Sea Fan style hand fan

[Mary Marine]

While flipping though a National Geographic article about ocean life I saw some pictures of sea fans and thought, "Those would make great held fans for dry mermaid events!"

So I'm envisioning a paddle style fan like this...

18800
...that looks like one of these...

18796
18798
18799

...but I'm not sure how I would make that. I'm thinking fine mesh fabric decorated with puff paint to create the right look, but I'm not sure how to make it stiff. I could stretch the fabric over a hoop frame, or I could try making branches and sandwich them between the fabric. Any thoughts/suggestions/ideas?

[Sephina]

To keep it's shape you are definitely going to need some sort of stiffener in the middle, maybe a thinner sheet of lexan or plexiglass then lay the fabric over it?

[MerEmma]

Fabric stiffener will be your friend. This is a super neat idea! Perhaps some kind of wire.

[SeaGlass Siren]

What about using plastic overhead sheets? You could pva glue the mesh onto 2sheets and just attach the sheet to the handle

[PearlieMae]

A few strategic branch shaped wires (coat hanger, perhaps?), held into place on stiffened sheer fabric with hot glue branches, might work.

Test it first, of course.

[Mary Marine]

Lexan or plexiglass is little more labor intensive than I'm looking for, but thin plastic sheets might work. Wire would make good branches, but I'm not sure what kind of wire would be good?

[SeaGlass Siren]

What about finding a branch and then stripping away the bark and sanding it down? Then paint it with the colour of your choice (the mesh colour) and then sticking it to the plastic with hot glue gun?

[SeaGlass Siren]

Or use the dollar store flower stems but just cut off the flowers?

[PearlieMae]

Craft wire is typically "dead soft", and it will bend under light force.

Coat hanger wire is "half hard" and will keep shape once bent, but can be bent with effort.

Annealed wire is "hardened" and will spring back into shape. It is difficult to work with and has to be shaped with pliers and hammers, and special cutters are required to cut it.

Wire comes in different gauges, and the lower the number, the thicker the wire.

I like to use galvanized wire, 18 or 16 gauge, from Home Depot. It's thick, half hard, and easy to work with.

[Winged Mermaid]

I like to use galvanized wire, 18 or 16 gauge, from Home Depot. It's thick, half hard, and easy to work with.

I agree! Depending on how sturdy you need you could go down to 14g. I like 14 and 16g for fairy wings and things. 12g way super hard to bend though so don't go that or lower. To cover it easily you can wrap it in floral tape- it comes in many colors and you can paint it, where as paint doesn't really go great on just the steel.

Excited to see how this turns out!

[PearlieMae]

I thought of something else...if you are going to use that fan as a base, you can get a sheet of stiffened felt and cut out the negative spaces with an Xacto knife, then attach it to your fan base with a few stitches of matching thread.

Funny how we always go for the difficult thing first. ;)

[SeaGlass Siren]

Difficult things are usually the most time consuming I suppose

[Merman Dan]

There are loads of them on etsy, so long as you don't mind they are actual gorgonians harvested from nature. Sea Fan (http://www.etsy.com/listing/176154875/natural-sea-fan-nautical-decor-beach?ref=market)

http://img1.etsystatic.com/039/0/6037446/il_570xN.552329109_d2oe.jpg

I have always envisioned purple sea fans as the wings of undersea fairies.

[Melina Marina]

If you bought a real sea one like above, you could easily make a mold to encase it in a really thin layer of resin to keep it protected/more sturdy.

[BayouMermaid]

I think that could look really neat. What about using 3d puff paint to make the structure stick out?

[Anahita]

Since it's for dry events, you can use buckram and millinery wire for the base.

[Mary Marine]

You guys are giving me so many great ideas! I might have to try a few different designs, see which works/looks best. I'll be making a trip up to Michael's soon to check out materials.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Another way to get the sea fan pattern, is to scrunch up muslin cloth, I think you call it cheese cloth also, dip in waterproof paint and dab it gently onto your lexan. Then paint the stems in when done.

Add a coat or two of clear gloss to protect the paintwork.

[MermanZen]

I saw like 10 of them in Home Goods

[Mary Marine]

I'm about to drive up to Michael's and buy stuff for the sea fan. My level of do-it-yourself tends to be more craft store than hardware store. :p Thanks everyone for the great ideas! I'll post again once I start making it.

[MerEmma]

Can't wait to see!

[jukumerboii]

The dancers for the new Disney parade are using sea fans...but I don't know what its made out of?19270 19271

[Ilyena]

Looks like some sort of plastic or resin

[PearlieMae]

It's probably this resin: http://www.smooth-on.com/gallery.php?galleryid=300

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