Wall Decor

About

What changes when a murti goes on a wall A deity on a wall is a different object from a deity on a shelf, and most people find that out after the hole is drilled. A shelf piece is lit from every side, can be picked up and turned, and moves house in a carton. A wall piece is fixed, seen from one angle, and lit by whatever happens to be in the room. That is why a frame that looked right in a photograph often looks flat once it is up. Nothing is falling across it. So the first decision is not which deity. It is which wall, and whether any light reaches it. Wall frame, wall plate, toran or latkan: which is which Four words, used interchangeably online, for four different objects. A wall frame is a deity image hung flat and looked at. Most of what sells as a god wall frame in India is a printed picture in a moulded frame, sometimes with a lenticular sheet over it, which is where the 3D effect in a 3D wall frame usually comes from. A murti frame, sometimes listed as a statue frame, is the other kind, where the face or the figure stands out of the frame rather than being printed onto it. The difference shows at close range: a print has one flat plane, while a raised face carries its own shadow, and the shadow moves as you cross the room. A wall plate is a decorative disc, usually metal, hung alone or in a group of three. It is ornament rather than image. A toran, or bandanwar , runs horizontally across the top of a doorway. It is a garland form. It belongs to the door rather than to the wall, and it tends to go up for a festival rather than stay up all year. A latkan hangs vertically and ends in bells, at a doorway, a window, or beside a mandir. The bells are the point, since they sound as the door moves. One thing about the word: in Hindi it does double duty, and if you search latkan you will mostly be shown tassels for blouse sleeves, which is by a wide margin its commoner meaning. Wall hanging is the loose umbrella term that covers all four, which is why a search for a