How to repair your Spanish fan

Sometimes the little pin that holds your fan together falls off and renders the entire fan useless. My Flamenco teacher once told me about a very simple fix. When two of my fans broke at once the other day, it was time to put her advice into practice.

It’s a bit fiddly, but surprisingly simple, quick and effective. And you only need easy to get hold off things and about five minutes to do the repair.

What you’ll need

• A little bit of string
• Superglue
• Scissors

You can work with the video tutorial or scroll down for a step-by-step description with pictures and extra tips.

Repair your Flamenco fan video tutorial

This video shows you how I fixed the broken ending in a few simple steps.

Repair your Flamenco fan with step-by-step pictures

Pick up the fallen off parts and hold the fan shut tightly together. It’s much easier if you have a friendly helper who can do the holding for you, but it’s possible to do on your own.

Extra tip: if it’s a bit fiddly, don’t be dismayed. Laugh at your clumsiness and be proud when you manage all by yourself (that’s what I went through ).

Tie a piece of string around the screw and make a tight knot, all the while holding the fan tightly shut.

Make a second knot on top of the first one.

Make a third knot. The first knot is at the side, the second knot is on the other side and the third knot is on top. You end up with a little ball on the end of your screw.

Keep the fan tighltly shut. Now carefully drip two or three drops of superglue onto your knot being careful that it only goes on the knot, not the string ends sticking out.

Extra tip: Protect your working surface with a piece of newspaper.

Drip a few drops into the knot from all angles.

Extra tip: When you’re done with your superglue, clean the tip with nail polish remover applied with a cotton bud or cotton pad. That way the tip won’t get glued up.

Cut of the string ends.

This was my first repair, so I’d gotten a bit of super glue onto the string ends, meaning I couldn’t cut them shorter. It’s not a big problem if this happens to you too. Don’t worry. I’ve been using my fan since the repair and you don’t notice this when moving around.

But if you’d like it neater, just make sure to drip the glue only on the knot as I managed here. Then you can cut the string ends right back.

 

Et voilà! Your fan is repaired and can be used as new.

Feeling worried it will come off again? I’ve been using my repaired fans in performance, practise and class and the knot has stayed in place.

Olé!