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...

Mint green music

All right, this is my latest fan... A print by Bartolozzi called "Music" is decoupaged onto a paper leaf in the delightful colour scheme of mint green, silver and black.

 Oh yes, it's another one of those decoupage fans... I still love lavish silk fans littered with sequins and embroidery et cetera, but unfortunately, making them is just too time consuming and unprofitable.

As a lover of music and most shades of green and silver (and black!), I might have kept it, but since I know that I can always make myself a new fan, I usually end up selling most of them off. So, the fan is available on Etsy together with a mended "Beauty&Love" from my last blog post.

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

An 18th century emergency kit

Dreams and downright nightmares always tend to follow specific, recurrent themes, and judging from my own and my friend's personal experiences, there seem to be at least two rather similar ones that are common among reenactors.

"Oh no, how am I supposed to get into the car now?!"

Number one is "delayed for the ball".

You are on your way to the event of the year, and after the usual, slow dressing procedure you are about to leave, looking great in your best toilette. Or so you thought, for you have somehow managed to forget to do your hair... your poor unkempt tresses are hanging about your face as on a particularly shaggy sheep dog. And not only that – now that you know that you will be delayed by at least one hour, the clock shows that the ball is just about to start...! And you were positively sure that you had plenty of time... Further dressing incidents, delays and agonies usually follow, and you never manage to get to your destination...

Number two is ”the magically disappearing clothing articles”.

Curiously, a friend of mine who has only been to one 18^th century ball in her whole life so far, had the following dream several days before the event:

She was at the ball wearing her dress, looking and feeling perfectly all right. When all of a sudden, she discovered that her stays had magically disappeared, leaving her with the bulky look of a Butterick costume from hell. Then she looked down on her feet, and realised with horror that her shoes were gone and that she was walking around in stocking feet – modern sports socks too! - under her fancy skirts...

Those dreams may of course have a much deeper meaning than mere fear of missing a party or fear of looking and feeling more or less awkward and historically incorrect. Still, forgetting basic garments, accessories and details while packing before attending an event IS a nightmarish possibility even in waking life - as every reenactor knows.

"I know I must have forgotten something..."

Due to problems of a logistic nature, I haven't been reenacting a lot lately (which you probably have noticed from my virtually nonexistent blog posts and pictures on the subject.) Something which of course has made me more afraid of forgetting something vital next time... So, I have taken the time to write a list on what should be in every lady's ”18^th century emergency kit”:

1. Pins, needles, safety pins (and maybe even some sewing thread!)
   Sooner or later something will fall off your dress: some trimmings, your stomacher, and if none of that happens, someone will step on your train and rip your dress apart...
2. Some yards of extra ribbons for corsets and lacings.
   Oh yes, it happened to me once when I was about to put on my green, front laced française... the ribbon broke (luckily I was able to tie it together and still get it through the lacing holes).
3. Hairpins, hairpins and tons of hairpins. 
   Because of the simple fact that late 18th century fashion in particular demands no less of your hair/wig and headwear than to defy the laws of gravity...
4. A small bottle of hairspray.
   Say no more.
5. Some yards of extra ribbons for the hair (to bind up and conceal mistakes and potentially missing hairpieces, of course).
6. Mouches/beauty patches (and maybe some mastix glue). In case your makeup rubs off leaving glowing red patches here and there... and offering a new aquintance a mouche might be the start of a beautiful friendship too, who knows? ;-)
7. A small set of cards, playing cards, tarot/whatever... a great way to pass time on more quiet occasions. 
   
   

   

   My personal kit.

   So, what do you people keep in your "emergency kits"? And has any of those nightmares about missing pieces ever really come true for anyone of you? As far as I can remember, it has only ever happened to my hair (and several times too!), but that's stuff for a later article...

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? ;-)

Midnight pique nique

I have no new fan pictures this time, I just want to share some photos from the midnight picnic that took place in the Drottningholm Palace Park last weekend...
Only ten persons showed up, those from Gustaf's Skål that weren't on vacation were probably afraid that it would rain after a week of rather unstable weather conditions... Well, it did, but so little it really didn't matter, and the park was even warm and cosy enough to sleep in (even if no one did after all).

Unfortunately, almost all my pictures turned out very blurred, but if I have to choose I almost prefer that to a flat, unflattering flashlight, it was supposed to be a nocturnal event after all....

Moi

It's getting dark...

Ellinor resting

Midnight in the labyrinth. There were lots of bats fluttering around us...

Ellinor and Apollo