A brief change of subject

Ok, so this isn't sewing (no fabric, thread or pins involved...) but I had such a lot of fun making these I wanted to share them with you!

On Saturday I went up to London, and I did a course on fan making!  I went to the fan museum (http://www.fan-museum.org/), which incidentally is an awesome museum and you should all go visit! The fan museum runs courses for small groups and so my family filled a course up and we went on a day out.

This was my second go at fan making.  I had my first attempt in 2007, at an evening for the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers (http://www.fanmakers.com/home.aspx?id=1). 

My first fan

This was a pre-pleated leaf and all we had to do was attach it to the sticks.  This isn't as easy as it sounds.  Or at least, it is easy, but only if you've understood the instructions!

This is me showing off at the time

We got to pleat our own leaves on this course from wrapping paper we had chosen ourselves.  The only rule is metallic paper cannot be used.  This is because it doesn't keep the pleat.

We each made a chinese fan and a fontage fan.  Both of these are folding fans, the fontage fan is much simpler to make, as it doesn't have as many pleats.

This is my chinese fan

I love this paper so much!  As you can see though, I cut it a little short, so this fan will be acquiring a ribbon trim, to cover the ends of the sticks.

This is my fontage fan

I love how well this worked!  Many thanks to my Granny, who helped me select the best bit of the paper for the middle of the fan.  I am planning on using this fan at the next dinner I go to, and we discussed what dress I should make.  We as a family thought that cream fabric under black lace could look very striking.  What do you all think?

I will also be adding tassels or wrist straps to each handle.  So yes, not sewing but much fun!