Making my room like Rivendell: Elven Interior Decorating part 1: DIY Elven Lantern Ideas

UPDATE: Lamp made here, still working on more lamps and the banners...

So I've been into this nesting syndrome thing, and as always, want to make my rooms beautiful.

I think I'm going to make this (on posterboard) and rig up some sort of lighting in front of it. Maybe I'll string white Christmas lights around it, wrapped up in some old chiffon curtains. Or something.
Maybe just an electric candle near it. Or something.

Or maybe I'll have another go at Elven lanterns. We be cheap right now, so I think I'll start with white cloth stretched over a frame from wooden dowels kinda like this one...

This is a legit nice shadow lantern by Helen Hiebert

I'll just slip the posterboard behind the fabric, to get that gorgeous white on white look of Helen Hiebert's Shadow Lantern.

UPDATE: I found a helpful link on how to do cardboard shadow lanterns

OR I'll do a moroccan/elven looking cut out on posterboard, perhaps sprayed with metallic spray paint, and overlay it on the fabric. To look kinda like this.

Ofcourse, Mine will be sitting on a table, with an electric candle on the inside. Perhaps when I get better with wires and things, it wouldn't be too difficult to mount a night-light type of light (the kinds you pull out of those little ceramic Christmas houses) on the inside, and then hang the whole contraption off a wire that you can string the electrical cord through.

Being of cloth and posterboard, (or even, wood cut out), thus flammable, I shall not entrust real fire to the insides of it. Perhaps if the fire was in a glass container like these jar candles from dollar tree....but still. I'll stick with electric first.


OR maybe I'll put fabric paint on it, and make it a sort of shine-through banner...

This could be done fairly easily with fabric paint, minus the script.

Perhaps even with real inks, as you wouldn't need to worry about washability.
If you were going to do that, you could even paint whole designs on it....

I think I'll start with making my room Rivendell.

1. Some form of Elven lantern lighting. I was originally thinking of glorifying a string of white C-9 Christmas lights with paper-lantern like creations, but I think the electric candle in the cloth/paper/wood lantern on a little shelf (wood + L bracket) would be better for now.
2. Some Elven-esque Hangings on the wall. Embroidered banners would be awesome, but as a stand in I think I'm going to do painted posterboard banners, to get a feel for size and color etc. 
3. Some Scripture Hanging type of thing. Written with my caligraphy dip pen in Carolingian Miniscule, because it looks like Elvish. I think Tolkien would approve. I'll probably end up using a chisel-tip sharpie. I think he'll understand.
   
4. Crucifixes. Whenever I draw pictures of Rivendell, they end up in the room. One sketch I did, I left it in, till I'm going to finish it and then erase it. It had to be there for the mood. I still haven't finished the drawing, and I don't know if I'll be able to erase it. My subconscious thinks it belongs there. I think its a mix of how he described Rivendell's architecture (white plaster with dark beams) sounding like an old church/monastery, how Rivendell is a refuge where you go when you're sick/running from enemies (like Medieval Monasteries), and full of books and old relics of things (Medieval Monasteries) and how Elrond is a healer/literary guy/knows a lot---kind of like a Bernard of Clairvaux or something. Plus, the Elves always made me think of Saints. (I know they've got major issues in the Silmarillion. Well, plenty of the saints had major issues too. Black riders run from them, when they're singing about Elbereth Gilthoniel. QED.)
5. I need to clean it.

Preview....