Nylon Fan Veils

[Duvet]

Has anyone used nylon fan veils? How well do they compare against the silk ones (apart from being vegan friendly)? Do they have any advantages for particular moves, or are they more limiting? Does anyone have any videos of them in use?

 

[Darshiva]

Did you know? It's apparently cheaper to produce silk humanely now that it is to do it the old-fashioned way of killing the moth. Interesting!

 

[gisela]

I have a fan veil in (I think) nylon. Not very floaty and it ravels a lot. I bought it from china because it was cheap and I wanted to try it out, but it doesn't even make me want to dance.

 

[Bellydance Oz]

Did you know? It's apparently cheaper to produce silk humanely now that it is to do it the old-fashioned way of killing the moth. Interesting!

Yes, I saw a documentary on silk production in India and was surprised to see all the moths hatching out and flying free.

 

[Darshiva]

I guess it's better for the industry not to kill of the source of the silk.

 

[Shanazel]

Nylon is infinitely inferior to silk except... moths don't eat it.

 

[Bellydance Oz]

I just had a thought - I suspect the problem with nylon fan veils would be more about the sticks/ribs than the fabric.

Good quality silk veils should have proper, shaped ribs. The ends fit securely in the hand and the ribs slide easily past each other- so the fan can be opened and closed with one hand. That makes it easy to do more complex movements with the fans.

Even cheap silk fans often have unshaped, bulky ribs which don't fit comfortably in the hand, and the extra bulk means the fans can't be opened or closed easily because they're inclined to stick.

So I'm guessing nylon fans would be more likely to have the nasty shapeless ribs.