called "Love and Beauty".

The red Marie Antoinette fan below is for sale in my new Etsy shop right now (alongside the Louis XVI fan on the Ready mades/Sales page and some Gothic jewellery and related stuff).

Fan making process - a nautical fan 3

The leaf is painted in watercolour and gouache...

...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! :-)