Fan Conservation 🔹 Atelier l'Utile Zéphyr

fan conservation

Fan Conservation

Both fashion accessories and objects of luxury, fans are among the most complex works to restore. They have technical, artistic and historical specificities that are essential to know and master.

It is essential to:

– preserve their qualities as articulatedor multi-system works by maintaining the flexibility of their leaves;
– ensure the compatibility of the restoration materials with each of the elements of these composite works;
– guarantee the discretion of the interventions thanks to a work of chromatic retouching of a great precision;
– control the impact of the interventionscarried out on these double-sided works, in order to prevent their possible transfer from one sheet to the other.

The fans reflect their periods and countries of origin. The manufacturing techniques reflect these historical particularities. Because there is no such thing as two identical fans, Yolaine documents everything before undertaking a restoration. The levels of intervention proposed are just as varied.

In the 18th century, France supplied the whole world with fans thanks to its highest creativity and know-how. The most remarkable fans designed at that time involved up to 30 different craftsmen (jeweller, embroiderer, gilder, miniaturist, lace-maker, etc.).

Little by little forgotten, the fan is now attracting renewed interest from contemporary designers.

In recognition of its inexhaustible richness, fan-making has recently been included in France’s intangible cultural heritage.

Yolaine Voltz’s value of exception: the integral conservation of fans.

With experience and training to back her up, Yolaine has broadened the scope of her expertise. She masters the restoration of leaves, whatever the support material (paper, skin, fabric), but also the restoration of montures thanks to the knowledge transmitted by her master fan maker Sylvain Le Guen.