Folding Fans - AB2008

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I bought twice as many fans for AB08 as I did for '07, because they sold so well at '07 and because my wonderful husband had bought me a set of watercolor paints and some paintbrushes so I could try painting the fans. In all, for my first experiment with watercolors since 5th grade or so, I'd have to say not too shabby. I went Googling for one or two tricks I could use to make things work better, and improvised the rest. Go me.

When choosing designs for this round of fans, I decided to do half plant-themed and half animal-themed, focusing more on beautiful (and at least somewhat Asian) flowers and doing more than just one dragon this time around. I did the koi again because they're nice and traditional, did another phoenix because it's just fun and beautiful, and looked up some other typical Asian creatures and animal designs to work with.

I also made sure to give the animals more dynamic poses (in most cases), and tried to use more of the fan so I had less blank space this time around, especially with the plant-themed designs. It was easier, since I didn't have to use colored pencils on them.

I priced the fans a little higher since they looked much better this time around, even though I had to do some minor glue-surgery to repair tears where the paper from this batched proved to be thinner than I remembered. On a small handful of fans, I had to glue some white paper to the back to reinforce where it tore along the edge during the erasing step, and one or two also needed parts re-glued in the front where erasing had pulled up the front layer of paper along the bamboo shafts. Luckily, all the minor tears seemed to recover with a bit of Mod Podge (note to self: next time, reseal the Mod Podge with acrylic or find a glue that gets a little less sticky in heat/humidity).

The fans sold quite well at the convention, and I remembered to arrange them in such a way this time that I got fewer people thinking they were just a decoration. I've heard at least two people remark that they still love their fans, and even sold one to a girl who had a rather warm costume so she could keep herself cool (we had to open all the fans to find the one best coordinated for her costume, and she actually sent one or two other people my way who saw her fan later).

The designs are as follows:

Row 1: gingko leaves, lotus and leaves, water dragon, fire dragon
Row 2: cherry blossoms, plum blossoms, shadow dragon, light dragon
Row 3: white lily, bamboo, dragon and tiger, earth dragon
Row 4: celosia flowers, azalea flowers, kitsune, phoenix
Row 5: Japanese maple leaves, gentian flowers, kirin, koi
Row 6: morning glories, calanthe orchids, cranes, butterflies

TD: mechanical pencil, Staedtler pens, and watercolor paints on pre-made bamboo fans. Approx. 4-5 hours per fan.

Steal, and I whap you with an oversized paper version of these.