The Geisha's Fan

I meant to leave the fan the Rabbit Geisha carries until very last but I just couldn't resist!

The photo to the left shows the first steps in stitching the fan.  The middle rib is stem stitch using a strand of Silk Lame Braid (color #SL60) which is a mix of ecru and gold.  The bottom of the handle is some of my Kreinik gold 002, size #16 ribbon, stitched in herringbone stitch to show off the ribbed pattern.  The couched ecru stitches are long lengths using Rainbow Gallery's Subtlety (color Y904) which is a silk perle in size 12.  This is the same thread I used on the kimono over tunic.  I laid my stitches in the ecru ditches and couched the stitches down with shorter stitches in the same thread.  It makes a pattern on the two halves of the fan that looks different due to the different orientation of the painted lines.  If you look carefully at the bottom of the fan you will see that I've started outlining the edge of the fan in gold using Kreinik's 002 gold in size #8.

The second photo shows the finished fan.  After the gold edging was finished, I attached rows of Mill Hill's Antique Glass beads (color 05060) on top of the gold painted lines.  These beads are larger than the seed beads used for the sleeves and are a peach/ecru color.  After the beads were in place, I laid long lines of the Bijoux thin metallic down the ribs on top of my Subtlety silk perle.  This is the same bronze metallic thread that makes the boxes on the kimono tunic.  Adding a bit of color brings out the fan shape.
Finally, I laid a long line of the same beads used for the sleeve trim down on top of the Silk Lame Braid central rib.  This brings the fan to life since the ecru colors used to this point made the fan blend into the ecru kimono.

In person the fan sparkles, especially in artificial light.  This plus the gold edging, the blue line of beads and the dark bronze rib lines made it stand out from the similar colors of the kimono.

By the way, the line of blue beads is slightly crooked because I pushed down slightly on the canvas to make a good clear scan and this disturbed the beads.  I moved them back into position and put another two couching stitches in place to keep them in the right place.  If they'd been attached separately instead of a long thread of beads that was couched, they wouldn't move so much but I wanted a continuous line that I couldn't get if each bead went on separately.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
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