Note: This is a mixed media art fan. Not a heavy duty performance piece.
The Creation Story of This Fan
Air Swimming
The first fan began as a single mermaid veil fan.
At the time, I had been immersing myself deeply in two things: fan flow and cyanotype.
I was spending hours learning how fabric moved around the body, how a fan could extend a gesture, how silk could catch air and make movement visible. At the same time, I was becoming completely absorbed in printing Ocean Botanicals onto silk.
The two practices started moving toward each other.
I wanted to know what would happen if the forms I kept finding along the Pacific coast could become part of the movement itself.
So I began experimenting.
I gathered Ocean Botanicals, brought them back to the studio, prepared the silk and arranged the specimens directly across the fabric. Then I carried the composition into the California sun and let the light make the image.
After the exposure came the rinsing.
Then painting.
Then layering.
Then experimenting.
Then changing things that did not feel right.
Then adding another detail.
And another.
I kept working until the silk finally told me to stop.
There was no established formula for me to follow. I was learning what the fan wanted to become while I was making it.
Layer by layer, the botanical print became part cyanotype, part painting, part textile, part movement object.
And somewhere in that process, it stopped feeling like fabric attached to a fan.
It became its own ocean creature.
Then, for my birthday, my girlfriends scooped me up and took me to Ocean Beach for a day of art by the water.
That mattered because some of the Ocean Botanicals that had become part of the work had come from that exact stretch of coastline.
I was bringing the art back to where it began.
The botanical forms had moved through Pacific water.
They washed onto shore.
I gathered them.
Sunlight transferred their bodies onto silk.
My hands added color and layers.
The silk became a fan.
And then the fan returned to the ocean and moved in the wind.
It felt like taking it back to the beach for its birthday too.
Ocean → shore → sun → silk → hand → body → movement → ocean.
That first fan became the beginning of a much larger question for me:
What happens when something shaped by water is allowed to move through air?
The answer keeps changing every time I make another piece.
That is part of why I love this work.
There are layers and layers of mermazingness in the process, but underneath all of them is something very simple:
ocean,
movement,
art,
friends,
sunlight,
and curiosity.
Bringing all of those things together has been one of the great blessings of this project.
The first fan taught me that the Ocean Botanicals did not have to remain still once their images reached the silk.
They could keep moving.
They just needed another body to carry them.
______________
These magical oceanic silk angel wings are handmade for dance, flow arts, worship, ritual, play, photography, performance and becoming your most luminous ocean self.
Each pair is created in San Diego, California using a sun print process and fresh kelp or other sea botanicals ethically harvested, composited then composted from the shores of the Pacific. I make every piece by hand with sunlight, seawater, silk, and naturally washed-ashore kelp. No two prints will ever be exactly alike.
Because I print with real fresh kelp, every order begins with a custom beach trip. Seaweed decomposes quickly, so I harvest it fresh and look for beautiful, mostly intact fronds during high tide. Then I bring it home, prepare the silk, create the exposure, rinse and process the piece, clean up the studio, and carefully pack it for its journey to you.
Each set takes roughly a day and a half of hands-on work, plus travel time, materials, cleanup, packaging, and the many small business costs behind making art sustainably. Your purchase supports an independent artist making wearable ocean magic one piece at a time.
This is a wet sun print artwork, so you may see organic marks, tonal variation, soft edges, water textures, and other beautiful creative imperfections. These are not flaws. They are part of the handmade process and the reason every silk feels alive and unique.
Please treat your silk wings with care. Keep them away from dusty or dirty environments, rough surfaces, and anything that may snag or stain the fabric.
If they get dirty wash only with non alkaline silk soap. Not detergent. Heritage is a good brand. The color will change if washed with alkaline. If the color begins to change, rinse in a solution of water and vinegar to bring back the intensity of the blue.
Printed in the USA.
Dance with them. Pray with them. Play with them. Let the ocean move through you.
_____________
SPECS
Not Washable
This is an art-fan collectors item
Note: This is a mixed media art fan. Not a heavy duty performance piece.
The Creation Story of This Fan
Air Swimming
The first fan began as a single mermaid veil fan.
At the time, I had been immersing myself deeply in two things: fan flow and cyanotype.
I was spending hours learning how fabric moved around the body, how a fan could extend a gesture, how silk could catch air and make movement visible. At the same time, I was becoming completely absorbed in printing Ocean Botanicals onto silk.
The two practices started moving toward each other.
I wanted to know what would happen if the forms I kept finding along the Pacific coast could become part of the movement itself.
So I began experimenting.
I gathered Ocean Botanicals, brought them back to the studio, prepared the silk and arranged the specimens directly across the fabric. Then I carried the composition into the California sun and let the light make the image.
After the exposure came the rinsing.
Then painting.
Then layering.
Then experimenting.
Then changing things that did not feel right.
Then adding another detail.
And another.
I kept working until the silk finally told me to stop.
There was no established formula for me to follow. I was learning what the fan wanted to become while I was making it.
Layer by layer, the botanical print became part cyanotype, part painting, part textile, part movement object.
And somewhere in that process, it stopped feeling like fabric attached to a fan.
It became its own ocean creature.
Then, for my birthday, my girlfriends scooped me up and took me to Ocean Beach for a day of art by the water.
That mattered because some of the Ocean Botanicals that had become part of the work had come from that exact stretch of coastline.
I was bringing the art back to where it began.
The botanical forms had moved through Pacific water.
They washed onto shore.
I gathered them.
Sunlight transferred their bodies onto silk.
My hands added color and layers.
The silk became a fan.
And then the fan returned to the ocean and moved in the wind.
It felt like taking it back to the beach for its birthday too.
Ocean → shore → sun → silk → hand → body → movement → ocean.
That first fan became the beginning of a much larger question for me:
What happens when something shaped by water is allowed to move through air?
The answer keeps changing every time I make another piece.
That is part of why I love this work.
There are layers and layers of mermazingness in the process, but underneath all of them is something very simple:
ocean,
movement,
art,
friends,
sunlight,
and curiosity.
Bringing all of those things together has been one of the great blessings of this project.
The first fan taught me that the Ocean Botanicals did not have to remain still once their images reached the silk.
They could keep moving.
They just needed another body to carry them.
______________
These magical oceanic silk angel wings are handmade for dance, flow arts, worship, ritual, play, photography, performance and becoming your most luminous ocean self.
Each pair is created in San Diego, California using a sun print process and fresh kelp or other sea botanicals ethically harvested, composited then composted from the shores of the Pacific. I make every piece by hand with sunlight, seawater, silk, and naturally washed-ashore kelp. No two prints will ever be exactly alike.
Because I print with real fresh kelp, every order begins with a custom beach trip. Seaweed decomposes quickly, so I harvest it fresh and look for beautiful, mostly intact fronds during high tide. Then I bring it home, prepare the silk, create the exposure, rinse and process the piece, clean up the studio, and carefully pack it for its journey to you.
Each set takes roughly a day and a half of hands-on work, plus travel time, materials, cleanup, packaging, and the many small business costs behind making art sustainably. Your purchase supports an independent artist making wearable ocean magic one piece at a time.
This is a wet sun print artwork, so you may see organic marks, tonal variation, soft edges, water textures, and other beautiful creative imperfections. These are not flaws. They are part of the handmade process and the reason every silk feels alive and unique.
Please treat your silk wings with care. Keep them away from dusty or dirty environments, rough surfaces, and anything that may snag or stain the fabric.
If they get dirty wash only with non alkaline silk soap. Not detergent. Heritage is a good brand. The color will change if washed with alkaline. If the color begins to change, rinse in a solution of water and vinegar to bring back the intensity of the blue.
Printed in the USA.
Dance with them. Pray with them. Play with them. Let the ocean move through you.
_____________
SPECS
Not Washable
This is an art-fan collectors item
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