I heard Ann Collier's talk at Ithaca some years ago and it was a delight to see all her fans in person and in slide form. One aspect of her fans is that they tend to have extremely beautiful fan sticks. The subject of the sticks came up, and Ann told us that she collects antique fans, and sticks. Obediently I made a mental note to frequent antique shops searching for naked sticks and for decrepit fans to remove from sticks. Then upon further discussion about the fans sticks, Ann admitted that not only did she collect fans and sticks, but that she had so many sets of sticks around that it was not unusual for her to be able to take two identical sets that were in poor condition and put them together to make one functional set. Mentally I set off part of my home to be a fan stick hospital. I have to say that in the years since I resolved to search tirelessly for fan sticks and learn to repair them and doctor them, I haven't really found any nice ones in my price range. I have bought a few fans with the idea of taking off the leaves, but then I get attached to the leaves. Once I even had a dealer refuse to sell me a fan when she realized I was planning to cannibalize it for the sticks. So, in the end, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps the making of fans to match beautiful antique fan sticks is not something everyone can do and is rightly one of the things that makes Ann Collier's work unique. Devon
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