Deco Fan

A scalloped fan, repeated and overlapped until the field fills in. The shape shows up in two very different places: the seigaiha wave pattern that has run through Japanese textiles and ceramics for centuries, and the fan motifs of 1920s Art Deco - fanlights over doors, radiator grilles, elevator panels, jewelry from the same period.

Both traditions arrived at the same form for the same reason. The fan is a simple curve that repeats without fighting itself, and the overlap reads as either water or rays depending on how it’s drawn.

At jewelry scale the overlapping fans pull into a single pendant face. The repetition that fills a kimono panel becomes one piece of metal, cut so the scallops nest the way they always have.