How to Make a Japanese Folding Fan

Make your own Japanese folding fan.

Japanese folding fans are elegant pieces of art. They look beautiful and often come with interesting stories. Make your own Japanese folding fan to use as decoration or use it to cool you off on a hot day. This is also a great craft project for kids.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Chopsticks
• Glue
• Rubber band

Instructions

1. Select the paper you’d like to use for your fan. You can use plain white paper, or use paper will a nice design on it, such as wallpaper.

2. Cut the paper so it is 8 inches wide and 18 inches long. 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 7/8 to 15/16 an inch on the other. This will give the arc of the Japanese folding fan.

4. Break the chopsticks apart so they are individual sticks. The thinner the chopsticks 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. Place the rubber band at the bottom of the chopsticks, about 1 inch from the end. 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 chopsticks together.

Tips & Warnings

• Go sparingly on the glue, you don’t want to make the paper to wet, it will ruin the look of the fan.