August 2024

Gideon Nav (packing for Canaan House)

Harrowhark Nonagesimus (packing for Canaan House)

photograph of a person cosplaying harrowhark nonagesimus. they have buzzed short black hair and skull paint and are kneeling on the floor. They are wearing a long black cloak embroidered with bones, an embroidered stole, bone rosary, bone ribcage, bone ring splints, and have three keys (black, white, red) clipped to their belt. 
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photo of the same harrowhark cosplayer, but now a close up of their torso, they are wearing a stole with a ninth house skull embroidered on it, a ribcage, wearing bone ring splints, a carabiner with 3 keys (red/black/white), and a wallet chain with teeth. They are also wearing a lot of bracelets of teeth and are holding a bone rosary. ALT
Same cosplayer, now a detail photo of the back their ribcage has a full spine and scapula.
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DEATH FIRST TO VULTURES AND SCAVENGERS

🦴 Harrow, photo editing, bones et al by me!
📸 photo and harrow robe by @trickstercheshi

took these pics like 2? months and then totally forgot to post them here! anyway Harrow currently features 122 hand sculpted bones (86 of which are in the rosary!), not counting the spares I made or the 336 resin teeth I bought & drilled for her bracelets and waist chain.

my central requirement for this cosplay is basically that every bone (except the face/ear jewlery) HAS to be made as close as possible in size and shape to an anatomically accurate human bone, because I am nothing of not committed to the inherent wonder of human anatomy. this means: no bone tits, no sizing bones up or down as convenient for aesthetics, no animal bones. I think it turned out great and I’m soooooo excited to make EVEN MORE bones for when I wear her next >:3

rigcage progress is documented on tumblr here, and under the cut are some extra ramblings & detail photos of her rosary & stole!

the rosary is based off of normal catholic rosaries, altered it to fit Ninth House aesthetics. a normal rosary has 5 sections (“Mysteries”) made of 10 beads each.

MY rosary has nine (9!!) sections for the Ninthefold ressurection, with each section being made of 8 bones. specifically, each section is made of carpal bones, and there is one carpal bone per section to represent each populated House. anatomy fun fact! humans have 8 different carpal bones in the body (one set in each wrist) all of which I lovingly sculpted to attempted anatomical accuracy.

hand holding a little box that holds all 86 hand made carpal bones and phalangesALT

phalanges are the “separating” (“Our Father”?) beads, and the hanging centerpiece is a metacarpal articulating with 3 phalanges – “the knuckle of your great-grandmother that represented the Rock, and the Universe, and God.” (HtN p. 118).

I went back and forth on what I wanted the centerpiece to be, because “knuckle” has an original anatomical meaning (the talus bone – of like, sheep, so not an option here per my central requirement) but it also has several colloquial meanings. I’ve heard “knuckle” being used to describe both the interphalangeal joints of the fingers and the metacarpalphalangeal joint as well. I actually did end up sculpting a life sized human talus bone to test how it would look as the centerpiece, but rejected it due to it simply looking very goofy due to scale and size (it was too big 😔). I also learned how to do a proper hail mary knot for this!

anyway: behold some more pics

the rosary as it is being strung, a WIP shotALT
Hand holding the rosaryALT

for Harrow’s stole, I was inspired by @/thatbonejunky’s art here as well as @/bondibee’s art here! I really wanted to lean into the religious leader aspect of her character. Harrow as not the Reverend *Daughter*, but the *Reverend* Daughter – especially as this is, due to my own proclivities, definitely a Butch Harrow™ cosplay. The fabric is this cool celtic pattern from JoAnns and the skull is applique + hand beading! I went back and forth on if I should give her tassles on the bottom or not but honestly it came down to tassels just seeming more dramatic, and Harrow deserves this

very dark green/black stole (religious vestment) with black tassels on the end, and skulls with the symbol IXALT
close up of the skull aplique, showing beading around the edgesALT

phew ok that was a lot of rambling. all bones are made of creative paperclay, an air dry clay, and painted with basic acrylics. did you know you can find hundreds of free 3D models of bones free online on sketchfab or by searching “[bone name] 3D model”. what was i saying. anyway. i love bone :)

do u ever think about gideon nav so much you just wanna grip her like a sqeaky toy (sound on for best effect)

original design by @iceboxhag, sewn up by me & delivered lovingly into their hands!!

progress pics under the cut

strange creature…

cut out drawing of gideon nav, drawn by iceboxhag. her head is flipped downALT
same cut out drawing. her eyes are flipped down nowALT

sewing & embroidery…

sewing machine sewing in the gideon nav outline onto skin colored feltALT
cartoon gideon nav, now in felt and flatALT

this is how i imagine people look when getting in and out of the river + sword on da back

cursed image of her being flipped right side out after sewing the front and back together. she looks crimpled or like a puffer fish?ALT
the back of the keychain, featuring sword as designed by iceboxhag in felt ALT

YIPPEE!!!

two hand made gideon keychains held in two fistsALT
hand holding 2 cartoon gideon nav keychains based on the drawing by iceboxhag. ALT


photo of two octavo letter sized hand bound books. The cover is black, with silver foil. The title is "EAT MY WORDS AND THEN SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE" by silverapples, with the cover illustration being a neck, tilted back, with a solid band around the throat with a "H" pendant. The back has "Gideon prides herself on being able to get anyone she wants in bed. But when it comes to Harrow, she’ll have to do some giving first." in foilALT
Photo of spines of the books described before, they say EAY MY WORDS AND THEN SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE but the text is small and the words are somewhat hard to readALT
photo showing the endpaper, which is swirling black and orangeALT
Photo showing the title page inside the book, which looks the same as the cover but printed on paperALT
Photo showing the table of contents, with eat my words and then swallow your pride and denial aint just a river in egyptALT

Eat My Words and Then Swallow your Pride by silverapples (18+)

+ its sequel fic, Denial Ain’t Just a River in Egypt (18+)

Gideon prides herself on being able to get anyone she wants in bed. But when it comes to Harrow, she’ll have to do some giving first.

I’m SO excited to have bound this series as part of @renegadeguild’s Fanfic Writer’s Appreciation Day (August 21) event, it is one of my absolute favorite fics and such a love letter to butch subs/bottoms everywhere.

some rambling under the cut

i forgot to take good progress pics here because besides cutting the pages/the octavo size, this bind felt very standard/nothing much new was tried, construction wise – but I DID draw the cover art with my mouse in photoshop because i couldn’t find good royalty free art that fit the Vibe and this fic deserves a bangin cover.

I went with Gideon being collared by Harrow for the design because like, yeah. Of course I did. She deserves this.

I think one of the main artistic things I would change in the future (besides photographing it against a more contrasting background OOPS) is I think I’d want a thinner tip for the foiling, I think the summary on the back turned out okay but the spine text was a bit small for the tip I had, so it is a bit hard to read.

I really like the octavo size for shorter fics, especially for fics in the 5k-15k range depending on font size/art/etc. I wouldn’t want to do a standard folio or even quarto with something this short just due to like… it would turn out magazine thin, but it looks cute as hell when turned pocket sized so I’m excited to have opened up a new realm of fics to bind!

Photo showing hand bound quarto sized book. The cover is a brown fake leather with gold lettering saying believing in everything(and knowing nothing at all). The cover has a sword shaped cutout, through which you can seea copper skull on black paper. Another copy of the same book is open, showig the skull pattered end paperALT
Photo of same books as before, now on their sides showing the title is on the spine as wellALT
Photo showing the title page, which features a swordALT
Photo showing the table of contents pageALT

believing in everything (and knowing nothing at all) by @lesbianjesuslovesyou

A series of childhood memories from the Ninth.

I love this fic, it makes me ACHE for baby Gideon, and I love its exploration of Gideon’s dynamics with the other characters on the Ninth as she was growing up :’) this is the second fic I bound for @renegadeguild’s Fanfic Writers Appreciation Day event!

progress pics and ramblings below the cut!

I was SO excited to try a cutout cover for this, and think the endpapers I picked were perfect for it. The Pleather “bookcloth” I used was a bit thick, and that in combination with the shape of the cut out made for some very goofy progress pics. I ended up gluing scrap paper to the tiny flaps, because they were SO at parts.

Progress photo showing the glueing process of the cut outALT
Progress photo showing a pen used to hold the tabs down for the cut outALT

Also, there were definitely several places that were like… exposed chipboard/paper, so I used a marker to color it in to hide those issues and it worked great

photo showing a marker coloring in exposed cornersALT

I initially formatted the cover incorrectly and my printer was out of commission at the time so I couldn’t re-print it, so I just cut it up to frankenstien it into what I needed! I’m REALLY happy with how the sword cutout ended up lining up with the skull – you can see in the above photos that they aren’t identical, and this is because I did not think about this at all when cutting and gluing the endpaper in. OOPS!! anyway HOORAY luck was looking out for me bc it ended up looking great anyway!

photo showing the frakenstiened cover patter on the coverALT
photo showing the cover before the end paper was cut out of the frontALT

The color of the cover was honestly hard to photograph but I love how it turned out and how it looked IRL. YAYY

Photo of handbound book of Black Irises in the Sunshine by imalwaysstraight, with cover art of Harrowhark with a suit and fedora smokingALT
same books as before, now photo'd from aboveALT
Photo showing the spines are rounded, with the title on them in red colored foilALT
endpaper that is red, pink, ad white marbleALT
Page showing the book was made for the 2023 big ressurection TLT fic event, with art by nakji and rhywhite fang, and cosplay by thelostaborsenALT
title page of bookALT
chapter one of bookALT

Black Irises in the Sunshine by imalwaysstraight/@nooomagnus

art by @rhywhitefang, @nakji, cosplay by @aborsenkatiel, cover art by @nakji

Nova & Co Private Investigations is the best damn detective agency this side of the River—and strictly a one-woman operation. But when Harrow gets shot (again) while working to expose corruption at City Hall, her so-called friend Palamedes goes behind her back to hire her some muscle. The good news: Harrow only has to work with Gideon until she’s cracked the case. Once she’s busted this thing wide open, they never have to see each other again….right?

This fantastic fic has been on my to-bind list since before it was even posted on AO3, and I’m so excited to finally share it! I tried a lot of new things with this, especially the cover. This is the third and final bind I finished for @renegadeguild’s Fanfic Writer’s Appreciation Day event!

Progress pics/process rambling under the cut!

MASSIVE massive thank you to @nakji for the INCREDIBLE cover art, and for so graciously allowing me to slap text over it. I was really going for the aesthetic of those pulpy noir detective novels, and I think it turned out really good! This is the first time I ever tried an art cover. I basically formatted it in photoshop, then printed it in black and white a couple times to make sure I had sized the image right for what I wanted before taking it to fedex to print in color.

It is printed in color on normal paper, and then I sprayed the shit out of it with Krylon Crystal Clear. I also bumped the saturation a bit before printing, which I think worked well because in my experience coor printers often desaturate/fade out color prints

hand holding coverALT
hand holding krylon spray over the coversALT

I then put the case together as normal. I used gold foil for the spine, and then used a marker to color it red because I didn’t want to buy red foil just for this, and honestly it worked out great, 10/10 money saving method!

case with red markerALT
the book in the pressALT

I really adore how this came out and I’m excited at my new art cover powers… I will be using this in the future!!

in the lab. straight up “eatimg it”. and by “it”, haha, well. let’s justr say. my cavalier

"mirror" selfie taken in the reflective window of a car. Selfie taker has short black hair and black skull face paint, and is wearing a long black cloak and bone ribcage, black forearm bracers and teeth bracelets, silver belt chain with teeth, a bone rosary around their neck, and black pants. Otherwise they are shirtless. In their other hand they hold a black chain flail with a pelvis at the end.ALT
Same person taking a selfie, now in a dirty mirror. ALT

forgot my gideon wig AND sunglasses on the way to renfaire today so whipped up this look I’ve decided to call “Harrow Nova if she slayed”

I’m (remembering I can’t make suicide jokes anymore) on the fence about it

"i guess we doin circles now" meme edited to have Ortus replacing Gideon on the conveyer beltALT

i guess we doin Ơ̴̢̧̙̗͖͍͕͈͚͓̞̣̜̗̘̥̺͔̦̠̠̻̬̼͔͈̹̏̎̈́̓̎̀̆̚ͅṘ̶̨̨̹̱͚̖͖̦̙̱͔͓̠̹̼͍͉̪͇̩̦͎͈̱̣̱̥̫̦̒͝T̴͖͙͓͈̞͖̤̹̪̲̣̭͈̯̝̼̦̬̰͔͗̐̽̓̒̂͋͒͂͛̽̂̐͗̀̎͊̒̌̓͘͜͜͜͠͠͠U̵͉͙͓̝̟̮̦͇͉̩̺̙͙̜͔̔̃͂̇̽̈̊́̈́̈́̇̓͆̂̑̓̀͆̌̑̕̚̚͠ͅS̴̢̠̥̭̤̣̏̃̄͌̏̔͒͌̑́͊̓̓̃́͂̾̿͐͑̂̚͠ now