how to assemble silk fan veils..Interchangeable fans!!

Here's a few quick tips on how to assemble your own silk fan veils.

I bought the chinese dance fans from Meleea at http://www.beledi.com/products.php . Her main site is http://www.beledi.com

You can also find chinese dance fans if you do a search on ebay, but many of the vendors are overseas so shipping time and price may vary. Meleea has a selection of colors to choose from. If you prefer bamboo staves, she carries those as well.

If you would like pure silk fans, which means the fabric between the staves is silk (you can decorate the silk on your own with fabric markers, try Dharma at http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/5903589-AA.shtml . The main site is http://www.dharmatrading.com .

I make the silk , usually using 5 feet of 5 mm habotai since the light silk has the feathery soft flutter and movement. The standard is 36 inches wide and 60 inches long. Both edges are unhemmed so that the float on the ends is very light.

I dye the silk lengthwise and sometimes let the colors run twice. Almost all of the colors you love on the Silk Colors page at http://www.akaisilks.com/colors.html can be dyed on to fan veils. Fan veils can be dyed to match your costume, or skirt, or other A'Kai items.

ASSEMBLING FANS: this is easy, I am the queen of 'mickey mousing' projects..I bought a pair of silk fans from overseas and was not impressed by the quality, they had used glue to stick the fabric to the staves, and the ends of the silk were cut raw and had many dangling strings.

1) Purchase your silk dance fans, the size, choice and colors are your choice :) I ordered mine from www.beledi.com and received them within a few days. I ordered the large chinese dance fans.

2) Purchase your silk veils for the fans. When silk veils are available they will be listed at http://www.akaisilks.etsy.com or email akaisilksinfo@yahoo.com

3) Go to your local grocery or fabric store and pick up two sided velcro. You want the kind that has the peel back adhesive..there will be a rough piece and a soft piece that sticks together. There is usually a tape on the back to cover the adhesive until you are ready to use. I chose rectangles so I could easily cut them to size. Here's a photo of what you will need.
I chose a pink fan to go with a Bird of Paradise silk veil set.



4) Here are pictures of the front and back of the fan veils. You will want to turn your fan so that the acrylic staves are up. Make sure the fan is on a level surface and fully opened. If you have trouble opening the fan, you could be trying to open it the wrong way. Try to open it the other way (there are right and left side fans). Again make sure your fan is fully opened.

5) Cut out small squares of velcro and stick them to the acrylic stave base as shown. I started on the outer edges.




6) After adding velcro to the outer edges, add more tabs towards the center of the fan. MAKE SURE YOU CUT THE VELCRO A LITTLE BIT SMALLER THAN THE SPACE ON THE STAVE. You don't want to have to curl around the velcro to make it fit..smaller is better. Do not apply the velcro to the fan fabric, if you go to remove it you may rip the fabric.

7) Carefully line up the edge of your silk veil on the fan. I laid out the silk above the staves so that I could see where I placed the velcro. You should have a bit of extra fabric on both sides. Again make sure your fan is fully opened and your silk is relaxed but straight. Visually line up where you placed the velcro on the fans and put the OTHER SIDE of the velcro piece (the soft one) on the veil edge, so that when you go to attach the veil to the fan base, they will all fit. I found it was helpful to start in the center and work outwards. I ended up adding four pieces total. This photo will show you the velcro on the staves and the corresponding velcro on the silks.

** I chose to work with velcro because glue is evil. Not only is it messy to work with, but the glue lines tend to show through the silk on lighter colored silk. It looks like a third grade art project. Also, using velcro allows you to buy one fan base and switch out different colors of silk fans to save on costs. Interchangeable fans!

** If you plan to swap out and change the silk frequently, it is recommended to sew a thick ribbon along the hemline of the silk veil and place the velcro on top of the ribbon. The ribbon will have a longer life span than silk.




8) Carefully line up your velcro tabs and stick the silk to the staves. YOU ARE READY TO DANCE.

This method allows for only the fan stave base to be attached to the hem of the silk, so you can still turn the fan up, let the silk drop and hang from the base, and just dance with the entire fan base showing.



9) By folding the fan back down against the silk again, you can dance with both silk and fan working together. The fan literally waves air into the silk. It's brilliant.

10) If you wish to make the silk permanently attached to the staves, you can add more velcro on the staves but you have to be very accurate or else the silk veil portion will not line up with the velcro on the stave. You might try a fabric glue instead.

11) This photo shows the fan folded up with silk attached. It should move freely open and closed.




12) And here I've shown another example with a gold fan base..the gold fan base can be used with color designs such as Sunrise Merkaba and Gold Merkaba. Get a green base pair and use with Temple Peacock and Temptation. A red base pair will go great with Prozac or Fire, etc.










OTHER HELPFUL HINTS:

If you plan to remove your silk and change it out often, you may consider sewing a thick ribbon on the outer edge of the veil, and placing the velcro tabs on the ribbon edge instead of on the silk. That way there is less wear and tear on the silk.

Using more velcro tabs helps to stabilize the silk more. Experiment to see what works best for you.

Pick up how to dance with fan veil tutorials here:

1) Mahsati Janan offers two beautiful dvd's on dancing with fans. On her page you will also notice a link to another silk fan vendor who carries beautiful fan veils,

http://www.mahsati-janan.com/dvds.html

Faye's fans http://www.faye4u.com
2) Meleea offers a dvd that not only teaches you fan veil dance but shows you another method of attaching the silk to the staves


http://www.beledi.com/proddetail.php?prod=superfan

Also, google silk fan veils on YOUTUBE for more examples.