Custom fan production: take two
Sep. 17th, 2011 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labricoleuseIn my windows of "hurry up and wait" this tech weekend, i've been working on further explorations of custom printed fabric fan leaves by Spoonflower. Recall my earlier post on reproducing a fan design from 1885, which was my first foray; today's post addresses my second experiment: cotton voile.
The first fan i did was in silk crepe de chine, a fairly common fabric for a fan leaf, which needs to be something thin enough to fold up between the sticks of a fan frame but substantial enough to create a good breeze when the fan is used. I wanted to test some of Spoonflower's other fabrics for this purpose, so my second shot was their beautifully light cotton voile.
For this project, i also wanted to experiment with generating fan art from scratch, rather than working from an existing historical fan leaf painting. (Wow, proofreading this just now I realized this is a COMPLETELY different meaning of the phrase "fan art" than it usually connotes.)
The fan leaf is a fascinating conundrum from a design perspective, as the artwork needs to be something that works in a weirdly compromised semicircular shape. I spent a few days looking at all kinds of round things--mandalas, rose windows, radial patterns--until i finally decided upon a clock face as a design motif. This fan design is an aged and cropped photo i took of the clock on my fireplace mantelpiece at home! The final thing wound up looking kind of Steampunk to me, hence the design name on Spoonflower of Steampunk Clock Fan.
In the course of manipulating the image in Photoshop, I also realized that I could rotate my art and get TWO fans onto a fat quarter, which is so much more efficient use of fabric. I decided to treat these like a cut-and-sew textile panel design so i included some useful instructional text right on the leaf design as well. I ordered the test print in cotton voile, and began to assemble my fan.
I cut the leaf out using pinking shears for the top edge, to evoke the effect of gear teeth around the fan perimeter, in keeping with my "steampunk clock fan" idea. I laid out the fan frame on my pinboard, and again used Tacky Glue to adhere the voile to the fan ribs. The leaf shape ends needed to be adjusted to fit onto the guards, as they didn't line up quite as nicely as the 1885 design i first made. I glued the fabric to the guard sticks, and then sandwiched it behind a layer of black paper mache'd onto the guard stick, thus:
Fan design folded - I love the way the stripes look!
In general, I'm not thrilled with the voile on its own as a fan leaf fabric. It's so transparent that you can see the sticks through the leaf, and the glue soaks all the way through as well. It's not so much a problem on this design, since the ribs look kind of like clock hands or levers, and the whole thing is aged and distressed anyhow, but would be really undesirable on a fancy historical fan for some 18th-century French royalty character or whatever.
I do have an antique fan from the early 19th century which has a double leaf--one thin fabric layer and one thin paper layer between which the ribs are sandwiched. You might use the voile to do that kind of fan leaf structure, but in general, so far I prefer the silk crepe de chine option. I have one more experimental design i hope to work on tomorrow though, which utilizes Spoonflower's cotton/silk blend, and which i'll write up as well once i see how that one translates into a fan leaf.
As with the 1885 design, if you want to make your own version of this fan, you can buy the design from Spoonflower.
ETA 10/31/11: I was asked via Spoonflower about creases in the fan, by someone who had bought this design and was about to make her fan, and i'm posting my answer here for future reference as well.
The first fan i did was in silk crepe de chine, a fairly common fabric for a fan leaf, which needs to be something thin enough to fold up between the sticks of a fan frame but substantial enough to create a good breeze when the fan is used. I wanted to test some of Spoonflower's other fabrics for this purpose, so my second shot was their beautifully light cotton voile.
For this project, i also wanted to experiment with generating fan art from scratch, rather than working from an existing historical fan leaf painting. (Wow, proofreading this just now I realized this is a COMPLETELY different meaning of the phrase "fan art" than it usually connotes.)
The fan leaf is a fascinating conundrum from a design perspective, as the artwork needs to be something that works in a weirdly compromised semicircular shape. I spent a few days looking at all kinds of round things--mandalas, rose windows, radial patterns--until i finally decided upon a clock face as a design motif. This fan design is an aged and cropped photo i took of the clock on my fireplace mantelpiece at home! The final thing wound up looking kind of Steampunk to me, hence the design name on Spoonflower of Steampunk Clock Fan.
In the course of manipulating the image in Photoshop, I also realized that I could rotate my art and get TWO fans onto a fat quarter, which is so much more efficient use of fabric. I decided to treat these like a cut-and-sew textile panel design so i included some useful instructional text right on the leaf design as well. I ordered the test print in cotton voile, and began to assemble my fan.
I cut the leaf out using pinking shears for the top edge, to evoke the effect of gear teeth around the fan perimeter, in keeping with my "steampunk clock fan" idea. I laid out the fan frame on my pinboard, and again used Tacky Glue to adhere the voile to the fan ribs. The leaf shape ends needed to be adjusted to fit onto the guards, as they didn't line up quite as nicely as the 1885 design i first made. I glued the fabric to the guard sticks, and then sandwiched it behind a layer of black paper mache'd onto the guard stick, thus:
Fan design folded - I love the way the stripes look!
In general, I'm not thrilled with the voile on its own as a fan leaf fabric. It's so transparent that you can see the sticks through the leaf, and the glue soaks all the way through as well. It's not so much a problem on this design, since the ribs look kind of like clock hands or levers, and the whole thing is aged and distressed anyhow, but would be really undesirable on a fancy historical fan for some 18th-century French royalty character or whatever.
I do have an antique fan from the early 19th century which has a double leaf--one thin fabric layer and one thin paper layer between which the ribs are sandwiched. You might use the voile to do that kind of fan leaf structure, but in general, so far I prefer the silk crepe de chine option. I have one more experimental design i hope to work on tomorrow though, which utilizes Spoonflower's cotton/silk blend, and which i'll write up as well once i see how that one translates into a fan leaf.
As with the 1885 design, if you want to make your own version of this fan, you can buy the design from Spoonflower.
ETA 10/31/11: I was asked via Spoonflower about creases in the fan, by someone who had bought this design and was about to make her fan, and i'm posting my answer here for future reference as well.
I didn't mark or press the pleats before gluing the fan to the staves. I glued it on there flat and unpressed, then pressed the sharp creases in once the leaf was adhered to the fan. I set the fan on the ironing board, closed it stave by stave, pressing each crease. The i flipped it over and did the other side's creases the same way.
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Date: 2011-09-19 03:31 pm (UTC)