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MAKING A HANDCRAFTED SILK FAN
Making a hand-painted natural silk fan is a careful process, full of details, and at ManosdeaAgua we do it by hand from the first to the last step. As the saying goes, “every master has their own method.” That’s why Silvia Ramos will walk you through, step by step, how we do the design, pleating, drawing, and dyeing of our different models of silk fans in our shop.
The design of the pleating template
The first step in making a hand-painted natural silk fan is to design the pattern, or pleating template for the leaf, the fabric part of the fan. The drawing is done with a technical drawing program, taking into account the number of ribs in the piece and their measurements. The pleating pattern is different for each set of ribs.
Designing the fan drawing
Using a drawing program and a graphics tablet, we create the drawing that the fan’s natural silk will carry. Once the outline of the drawing is created digitally, the design is adapted to the size of the silk, that is, to the pleating template made in the previous stage. Once the drawing is fitted, we do color tests in the graphic design program to decide the shades we will use later when painting the silk.
Printing the pleating template and the fan drawing
The pleating template is printed on cardstock, two templates per fan. The drawing is printed on paper.
Pleating the fan templates
The pleating templates are pleated, as the name suggests, following exactly the lines of the drawn sections, to later use them to pleat the silk once it has been painted, the dyes set in the steamer, washed, and starched. Pleating consists of aligning the fan leaf silk with the marked lines on the finished templates. This way, and after pressing them, the silk will take on the typical stepped shape of fans.
Preparing the silk, or fan leaf
Once the silk piece has been painted with the leaf for several fans, it is set in the steamer, washed, dried, and stretched again on the frame to give it, as it’s known in the craft world, its finish. Once the finish is dry, the artisan trims the fan shape and inserts it between two pleating templates, where it is left for a day.
Mounting the silk onto the ribs
Once the silk is removed from the pleating templates, the lower circle is cut precisely and glued section by section to each rib, and the first and last sections to the fan’s outer ribs (guards). Then the excess silk is trimmed and the top edge of the fan is finished by hand so it won’t fray.
