Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque

Shopping for your first pair of feather fans can be confusing! Let me put your mind at ease. I’ll make a separate post about building your own fans. This post is written to help you understand what you’re looking at when you’re shopping for a pair of constructed fans. Also, this post is only about feather fans, so it won’t discuss silk, paper, or other kinds of fans. Common Feather Styles: Marabou Marabou, when talking about fans, is a special type of down feather – the soft feathers that lie under the firmer, shinier feathers of birds such as geese and the actual marabou stork. The marabou you’re likely to encounter is often from turkeys. It’s often used as trim – the light and very fluffy boas you often see used on the hems of nightgowns, for example, or in rows on the hems of fine dressing gowns such as those made by Catherine D’Lish. Below are some links to marabou fans: Standard 11-12 inch fans: https://www.etsy.com/listing/688901986/marabou-feather-fan-12-x-20-many-colors?ga_orde...

I made the headdress in this photo in just a few hours! I can honestly say that I made it out of things I had lying around the house, but that would be misleading because I bought these materials to make this headdress over a year ago. However, these are easy items to come by, and even if you're new to burlesque crafting, this is something you can do. Remember to let the glue in one layer of the project dry before you do the next layer. Take your time -- you don't have to make it as fast as I did -- and study the placement of items carefully.  I call this cringe crafting because I am doing everything a bit more crudely and carelessly than it would be done by an experienced professional maker, in a manner that would make skillful and sophisticated costumiers cringe. And yet, it works and is great good fun to wear -- I'm proud of this headdress, even though I know what it's not. You can see how much fun I'm having wearing it. The amazing costumes of burlesque are part...