Friendly Plastic Fan Handle

I've been mildly interested in fixed fans of the mid-19th century. I will owe you a post with some images for reference. Instead, today I present you with me ACTUALLY FINISHING SOMETHING! Rejoice. I have had this feathered pad (rescued from a cheap mask) waiting around for a while, but to be a feathered fixed fan it really needed a handle. I'd considered doing something with wood, but it was never quite right and wood is definitely not my area of expertise. Just recently I was struck by inspiration - friendly plastic. It comes as tiny plastic pellets, and they get soft enough in water to shape by hand. Then when the plastic cools, it gets completely hard. So even though you know this is plastic, pretend it is something more period like bone. It looks pretty nice, even if I couldn't find a dark background for picture-taking.

Vienna, Day 5

Shopping, pastries, and an exhibit on fans and gloves... Here are some highlights.

I love these... in Vienna, you don't just get hot dogs from a hot dog stand. You get a tasty crusty roll STABBED WITH A GIANT SPIKE and then filled with a hot dog and condiments. Oh yeah.

Tasty and pretty pastries!

Adorable yet racist petits fours!

And from the exhibit:
"Brise Fan with autographs from the ball of the Weiner Musikfreunde," 2nd half of the 19th century.

I've been seeing a lot of fans like this in portraits... small roundish fixed fans for the mid-19th century and long ostrich fixed fans for late. They are kind of weird, but distinctive. I think I want one. I should probably figure out a handle, since I have some appropriate ostrich feathers already. With no moving parts, this would not be difficult to accomplish.

Of course, if you're going the fixed-feather-fan route, why stop at plain old ostrich?

16th century Venetian flag fan, for any readers who are interested that far back. It was pretty cool.

The Parasol Fan

Parafan? Fanisol? I don't know, but I want one. It belongs, like most things I want, to the Metropolitan Costume Institute. They have dated it to "the third quarter of the 19th century." Good enough for me. There is no written description, but it looks pretty brilliantly straightforward to me. You carry around this thing that looks like a fan, but it swings open 360 degrees (must fasten open somehow). Then at the pivot point there is a stick on a hinge, which you straighten out (and again this must somehow get fixed in place). Voila, a traveling parasol. It is just too clever. I need to make one of these!