How to Make a Japanese Folding Fan
- 1). Start by acquiring the paper you'd like to use in your Japanese folding fan. You can use a plane sheet of white paper, or use a piece of paper with a nice design on it, such as wall paper.
- 2). Cut the paper to a size of 8 inches wide and 18 inches in length. For a longer Japanese folding fan, you can cut the paper longer, perhaps to 20 or 22 inches in length. This will determine how wide your Japanese folding fan will open.
- 3). Fold the paper accordion style, with each fold being about 1 inch. Take care to make sure that each fold is slightly larger at one end. Try to aim for 1 inch on one end of the fold, and 7/8ths of an inch to 15/16ths of an inch on the other. This will give the arc of the Japanese folding fan.
- 4). Now, take the chop sticks and break them apart so that they are individual sticks. The thinner the chop sticks you can find, the better. Thinner sticks will give a nice concise profile to your Japanese folding fan. Glue one in every other fold of the fan, all on the same side of the fan.
- 5). At the bottom of the chop sticks, about one inch from the end place a rubber band. Wrap it around many times so that it is tight around the chop sticks. Now when you spread the fan open, the rubber band will keep the ends of the chop sticks together. You now have a functioning Japanese folding fan.
Source...