Imladris & Rivendell Pattern Development: The Middle Earth Collection

Learn about our addition to the Middle-earth™ Collection of baby wraps, ring slings, carriers and accessories as we explore the Valley of Imladris, where the village of Rivendell is nestled. Rivendell was home to many notable elves, including Elrond, the Lord of Rivendell.

Rivendell is described in Tolkien's works, The Lord of the Rings™ & The Hobbit™, as a peaceful, sheltered town located at the edge of a narrow gorge of the river Bruinen, it was well hidden in the moorlands and foothills of the Misty Mountains. Bilbo retires to this tranquil spot after his eleventy-first birthday, having previously passed through on his quest for Erebor in The Hobbit. According to The Hobbit, "Evil things did not come into that valley". We like to think that carrying your baby in our Rivendell or Imladris slings symbolize this same protection, care and nourishment that was depicted in the descriptions of Elrond's home.

At Oscha, we love the lore of Rivendell so much that we developed 2 patterns inspired by it! - Rivendell and Imladris, read on to learn about their creation.

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Imladris

The Imladris design was developed first in the illustrative style of Misty Mountains. It features the Valley of Rivendell with the river Bruinen flowing along the bottom of the design to the West and the Misty Mountains setting a backdrop behind the valley to the East with a twinkling night sky above.

Originally when designing this pattern we made an archway in an Art Nouveau style to frame the village scene. However, it wasn't quite fitting so after removing it completely we opted for a text border to frame the picturesque village. You can see our first sketches of Imladris here.

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Once digitised, we played about with removing the arch border, but felt there was something missing. You can see Imladris without border or archway below:

When we chose to add the quote border, it was going to read as below:

“The Last Homely House in the fair valley of Rivendell, upon whose house the stars of heaven most brightly shone"

However it made the repeat too long so it now reads:

“Rivendell, upon whose house the stars of heaven most brightly shone"

Eventually we decided to take a different path with the pattern (see below) and shelved this version of Rivendell. However, we released a prototype scrap piece of fabric in one of our Scrap Packs and our Lord Of The Rings fans just loved it! The first time it was woven was for our Fire & Ice preorder when one of our wonderful customers suggested the name of Imladris for this original Rivendell design.

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Rivendell

When developing the new version of Rivendell, we changed tact and were influenced by linocut printing style - with fine, clear lines creating texture and movement and whimsical story-book imagery.

Our original sketch helped us get ideas for the placement of the Rivendell pattern, featuring Elven houses nestled amongst the rolling hills and flowing waterfalls with an arched structure containing the scene.

The archway was developed with influences from Ancients of Gondor which you can see in the image below:

We then played with different textures to fill the main pattern areas to make for a unique style and contrasting effect between the different landscape areas.

Once digitised we experimented further with different textures and element placements, as well as a lot of re-working of the buildings, using our original sketches as guidance.

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Shop Rivendell baby slings and accessories

Finally, we chose to add a Sindarin quote to flow along the borders from Bilbo on The Last Homely House East of the Sea. It reads:

“Time doesn't seem to pass here: it just is."

Keep an eye out for your favourite Middle Earth designs making an appearance over the next few months with customer favourites returning in updated colourways and beautiful blends. Join Clan Oscha and subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know all exclusive Middle Earth news.

Rivendell, Middle-earth, and The Lord of the Rings and the names of the characters, items, events, and places therein are trademarks of Middle-earth Enterprises, LLC and are used under license by Oscha Slings.