For my lantern, I am making a wooden box with designs cut out of each side. I am still working on fixing all the lines in Inkscape, but here is what I have so far. It will have the XO Chi Omega on the top, an owl and a skull symbol on opposite sides, and then say Chi Omega on the remaining 2 sides. I will also add bridges for the inner pieces. I am getting a small fake tea candle to place inside for some warm lighting. I want this to be a small lantern for my desk, so it will be about 3 inches or so on each side, but I might change that. I am going to remove the text denoting the sides and I have also copied a test piece at the bottom that will be cut first to ensure a tight fit. My question is: should I leave the design on top of the box or only have designs on the sides?
I noticed the symmetry you are going for two of the sides, I like that you are doing two sides the same and two different. In my opinion you should only do designs on the top because this could take away from the light emitted from the other sides. Do you plan to incorporate fabric or paper into your final project to add different elements of the light?
I might play around with different papers to diffuse the light. I am going for a simple design with cozy lighting, so that depends on how my experiments with the paper goes.
Your design looks great, I do think though that the top cut might end up taking away from the piece as a whole. Do you have any plans on if you are adding stain or not?
I really like the simplicity and symmetry in your design. I think including the top cut will add some variation in the design.