Monster-Size Lanterns (Catching Up, Part 2)

This follows a previous post (same day) as a bit of catching-up to various lantern work from Halloween artist Bindlegrim occurring since many moons past. And while the previous entry covered the March 2026 release of a 12-side lantern #14 Spook Show (Instagram) here now is discussed the first two of a new made-to-order monster-size series. The first is an immense ballroom lantern based on 1940's-1950's framework, and second is a humungous centerpiece based on the memories of childhood drawings and, by scale, 1960's-1970's Hallmark. Both are available on Bindlegrim's Etsy Shoppe.

Bindlegrim 2026 monster-size Halloween ballroom lantern.

Bindlegrim 2026 monster-size Halloween centerpiece lantern.

Bindlegrim 2026 monster-size lanterns compared to others.

To back-up a bit, The Halloween Retrospect has in it's archive (which it uses to write fact-based Halloween guides about vintage collectibles) a certain mid-century ballroom lantern by Beistle. You can view images of that vintage lantern on THR's Instagram account (sampled below). The lantern appears in Halloween Artifacts, Volume 1: Lighting which gives catalog source data for date verifications - including Beistle's own supply catalog. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Archive Librarian (@halloweenretrospecs)

Anyway, the ballroom lantern by Bindlegrim references just the form as a starting point, then moves further... which is part of the artist's aesthetic as respect for the originals. It is not in the artist's way to just simply copy old imagery but rather to be inspired by it, to create something new.  Here are few images of the lantern from afar, and with close-up details...

Bindlegrim 2026 monster-size Halloween ballroom lantern.

Bindlegrim 2026 monster-size Halloween ballroom lantern.

Bindlegrim 2026 monster-size Halloween ballroom lantern.

The second monster-size piece, a haunted house centerpiece lantern was the artist having fun dreaming up a haunt much like one might have done with construction paper in elementary school. This became quite a bit more complicated than those however, and over many weeks the project went from cardboard concept.... to newsprint drawing... to various test cuts... all toward the final shown below in various shots in-the-round...  

Bindlegrim 2026 monster-size Halloween centerpiece lantern.

Bindlegrim 2026 monster-size Halloween centerpiece lantern.

To follow, both lanterns are created from scratch from stock material of sturdy 4-ply museum board and artisan crinkle-crepe paper. It took quite a bit of time to create such designs at the beginning, but can now be re-created as made-to-order items for interested parties. Once again, they are available on Bindlegrim's Etsy Shoppe. Once ordered, the artist will be happy to get back into the studio and create:

Bindlegrim 2026 monster-size lantern in production.

By the way, have you been keeping up with Bindlegrim these past couple of year? Bindlegrim created for THR some industrial style vintage products (below) based on 1940's faux stained glass window products based on works by Milton Bradley. 

Dual-side faux stained glass paper window (2 shown) for THR.

The new items are true to the general feel of vintage pieces, but cannot be mistaken as such (as with other Bindlegrim productions) due to a deliberate difference in size, imagery, color, and production.  Much like the lantern (above) the windows are made of 2-ply museum board but with in this case use colored tissue paper.

The Halloween Retrospect Vol 1,2,3,4 & Halloween Artifacxts.

 For more images see THR's website or THR's online book shop (or even via Instagram @halloweenretrospecs), but note Bindledgrim is not selling these - they are free with a copy of THR's newest edition of research from its archive library publications on Etsy. 

Spook Show Lantern (Catching Up, Part 1)

This and the post following are a bit of catching-up to all the lantern work released by Bindlegrim since the last entry, oh so long ago...  and so, to begin, there is a March 2026 release #14 Spook Show (Instagram). This lantern continues the newer pane designs for 12-side collapsible lanterns of 2-ply museum board and laser-print vellum panes. This one has an edition of five - and fret not - there are a couple remaining that have yet to be listed on Bindlegrim's Etsy Shoppe.

The Spook Show lantern continues the Bindlegrim limited-edition series of Bindlegrim olde-style Halloween art that spans new and old aesthetics. This time the artist has fun creating a total of twelve different spooks for each pane. You can see them develop on Bindelgrim's IG account - for example, the first witch design is heavily based on the previous #13 - The Fates... however as time went by she gets more spookily hagged-out as the style for all characters was honed. 

All the variou characters are shown above, but here are some various shots of the completed lantern as it appeared in various photographs for the Bindlegrim's Etsy Shoppe. First, here are a couple of pics of the lantern immersed in fall color... 

Bindlegrim 2026 vintage-style Halloween - Spook Show (top).

Bindlegrim 2026 vintage-style Halloween - Spook Show (bottom).

Second, here a few photographs of the lantern panes all lit up in the dark, to show you how the lighting will look on a spooky night...

Bindlegrim 2026 vintage-style Halloween - Spook Show (slide 1).

Bindlegrim 2026 vintage-style Halloween - Spook Show (slide 2)

Bindlegrim 2026 vintage-style Halloween - Spook Show (slide 3)

Bindlegrim 2026 vintage-style Halloween - Spook Show (slide 4)

Bindlegrim has stock of just a couple more - and does expect to list the last two available sometime this autumn 2026.  These have been appearing along some older Bindlegrim pieces of the Spooklight series and Roly-Poly honeycombs. But, not only that, Bindlegrim has released some new made-to-order monster-size pieces... which will be news enough for the following post... 

 Bindlegrim comparison chart of past work and new!

By the way, have you been keeping up with Bindlegrim these past couple of year? Bindlegrim created for THR some industrial style vintage products (below) based on 1940's faux stained glass window products based on works by Milton Bradley. 

Dual-side faux stained glass paper window (2 shown) for THR.

The new items are true to the general feel of vintage pieces, but cannot be mistaken as such (as with other Bindlegrim productions) due to a deliberate difference in size, imagery, color, and production.  Much like the lantern (above) the windows are made of 2-ply museum board but with in this case use colored tissue paper.

The Halloween Retrospect Vol 1,2,3,4 & Halloween Artifacxts.

 For more images see THR's website or THR's online book shop (or even via Instagram @halloweenretrospecs), but note Bindledgrim is not selling these - they are free with a copy of THR's newest edition of research from its archive library publications on Etsy. 

Herding Black Cats for Sale

Vintage Halloween Collectibles
from Bindlegrim on Etsy

Thirteen black cats (above) give or take recent additions (below) minus some recent adoptions - appeared for sale on the Bindlegrim Etsy shoppe over these last couple of days (February 2026). And please note that these are only listed for a limited time... until February 28th... when a different thematic batch (of Halloween characters) take their place.

Multiple vintage Halloween collectible black cats
have made there way to the Bindlegrim Etsy shoppe.

Again, these vintage Halloween collector items are separate from the research library of THR or other ventures from the Bindlegrim personalities. There is no requirement to purchase any guidebooks from THR's archive nor buy a subscription, membership, cross-country travel tickets, etc. That said, if you love new discoveries about old things - check out THR's store link on Etsy. There are now six books --- four wordy digests, and two art picture surveys - all offering data from the archive's nearly 650 vintage catalog library.

Six new best-selling guidebooks getting five-star reviews 

from vintage Halloween collector seeking market research.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bumble Bindlegrim (@bindlegrim)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bumble Bindlegrim (@bindlegrim)

Are you new to The Halloween Retrospect? THR, after 2+ years of publishing, now offers a six-book research library of data based on sources (such as those above) rather than second-hand guesses that have riddled the collector environment! THR books now include two art-book-style surveys Halloween Artifacts, V1: Lighting and Halloween Artifacts, V2 Festoons as well as four article-based digests The Halloween Retrospect Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4. For a small niche publisher – THR is happy to celebrate sales of 400 books – see also @halloweenretrospecs on Instagram. 

THR Etsy book shop listing w/six digests and art books.

Two art books sold together, for vintage Halloween collectors.

Halloween digests offer collectibles info not found elsewhere.

See the Instagram post (below from @halloweenretrrospecs) for additional detail views of these vintage Halloween collectibles by Beistle. There are nearly 50 original envelopes (most with original content) of various products ranging from complete party outfits to individual envelopes for select items such as invitations, etc. (Note that the quite a few are vertically stacked, at top right, to fit the space - so perhaps a future photo will include the front image of all those shelved there).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Archive Librarian (@halloweenretrospecs)

By the way, many of these were saved from the moldering backing pages of a salesman sample book that THR has not previously shown in its own various printed or online materials. These items were carefully removed by a paper expert some years ago, and THR is forever grateful for their expertise. 

As for current THR archive storage, someone had asked how these items were currently stored for preservation. My current favorite containers are called Crystal Clear from clearbags.com online made of BOPP/OPP which is considered an archive safe material. The company offers tons of sizes (thoough you may have to manually adjust if you have a great deal of variously sized items). For the interior, I cut pieces of 2ply museum board to support the vintage item which means (in case of these fragile envelopes) I put the envelope on one side and contents on the other - offering extra protection through separation (below). Unfortunately a bit of glare is the problem after that which can make photography a bit of a problem... 

Ghoul with three pumpkins likely by Whitney.

Meanwhile, the digital records of that Beistle sampler (in addition to the actual items that were saved from the original deteriorating container) are still referenced by THR for various hints and revelations that the original layout provide. It was used a primary source with Halloween Artifacts, Volume 2: Festoons. If you are interested in an older THR publication - please check out The Halloween Retrospect on Etsy.

#13: The Fates for Summer 2025

Arriving for Summer 2025 there is a new Bindlegrim Halloween 12-side collapsible  German-style lantern (#13 - The Fates) seen most recently on @Bindlegrim (IG). This one will have an edition of seven - and unusually combines both lighting with a fortune game.

The lantern continues the Bindlegrim limited-edition series of industrial-method panels made of sturdy 2-ply museum board that reveals laser-print vellum panes - made in mind of no-heat LED lights or small battery candles.As for the fortunes there are six pre-told visions that slip into the bottom panes. These fortunes were penned by Bindlegrim under divine inspiration from The Fates - so he takes no responsibility for their snarky witchery!

Bindlegrim 2025 vintage-style Halloween - The Fates (top).

Bindlegrim 2025 vintage-style Halloween - The Fates (bottom).

By the way, about the imagery... while two of the faces were directly inspired by Gibson Art Co. (and givewn some artistic embellishments by Bindlegrim) Halloween collectors will notice six different expressions. Bindlegrim expanded upon her apparent acting repertoire to include the basic human expressions which some theorize to include anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. (The original Gibson witch seems to have felt happiness and disgust).

Lantern detail: witch expressions of disgust and fear.

Lantern detail: witch expressions of happiness and surprise.

Lantern detail: witch expressions of sadness and anger.

Bindlegrim lantern 2025 - #13 The Fates w/fortunes.

Bindlegrim is producing these right now - clearing up a few snags along the way - but expects these arriving soon for sale on the Bindlegrim etsy shop, likely along with some older Bindlegrim from the past which may be in stock still. Some of the older designs are seen on this blog and @bindlegrim on Instagram.

Working on label design for The Fates by Bindlegrim.

By the way, have you been keeping up with Bindlegrim these past couple of year? Bindlegrim recently created for THR some industrial style vintage products (below) based on 1940's faux stained glass window products. The new items are true to the general feel of vintage pieces, but cannot be mistaken as such (as with other Bindlegrim productions) due to a deliberate difference in size, imagery, color, and production.  Much like the lantern (above) the windows are made of 2-ply museum board but with in this case use colored tissue paper. For more images see THR's website or THR's online book shop (or even via Instagram @halloweenretrospecs), but note Bindledgrim is not selling these - they are free with a copy of THR's newest edition of research from its archive library publications on Etsy. 

Dual-side faux stained glass paper window (2 shown) for THR.

THR, V4 featuring an homage window by Bindlegrim

The Halloween Retrospect Vol 1,2,3,4 & Halloween Artifacxts.

Well, to close this blog entry, Bindlegrim notes this vintage-style artist has had the pleasure of being involved with Volume 1 and Volume 4 digests above, but is happy to return once again creating vintage-style decorations that bring olde Halloween to modern times. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bumble Bindlegrim (@bindlegrim)