Monday, August 20, 2012

Ceiling Fan


It's not a working fan, but still, I like what it adds to the room. I thought you might like to see the process. The first photo shows the jewelry finding that was cannibalized to make the hardware for the fan blades. As it was straightened, bits of the silver coating chipped off. That was okay, because I planned to paint it. Actually, it would have helped if all of the silver had chipped off, but it didn't.

Here's all it took. The five fan blades were cut from a piece of frosted mylar. The round beads are spacers. The big red bead is the motor assembly, and the star is a mirror fastener. The stick has a hole drilled cross-wise at the top end. The stick goes through a hole in the ceiling and a jewelry pin slips through the hole to keep it from falling back down.

It turned out I used only the flat black and gold paint. Saw no need for the shiny black.

I painted the motor bead and then scratched some lines around it. You can see the clear red bead inside in the photo, not so much in real life. I'm hoping that when the lights are on it, the scratched lines may look a bit like the copper windings that would be inside a real motor.

And here it is in place. The star is a bit showy, I think. I need to find a plain housing. In real life, it would be about 48" in diameter. It was hard to take a photo, but you get the idea. And remember, this is just temporary, until I figure out how to make one with a real motor.

Update: I did it! See the moving fan here.

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