DIY Palm Fans

Well hello there! Can you believe this is my first post of 2021?!I’m back with a DIY project, of course! I’ve actually been wondering how I could create my own palm fans from scratch for a while. Yes, I have an abstract mind. The idea I’ve come up with is a little time consuming but very simple. One to do in front of the Netflix or listening to a podcast. This is in no way a traditional method but I simply wanted to come up with a way to make it simple and accessible to try.

Materials

• Embroidery hoop
• Small hand saw or I just used an old bread knife
• Natural raffia roll
• Scissors
• Glue gun
• Paper-covered bandwire
• Scrap brown paper / cardboard

Woven Palm Fan

Start by removing the inner circle from your tapestry hoop.

Then use your hand saw / knife to cut through the inner hoop at one point.

Roll up a tube of brown paper (spare packaging paper is great for this).

Twist it to add strength and bend it round to create a ‘u’ shape.

Cut to the desire length and then wrap with the raffia. Use hot glue at the starting point to attach the raffia to the brown paper and then ever couple of wraps to make sure it’s secure.

When all the brown paper is covered with raffia, add a dot of hot glue at the top and push together, then wrap over that section with the paper covered band wire.

Now glue the two cut ends of the embroidery hoop to either side of the raffia handle, using hot glue. Press together and then wrap some more of the bandwire in a criss cross around this join.

Then continue wrapping around the embroidery hoop, gluing every few wraps. If you run out of the band wire, glue down the end and then start another length, gluing as you go. Going around the whole hoop isn’t totally necessary as much of it will be covered but if there are any gaps then this way means it will blend in.

Now pick which side will be the back and cut a length of raffia to glue on the join of the handle to the top of the hoop so it’s directly down the middle.

Cut the raffia and turn the hoop over to glue the raffia over the front of the hoop to meet.

Continue doing this working outwards on either side but when you get part way you glue the raffia strips on top of the bottom of the previous, rather than continuing to move along the bottom so the raffia strips start to fan out slightly.

This will be roughly what the back will look like at this stage.

Now to weave raffia strips horizontally. Each time start in the middle and then gently slide up or down as it’s much easier to weave through in the middle. Leave the ends unglued until the weaving process is complete.

Then repeat the process of wrapping each raffia strand around to the front, over the hoop, cutting to size and gluing down. You may want to cut some small raffia pieces to attach to the back to do the same on any parts of the outer hoop that haven’t been covered by raffia.

Concertina paper fan

For this handle I just folded up a strip of cardboard and rounded off the end with some scissors.

I then wrapped this in raffia, sticking down every few wraps with hot glue.

Then just as I did with the other fan I secured a cut embroidery hoop to the handle with hot glue and used the bandwire to wrap around, criss crossing to make it more robust.

Cut about 10 strips of raffia and fold in half and then use hot glue to stick each folded strip into another, gluing higher with each added strip.

Secure this section to the bandwire with hot glue. Work your way through each strip, bending outward, wrapping around the back and secure with hot glue on the inside of the embroidery hoop.

When you’ve worked your way through all of those strips, take single strips of raffia (unfolded) and alternate sticking on either side coming from the middle. Follow the same technique when it comes to secure each strip around the outside of the embroidery hoop. It’s as simple as that!