Welcome to the City of Bones: Shadowhunters Inspired Silent Brothers Scrapbooked Rune Tag

This week's Shadowhunters Fan Art Friday (#SHFanArtFriday) subject is the spooky but helpful shadowhunter "librarians," the Silent Brothers of the Silent City (#FanArtFridaySilentBrothers).  

In Cassandra Clare's book The City of Bones, the Silent Brothers seem to give our young shadowhunter characters nightmares.  As Jace says so candidly in the first book

"I don't hate them, I'm afraid of them.  It's not the same thing."

Simon responds with the whitty retort of

"Those must be some killer late fees." 

Oh, Simon!  I just love your one liners!  

At least I found my paperback version of my City of Ashes book!  Still need to find the hardback  copy...

The Silent Brothers are archivists who live in the Silent City and protect the remains of shadowhunters buried there.  They are described as wearing parchment colored robes with hoods that nearly cover their faces with runes that appear to be inked in dried blood around the hem and sleeves.  They do not speak aloud but inside your mind and make no noise when they move.  The heroin, Clary thought Brother Jeremiah was nearly a ghost during her first encounter with a Silent Brother.  It was when she saw his face for the first time that she understood why Jace feared them.

"With a quick gesture, he raised his hands and drew the hood back from his face.  Forgetting Jace, Clary fought the urge to cry out.  The archivist's head was bald, smooth and white as an egg, darkly indented where his eyes had once been.  They were gone now.  His lips were crisscrossed with a pattern of dark lines that resembled surgical stitches. She understood now what Alec had meant by mutilation."   -City of Bones, Clare

If you haven't yet read Cassie's books, they are amazing!  She also has a prequel series to The Mortal Instruments called The Infernal Devices.  (My beloved warlock Magnus Bane is also in this series!)  It is set in Victorian era England and follows the trials of Tessa, who like Clary, suddenly finds herself mixed up in the world of the Shadowhunters.  

The Shadowhunters TV series have been giving us behind the scenes peeks at the filming and other goings on with the cast and crew.  We got our first look at the Silent Brothers a few weeks ago and boy did they do a great job of bringing to life these beings.

WARNING!  The image below may give you nightmares.  Dominic Sherwood, who will portray Jace in the series, admitted in a Twitter Q&A with fans that he now has nightmares after seeing the Silent Brothers on set.

Photo courtesy of Shadowhunterstv.com.

So to honor our spooky, silent archivists, I created another Shadowhunters rune tag.  This time, the rune of choice is soundless.  I colored it in red ink to match the color of runes on their robes in the books, as well as the runes on their skin in the photo.  I mounted it on a circle of manila that I cut in half and stitched together with black twine like the eyes and lips of the Silent Brother in the photo.

The Silent Brothers are creepy but also ethereal.  Their focus is academia and protecting the dead.  Washed out hues, stitching, bones and the soundless rune all represent this.  

Layered underneath are die cut crossed bones and a vellum swirl that peeks out at the top and bottom of the tag.  The base of the tag is colored in parchment gray to match the Silent Brother's robes and edged with white chalk ink to match the color of their pale skin.

The soundless rune helps Shadowhunters sneak up on unsuspecting demons but for the Silent Brothers, it is their way of life.  

I added clear, glossy drops of adhesive to mimic water droplets.  The Silent Brothers can see, despite not having eyes and I felt that needed to be represented somehow.  I also added charcoal colored pearls and a silver metal skull and cross bones for a bit of dimension and shine.

Small details like pearls and clear drops, a metal skull and cross bones plus crinkled paper and ribbons adds to the texture of the tag.  

The quote I chose is one of Brother Jeremiah's.  Clary was a little apprehensive about descending the stairs into the dark, Silent City.  Brother Jeremiah notices and grips her arm as she takes her first step, telling her

"Do not fear.  It would take more than a single human cry to wake these dead."

Brother Jeremiah's reassurance to Clary makes the whole situation even more creepy
if you ask me!

Totally creepy, right?  On to lighter fare!  To add a feeling of weightlessness and grace that the Silent Brothers imbue, I colored a large white mulberry rose in parchment gray with hints of black and red and a smaller rose in red and black.  I topped off the tag with crinkle ribbon colored to match (more gray!) as well as silver organza ribbon.  I used my heat gun tool to make the edges of the organza ribbon curl up and appear ghostly.

And there you have it, my Silent Brothers inspired Shadowhunters rune tag.  If you missed my last set of Shadowhunter rune tags, check out my previous post for more info!

Happy Crafting,
Adrienne