Making a fan

[Tsiniti]

Here is my daughters prairie hen wing fan on a carved wooden handle that my brother made!

[GREYEYES]

The fans look really nice, all of the ones posted do! I've gotten many good idesa, and never thought about the Crayola Air Dry Modeling Clay, that is a good idea, but I think if I made one, I'd have to at least put something in the handle to give it strength, arn't you afraid it will break? ( I remember in an earlier posting, you said something about nothing in it except the clay?)

[piperchick]

i made my first fan a couple months ago-- a flat fan... i was seriously broke so broke into my crappy feathers box (i use them on costume wings) and got some bits of leather and embroidery floss out of the craft box.

for the handle, i used a piece of white pine (lightweight!) leftover from making some shelves... i roughed the shape i wanted with a jigsaw and then smoothed it out with a couple hours of dremmel. the softness and grain of this piece meant that when i tried to drill feather-specific holes they connected... so i just made a trough for the feathers in the top. i bought four white (bleached!) turkey feathers and cleared out the bottom of the shaft and inserted take-out chopsticks (perfect size dowels, and free!) coated in industrial craft glue in the shaft to stabilize it, then wrapped dyed chicken and duck feathers and a few bits of peackock fluff (for shine) down the bottom of the feather with the embroidery floss (leftover from hair wraps), leaving about 1 1/4" at the bottom... i positioned the feathers and layed a piece of duck tape (on the back, wrapped side) to keep them in the right spacing and angle, then filled in the trough around them with hot glue (high temp long sticks), leaving about 1/8" to the top... i held the positioned to each other feathers in position in the handle until the glue had cooled (took a couple minutes)... then filled the top bit w/ wood putty that i sanded to shape when set. i then covered the handle with a stretchy bit of outside split leftover from barrettes, wipstitching it w/ embroidery floss on a leather needle on the back of the handle (the bottom is open, i left fringy bits to hang down to cover it and look good)... i then found a pheasant feather decoration that used to be a barrette (you can find them at craft stores, tiny feathers arranged and glued to a stiff fabric backing) and glued it (w/ industrial craft glue) to the top of the handle so it splayed over the base of the feathers and the attachment point...
here's a pic; sorry for the low res but i have the world's cheapest digital camera (and i just dropped it and it's not working:( )

[Blackbear]

well for being made of "crappy feathers" and leftovers...looks pretty darn nice to me!:D

[piperchick]

thanks :D it's only been to one small powwow and one gathering, so i haven't heard many comments on it. (actually two- 1 was 'wow that's your first one' and 2 was 'i wish i had white feathers to carry when i do buckskin so the hide lint doesn't show' (she had a very nice suede dress)

i think when i make something from scraps i tend to try harder to make it look like it wasn't..
oh, and i'm not beading the handle cuz i borrowed one once to dance w/ and my hands sweated horribly! (the leather's soaking up the sweat nicely and getting more brown...)
i've recently gotten called onto a survey job in west texas (i'm an archaeologist), and i hope to find some wild turkey feathers (i found two last time, and it was winter) to make a new one to coordinate with an upcoming outfit (my 2nd!) and give this one to my parents for christmas-- they really like it.

-D

[Tsiniti]

That fan looks GREAT!! The picture made it look like a claw of some kind KEWL!!

Do you need some wild turkey feathers? We have some we can share, or do you just want to find them yourself? That is what I used in my fan, certain times of the year we have a flock of turkeys go through our yard, not counting the hunters that give us their birds, after taking out the breasts.

[piperchick]

thanks for the compliment (that was the last pic i ever took w/ the earth's cheapest dig. camera; i sneezed after taking a pic of the back and dropped it and it died)

as for the feathers-- lemme see what i come up w/ after this job and a walk through the state parks (lots of wild turkeys, get run over a lot) next month; if i find squat i'll give ya a pm and pay for a shipping box or something.

ppl on these boards are so helpful:)

-d

[spottedeagle]

I got lucky yesterday and picked up some canadian goose wings. I kept the spikes and the secondaries. Once I get them cleaned up I'm gonna make another fan. You don't see many goose feather fans in this area, but lots of turkey fans. These feathers are a pretty chocolate brown.

[sebooneyboy]

hey man i just got through with a flat fan, i made it with a peice of cardboard a wooden spoon and some bondo. it was the easiest peice of regalia i have ever made, it is also my first fan.


the way i did it was i took my feathers and laid them on a peice of cardboard the way i wanted them then i smotherd the quills in hot glue, then i took the spoon and cut it to the length i wanted the handle,then i cut the tip of the spoon basin off and glued my feathers that were on cardboard in the remaining spoon basin. then i took it out side and got the cream set bondo and smotherd the handle , i did this 3 times until i got it where it will fit my hand , mind that you will have to do this quickly because it sets up in 3 minuits. now i am sanding the rough parts of my handle so i can cover it with leather, this thing is rock solid trust me.

[morningstar]

you can also get handles (both for flat and wing fans) from nocbay.com

I have used handles from Noc, which are excellent if you don't have woodworking tools to cut/drill your own.

[orangepridendns1]

I read through all the posts and hope that it will make it easier as hubby and I start his new wing fan this weekend. He got all the feathers from a turkey my dad got this year and they are hanging out in the freezer. had previously bought a flat handle at Sharp's so may make our daughter her first fan too..this past weekend we picked up a real nice wing fan handle at IICOT so we are anxious to get this project started- on top of the buckskin leggings I am sewing, the dresses I am getting ready to start and the shawls I am in the process of finishing..lol As for finishing it off I think he is planning to leave it plain leather for now then bead it this fall/ winter when he has more time to devote to it...Wish us luck!! Thanks to everyone that posted here- I know that you all have the experience that we need to learn to make our first fans!! what great teachers!!

[Dakota Wica'hpi Ina]

anybody looking for snow geese wings? I got some extra.