Pretty Details

A while ago, I bought a little set of brass fan sticks. The other day, I dug them out and decided to give putting it together a go. I made the leaf out of white silk, then painted over it with acrylics.

I kept the sticks of the fan brass, since I was orriginally thinking that I'd make this a working fan, and wasn't sure how a painted finish would hold up to the fan being opened and closed. When I decided that the fan would go in a case instead, I added some dots of paint to break up the brass of the sticks. I used "old glass" for the case, which made it really difficult to photograph.

Now I just need to figure out where to display the fan. I'm leaning towards hanging it in the hall, where the greyish blue wallpaper really brings out the blue in the design. The red of the case interior is a little jarring at the moment, but I've already planned for several touches of red throughout hall. You can just glimpse the red sail of the ship painting on the left.

 Eventally, I'll have two antique pieces of red and blue pettipoint I've been saving made into carpets for the halls. This portrait on vellum will eventually go in the hall as well. It was painted by ebay seller Sylvia Rose, who often copied one of my favorite portait painters, Élisabeth-Louise Vigee-Le Brun. Sadly, I don't think Sylvia Rose has listed any paintings since about 2007, when I won this one.