The Craft Begins

I recently bought this hand-painted silk hand fan from Gilbea. She had one in her shop that I coveted for ages, but as soon as I got up the nerve to buy it, it was gone! Luckily she had a few more in stock that hadn’t been listed yet and she promptly put one up for me. I haven’t quite received it yet (checking the mail every day!) but it’s starting to get warm here and that puts me in a summer kind of mood.

So it’s no secret to my friends that I’m in love with all things Spanish. On previous trips to Spain, I was always enamored with the beautiful fans but thought them too ornamental for every day use (plus, can you imagine how much you would get made fun of in the states?). However, after spending some time there in the summer, which is, shall we say, muy caliente, I started to realize the advantage of the hand fan.  And all of the little old ladies in the subway seemed to fan themselves constantly, and it was pretty adorable. I managed to find a simple, pretty white one that I used at every opportunity. What a difference they make! It makes summer bearable, pleasant almost! So now I believe that this age-old tradition needs to be brought from Spain to the rest of the world. Not only does it keep you cool, you can even send secret love signals! Any object that does that is OK in my book. There aren’t too many sellers of hand fans on etsy yet, but that just means that you’re ahead of the curve on this trend! Of the few there are, they seem to have a lot of selection and nice quality so you’re sure to find something great!