The Costumer's Manifesto is written by Tara Maginnis, and proudly hosted by William Baker.

THE MANIFESTO IS MUTATING!  IT IS TURNING INTO A WIKI THAT CAN BECOME THE HIVE MIND OF ALL COSTUMERS, FINALLY LIVING UP TO IT'S SLOGAN: "COSTUMERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!" YOU CAN HELP IN THIS PROCESS BY MOVING PAGES TO THE NEW SITE AT THECOSTUMERSMANIFESTO.COM, HELPING TO EDIT THE PAGES THAT ARE THERE ALREADY, AND ADDING YOUR OWN ORIGINAL INPUT.

 

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Costume Design & Construction

Copying Period Fans Project 2D+10C

liaisons10.jpg (62027 bytes) liaisons13.jpg (155189 bytes) liaisons26.jpg (83931 bytes) liaisons6.jpg (76657 bytes)

Fan making:

Buy a simple cheap bamboo fan with strong, widely spaced sticks, not a delicate one with fine sticks.  Your best option will be one about 1 foot long folded.  Perform the following steps, or extrapolate reasonable variations on these instructions to make a finished fan for the stage. 

Mvc-011f.jpg (46789 bytes) The original cheap-o fan leaf is peeled off the cheap bamboo sticks and used to gauge the size the finished fan leaf will need to be.
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 fan1.jpg (44712 bytes) fan2.jpg (48686 bytes) This fan for Mme. de Rosamonde was made by scanning in a photo from an 18th Century original at the MFA Boston and altering the size of the leaf in Adobe Photoshop to match the size needed.  Then the leaf was printed out in pieces, and ironed to fusible interfacing.  Then the leaf was hand colored with watercolor to approximate the original, and then glued to the sticks with rubber cement.  A layer of gold tissue paper was glued to the back of the fan to sandwich the sticks inside the leaf and strengthen the fan.  Finally the fan was folded, and soon the sticks will be painted using paint pens.

MVC-013F.JPG (49136 bytes) MVC-014F.JPG (51666 bytes) The design is printed in sections and glued together.

MVC-016F.JPG (60632 bytes) MVC-017F.JPG (56395 bytes) The paper leaf is ironed onto heavy non woven interfacing, and the excess interfacing clipped away. 

The leaf is glued to the sticks, and a skin of tissue paper is glued to the back to hold on the sticks.

MVC-011F.JPG (78167 bytes) Then the leaf is painted to match the original fan.  Having your original prints in color will let you skip this step.  You an also choose to paint the leaf before attaching it to the sticks.

  MVC-009F.JPG (81357 bytes) MVC-010F.JPG (81482 bytes)  

MVC-015F.JPG (51978 bytes) The fan is folded  and pressed into shape on the ironing board.  

 MVC-018F.JPG (56324 bytes) The sticks are decorated with gold pen.  

MVC-020F.JPG (57244 bytes)  The finished fan for Mme. de Volanges.

Fan for Merteuil:

 MVC-012F.JPG (71563 bytes) MVC-019F.JPG (70308 bytes) Painting a sandalwood fan owned by the actress to look like a 18th Century Chinese fan.

Fan for Cecile

 The leaf is painted.  MVC-003F.JPG (116676 bytes) The fan sticks are removed fro a cheap fan to apply to the leaf.  MVC-005F.JPG (54705 bytes) The leaf is applied to the sticks with a thin coat of hot glue.  MVC-006F.JPG (101119 bytes) MVC-007F.JPG (73543 bytes) A layer of gold tissue is glued to the back with rubber cement to sandwich in the sticks before folding. MVC-008F.JPG (63721 bytes) The completed fan. MVC-009F.JPG (101799 bytes) 

Fan for Emile the Courtesan:

Lorraine draws final details with a gold pen.  Fan.JPG (67647 bytes) The design was made by combining an image of an 18th Century fan on balloon expeditions with pictures from 18th Century pornography. MVC-016F.JPG (65300 bytes) The cameos have the ballooning images removed and lewd images put in their stead with Adobe Photoshop.  MVC-017F.JPG (93795 bytes) Then the leaf is printed out in 3 sections, and glued together before being ironed to fusible interfacing and painted.

Using the instructions above, design and make a fan.  When it is finished, photograph the fan as jpeg files and post them to your File folder at the class eGroup.  Post a message to the group letting everyone know you have posted these pictures so you can get feedback.

  

The Costumer's Manifesto is proudly hosted by William Baker.

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This Page is part of The Costumer's Manifesto by Tara Maginnis, Ph.D.  Copyright 1996-2010.   You may print out any of these pages for non-profit educational use such as school papers, teacher handouts, or wall displays.  You may link to any page in my site.