Fan Friday - Goodyear rubber fan

Today was my yearly trip to the Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale and I was in luck because someone had clearly donated a fan collection. The fans were spread out in 3 locations, Accessories, Sewing and Fine Art.

While I did purchase a couple of nice fans in Accessories the best one came from Sewing. This fan was labeled as celluloid and has some condition issues including missing parts of the blade and a break on one of the handles. Still, pierced cockade fans are fairly rare and I usually will buy an unusual fan even if it has condition issues.

When I got home I looked through my fan references and discovered that this was an interesting Novelty Fan. It is hard rubber, not celluloid, and manufactured by the Goodyear company in Lambertville, NJ.

In Novelty Hand Fans, Cynthia Fendel suggests that these fans were probably made between the 1860s and 1872, when the patent expired.

Article on 18th-century women's necklines

Fantastic article about women's necklines by Abby Cox

Musings from the Millinery: Revealing the Truth About 18th-century Women’s Necklines

Self portrait of Marie-Gabrielle Capet

 Of interest to those who costume and re-enact. Historical information on fashionable historical looks and choices both historically, and modernly as re-enactment staff, to wear kerchiefs.

Vintage Secret Santa

This was the second year I participated in   Chronically Vintage's Secret Santa and it has been fun both years.

I sent my package off to my Doctor Who and vintage loving recipient in Texas, and ended up receiving one from just over the Bay in Berkeley.

1950s Nature magazines, the catalogue from the Legion of Honor's Pulp Fashion exhibit and some vintage buttons.

The buttons are Bakelite from Chronically Vintage's etsy store.

 

1955 Nature with a fun surprise.

An excerpt from Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us.

Neat projects at Autodesk Pier 9

Some fantastic art and projects at Pier 9 through their Artist in Residence program. Most of these have Instructables, so head over there for more info.

Custom printer with conductive fabric paint

3D resin printed marbles with galaxies inside

Koi pond

Elsa for Halloween

I'm a sucker for adorable children in costume. Frozen is the current Disney juggernaut, and there will be an absolute plague of Elsas at your door this year. I went with the official pattern from Simplicity.

The pattern went together easily, I did forget to sew on the extra cape in the right sequence so I had to add it later and then cover with some trim. The organza top proved to be the worst bit, mostly because it frayed like crazy. Would recommend finishing those seams. I went back over with a zigzag but they will give out first. Would redo in maybe a stretch net.

I know this is mixing characters but the cloak is really cute and took no time to put together. I cheated with ricrac instead of appliques.

3D printed Tentacles, part 2

Here's what's happening with the 3D printed tentacles!

The tentacles have a hole in the bottom that fits an led.  After trying a bunch of colors I think they look best with a green led.  Here's a parallel circuit on my breadboard with 5 green leds and a tentacle on top with the light shining through.  I'm planning to make this into a headband, hopefully in time for Aquarium Night at DragonCon.

Arduino Educato

All the electronic dresses I've made lately are run on Arduinos, which is an open source microprocessor. Today I soldered together an Arduino Educato . It's a Kit that essentially makes an Arduino Uno. It has extra long pins on one side, which you can plug directly into a breadboard to make it easier to test your circuits without a lot of extra wires.