1,000 Cephalopods in a Trench Coat

I marked parts I wanted to cut back, and after deciding hand tools were not going to work, I went to Harbor Freight and got some smaller bits.

I used some ingraving tips to cut into the bone for the cutout details. A coping saw would have been better, but I do not have a coping saw so here we are.

I printed some outlines of the design in various sizes. Ended up selecting 2 1/2 inches as a good size.

Glued the pattern to the bone with white school glue and drew a few straight lines as cutting guides. Then started roughly cutting out the shape with a cutting disk.

Then I drilled some holes. I don't have any drill bits so this was a pain. Cue burnt bone smell :/

Started carving in details and quickly remembered that I've been wanting more dremel bits for about 10 years now.

eventually removed the paper and started sketching back in details with a pencil. More dremelling

As I said before, I am making the necklace out of bone, as it's attractive, easy to work with, and readily available. I also have some experience working with it.

I bought a bag of marrow bones like these at my local grocery store. It was about $12 for 8 bone tubes. I predict I'll be able to get about 3 projects out of each piece. I soaked them in warm water and removed the marrow. I've also shared my recipe for Marrow Roasted Potatoes.

I used this guide to macerating bones. Please note that this can be an unpleasent process that involves speed-rotting the flesh off the bones in water. Bone blanks are available if you don't want to bother, but this method is cheaper and I like a hands-on project.

Using my dremel I cut a flat-ish piece out of one of the bone tubes. Wear a dusk mask! Bone dust is terrible for your lungs. Also gloves. I did not wear gloves because I'm cocky and now I have to worry about getting bone dust in a cut on my finger :( I forgot how bad cutting bone smells. Sort of like burning hair? And it sticks to my hands even after a shower. It will disapate eventually.

Do it for him...

I'm not worried about getting the piece perfectly flat, as I still have to remove a good deal of material during the actual sculpting phase.

Step 1 was researching the necklace for reference images, a rabbithole of a process I documented here.

I'm going to make the necklace out of cow bone, so I thickened up the original design a bit. I don't have a lot of experience with carving delicate details and not having them break, so I made the design sturdier. I also integrated the loop into the design.

Then I cleaned up the design digitally, just using a drawing program on my phone and a stylus. I redrew some parts to better match the original.

A side-by-side comparison of the original design, the game graphic, and my redesign.

Lucifer - 俺 "ore" quite masculine, casual, and slightly "rough" sounding. The most common masculine pronoun. Usually paired with masculine speech patterns, and not widely used in a formal settings. Fits Lucifer's aggressive, domineering personality.

Mammon - 俺 or 俺様 "ore" or "ore-sama" "Ore-sama" is what gets translated as "The Great Mammon". This term is not really used outside of fiction because it's so insanely rude and self-agrandizing that no one in their right mind would use it except as a joke. One does not refer to themselves with honorifics, especially not the super respectful "-sama." The result is super egotistical and self-aggrandizing and, in Mammon's case, a bit stupid.

Leviathan - 僕 "boku" mostly masculine, but can be used by girls who want to appear tom-boyish as well. Considered semi-casual, but polite, and can be used among colleges. Has a youthful, boyish connotation, but not so much that adult men wouldn't use it among close friends. Leviathan is the eldest to use "boku", even though some of his younger brothers use "ore". Probably self-diminishing on his part.

Satan - 俺 "ore" While he will use ore generally, Satan seems to largely avoid using first-person pronouns when possible, relying on grammar to imply "I" statements instead. His character song "Read My Heart" manages to completely omit them, a feature of the Japanese language that wouldn't be possible in English.

Asmodeus - 僕 "boku" I was a bit surprised by this! Going off of how Asmo is presented in the translation, I would expect him to use more gender neutral (possible even feminine) terms. There are other ways to express one's gender in Japanese, but that is much harder to pick up on for someone non-fluent, so I can't be sure. However, choosing a "youthful" pronoun is still very much in keeping with Asmo's character.

Beelzebub - 俺 "ore" the only surprise here is Beel using the more manly "ore" when he's the 2nd youngest of the brothers, as well as his twin using "boku". I do think it fits his sort of sweet-jock personality, though.

Belphegore - 僕 "boku" Belphie's the baby in the family, so he uses "boku". Would have been a jarring contrast to his yandere personality in the original game's first story arch, but he has since chilled out a huge amount.

Diavolo - 私 "watashi" flexible and mostly nuetral in formality and gender expression. Often taught to English students as the default "I," but is said to sound a bit stiff. If used in casual speech it can sound slightly feminine or extra polite. As Diavolo is next in line as the ruler of the Devildom, it's fitting that he'd use polite language, and as he seems to be terribly under-socialized, that he'd be overly formal with his friends.

Barbatos - 私 "watakushi" alternate reading of 私 (watashi). The Most Formal, would sound very stiff and archaic if used in anything other than extremely formal settings. Very fitting for the slightly romantically awkward ultimate butler.

Solomon - 俺 "ore" Solomon is possibly the oldest living human, and as such is shown to be a little out-of touch with things like manners (and not poisoning your friends with your heinous cooking). He doesn't seem to care what others think of him, and can come off as a little snobbish due to his confidence is his abilities.

Simeon - 俺 "ore" I would have expected Simeon to use more polite language, but he can be aggressive at times, so it's not completely unfitting. Like Satan, Simeon avoids personal pronouns in his song when possible, though not quite as aggressively.

Luke - 僕 "boku" No surprise here. Luke's about as "boku" as it gets, being the youngest in the cast save the mc, and definitely the youngest developmentally. He has the appearance and personality of a young boy, so "boku" makes the most sense.