Fan the fun with a fan - Dress of the day 82 and DIY fan information

 

Angela Lansbury. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

For a fun photo, add a matching fan.
 Pick a colour from a multi-colour dress. Match the shoes to your accessory colour. I have added red lace gloves.
London has a fan museum. In Greenwick, South London.

DIY Fans
Fans come in two basic shapes. concertina or circle.

 DIY Concertina Fans
If you have an old fan, which is bedraggled, you could take it apart to see how it is made. Then copy it. Or reconstruct it, repairing the damaged parts.

At a Chinese New Year and Mid Autumn Festival events at a condo in Singapore, after the event lots of torn paper fans lay on the ground. This was before Covid-19 when I was not so cautious about touching anything which had been touched by anybody else's hands. The pink and purple paper had glittery gold edges. I thought, that is lovely paper which can be used for Greeting cards. However, after cutting off the torn parts, I found that I could construct a smaller fan, or stick the paper from two fans together with a vertical join to make a new one.

The classic concertina fan has reinforcements like a lollipop stick on the two short outside edges. The lower third is fixed at the base or a third of the way up. If you were in a hot room without air conditioning you could take any piece of paper such as a spare program/agenda sheet and fold it, or an unwanted large envelope and concertina it. You could use a piece of white A4 paper and draw on it. Or print it in colour to match your outfit. Fasten the fan at the base.

Cutting Semi-circles
Cutting semi-circles is easier yet harder than you think. Look around for something circular. A plate or cup and saucer. An egg cup or wine glass base is the template for the fan shape for a child's small dolly. A fan with advertising to be in a shop window. A fan with a child's name to be held by a toy doll or teddy as a Christmas gift.

A strip of lace or braid can be used on the upright. A fan can also be framed as decoration for a bedroom. It is also amusing for a costume party or fancy dress party or a birthday or anniversary or school or holiday reunion on a them. Fans were the thing in the Roaring Twenties (1920s).

The finest fans are made from lace or delicate fabrics, and decorated with braid. If you have a spare piece of lace or find fabric, or the offcut from a dress you have shortened, or a fabric belt, or a ribbon of lace, think how you could use it on a fan. If it is too fine for the main fan material, it might be used in the circle or straight edge across the top.

Circular Fans
Circular fans are often given away as a promotion, by travel companies. Or destinations. You find them at travel fairs. They consist of a circle of stiff paper.

I have used a fan as an accessory for a speech or stand up comedy turn. I write my notes or prompts on the back of the fan.

Useful Websites
GENERAL INFORMATION
https://www.personalizedfanstore.com/types-of-hand-fans.html 

DIY FAN

Fan museum site:

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