celestial-sphere-press

[celestial-sphere-press]

This is the fan translation of Copper Coins by Musuli, which you can read here (or the official version will be coming out from Seven Seas later this year). I did the binding but not the typesetting/interior design. I was trying out new backing boards and accidentally backed this too deep, and would have needed a thicker cover board than what I usually use. So instead of just layering pieces together and making a thicker board, I made a sort of wraparound overlay out of a thin piece of chipboard, using bookcloth to cover the outer layer and the same paper as my endpapers as an accent underlayer.

In keeping with the wraparound design, I made a dragon stencil that could wrap around the book too (modified a stock image to make it a little longer in the middle). It's gold paint layered on black to give it a weathered metal look to match the coins (even though if we were going by canon appearances, the dragon should be black). The stenciling ran into some issues (the particular vinyl I used did NOT want to adhere to my bookcloth) but I kinda like the rough-looking result (on the dragon at least. The title could've come out better but it is what it is).

Rather than being attached at the top like a standard ribbon bookmark, this bookmark is attached to the bottom of the book so that the coin tassel at the end can hang over the top when it's in use.

[celestial-sphere-press]

Sacred Bodies - VER

Thank you @sticksandsharks for the kind permission to bind your work. I love it very much and am happy to be able to hold a copy of it in my hands.

Full clothbinding with paper onlays

Materials used

Case covers - 1mm grey board spine stiffener - cardstock cover material - Colibri book cloth (forest floor) paper onlay - marbled paper (80gsm) by Renato Crepaldi title - gold foil, hot stamped

Inner book textblock - Schleipen Fly 05 (115gsm) endpapers - marbled paper (80gsm) by Renato Crepaldi endbands - linnen core (10/3) wrapped with marbled paper

Format: 9,5cm x 13,8cm

[celestial-sphere-press]

The Desert Storm by Blue_Sunshine

I live!!!! *cue mushu voice*

For reals though, I know it's been a while. it's hard to pick up bookbinding when your IRL state has been rotating from crisis to crisis (yeah).

the calm has settled a little and i've been talking about getting back into the thick of things, though procrastination and streaming on demand has been getting the better of me.

context is my little brother, who lives an ocean away and who i have seen a grand total of once in the last 5 years since the pandemic hit, has shown some interest in reading star wars fanfiction while admiring my handmade books. i love doing some TCW and obi-wan kenobi evangelism, i really do. it's my favourite thing. serendipitously said spouse was doing some educational training in the same country as my little brother for two months, and me (overly-ambitious, unrealistic silly me), mid-waffle, went, "hey yeah, maybe i could make him a book and you could bring it to him?"

my well-meaning spouse who knows me far too well gave me some healthy side-eye and said, "I don't think you'll finish it in time." (they were leaving in about 10 days)

GUESS WHAT GENTLE READER? GUESS WHO USED THE POWER OF SPITE FOR GOOD?

i made it by the skin of my teeth, crying inside the entire time. it's probably not wise to do a multiple intricate cutouts smaller than a size of my finger on like... 4 hours of sleep.

photos are like this because the book was out of the press in the morning, shoddily placed on the floor for a 5 minute photoshoot and then boom into wrapping they went. off onto the plane in a couple of hours.

It is not perfect, but it is unabashedly A Book.

I am proud to do some star wars fic evangelism with one of my most favourite fics of all time, @blue-sunshine-mauve-morning will never stop being aMAZING and this fic will always be better than sliced bread to me.

some stats:

96215 words || 380 pages

I'm still using the lovely @celestial-sphere-press's typeset, who has typeset the entire series, and for the author too!

There's this quote from the fic about the sunrise on Tatooine -

The pale dawn of first sunrise is just coming up, turning the world violet and blue and pale yellow, and Ben judges that he is precisely in the middle of nowhere, but probably still closer to Mos Eisley than to his hovel, and so he would be better served by walking back south.

I had to use this paper, I had to. Endpapers are beautiful marbled papers from Papiers Prina, while i used Colibri copper (my beloved) for cover material. I've been doing more cutouts and I was inspired by the recent Renegade Binderary to do More Complicated Cutouts. Gentlebeings, cutouts smaller than the size of your finger are a pain, I do not recommend. Endbands done in japanese size 9 silk, i made a couple of mistakes in terms of colour and i experimented with a new more rigid core but was defeated by it being square cord. have since bought new rigid round cord and my life has been changed.

PLANS!

i owe many exchange books and have managed to secure a place for the Renegade Retreat as a last minute attendee. this is not my first international meetup, though it will be the largest one i've attended with the most Renegade people. before that, i am heading off to one of my favourite places in the world where i will hopefully come home with more bookbinding supplies and am also doing a friend visit!!!

[celestial-sphere-press]

Nimitz has finally insisted on being part of the art process and not just a supervisor...

[celestial-sphere-press]

necro elysium (yuck!!) by @mercyisms

A confession: I LOVE fics that use the Disco Elysium format, and The Locked Tomb is just the perfect fit for this type of AUs (and going over the top with book design). And this one is so so so good!

🫀 I knew I wanted to mimic the layout of the text in DE basically as soon as I finished reading and saw the gorgeous illustration by @smapis.

🫀 The cover is inspired by the description of the card, but instead of trying to recreate it exactly (and messing with glitter) I went for the same theme and the kind of DIY arts and crafts style project vibe. Hence my first buttonhole stitch binding, with the heart painted with chromatographic ink (the color is called Unicorn’s Tears) and inked it over in hot pink with a glass dip pen. I also painted the folds of the pages and filled in some of the frames (where the narrator is YOU).

🫀 The rest of the portraits are cropped out of the aforementioned gorgeous illustration, except for Jod’s, which is a photo of a black hole (presented without comment).

🫀 I always want to play with textures for TLT fics, so this time the cover is black felt over a pink gift bag with nice leather-textured pink endpapers, and the textblock paper is a gorgeous 125gsm half-cotton that bravely took everything I threw at it.

I had so much fun working on this 🥰

[celestial-sphere-press]

Fanbinding: Settle Our Bones by @motleyfam, including fics by @batmoniker & justbeyondstars

A hurt/comfort focused series where Jason never dies, but the Waynes’ weird neighbor kid gets strung along for the ride all the same. Tim joins the family early & finds a haven in Wayne Manor.

Including a cover page by @they-reap-what-we-sow

This was my bind for @after-avalon for the 2024 Renegade Exchange! I got introduced to this fic series through their fic choices, and I enjoyed it immensely. Technically, they only asked for the first fic (the 5 times & 1) but uh... I enjoyed stuff enough my completionist heart would not allow me to only do a single fic from the series. so here is the set!

Beyond the Robin color scheme, I really wanted to lean into the Wayne manor motif. During the initial design process I struck out a bit on good interior images, so I fell back on a wrought iron motif. That had also inspired me to attempt a new craft on the cover, but plan A & B both failed to hack it for my timeline, so I hand-painted the cover instead.

I made a whole bunch of different page styles for this series because it's a whole anthology.

Edges of the text were inked black, waxed, & polished. Endpapers from @renato-crepaldi, waxed & burnished. Bookcloth is cranberry colibri. Endbands sewn with Japanese size 9 silk thread.

[celestial-sphere-press]

months to go: 2

textblocks in progress: 5

however I am contemplating adding like 5 on top of that for going away gifts now...

the impending international move means I need to get my shit together and work through the textblock backlog

months to go till move: 2.5

textblocks in-progress: 8 (might trash one of those though)

annnnd 1 maybe project I haven't actually started yet

[celestial-sphere-press]

completed chevron endband:

I tried to keep the chevron pretty deep for this, but on the first go I realized I had brought the turn for the chevron out *too* far, because it was not staying on the core. due to the angle it just went straight across the curve on the inside, so I had to shorten it back up.

I do think that I'm right that the tie-downs on the underband help with keeping the wraps on the top chevron placed correctly.

this might be an endband style i should try with larger thread in the future, maybe it would keep my chevrons sharper...?

I think the most frustrating thing about the chevron endband is that you basically uave to sew the thing twice. and then you don't see half the work.

you are never going to see this again except for a stupid tiny slip of yellow. & it took me just as long as a regular endband. now I have to sew another on top of it.

[celestial-sphere-press]

I think the most frustrating thing about the chevron endband is that you basically uave to sew the thing twice. and then you don't see half the work.

you are never going to see this again except for a stupid tiny slip of yellow. & it took me just as long as a regular endband. now I have to sew another on top of it.

[celestial-sphere-press]

the impending international move means I need to get my shit together and work through the textblock backlog

months to go till move: 2.5

textblocks in-progress: 8 (might trash one of those though)

annnnd 1 maybe project I haven't actually started yet

[celestial-sphere-press]

here we go again. I'll say that while I usually don't bother to stab-pin the core in place on my usual endbands, it's definitely worthwhile to do so when working with 2 cores.

[celestial-sphere-press]

here we go again. I'll say that while I usually don't bother to stab-pin the core in place on my usual endbands, it's definitely worthwhile to do so when working with 2 cores.

[celestial-sphere-press]

California Renegade meet-up

If ever you're given the chance to meet fellow bookbinders in person, do it. Don't hesitate. The experience of sitting amid a group of individuals who are as wholly obsessed about a hobby as you are was, frankly, fucking awesome.

I'm still floating on a happy cloud of endorphins from this weekend's @renegadeguild Cali server meet-up. It was a small melting pot of fandoms and ships, age ranges and skill levels, and an established ethos about sharing knowledge without reserve or judgment. 

Even with the (very) early morning alarm, a long drive, and nerves about meeting everyone for the first time, it was the best experience. I learned how to marble paper and book edges. I tried my hand at paste papers. I held other binders' books (!!!!) and was properly gobsmacked by their skill, listening as they openly shared how they achieved an edge, an endband, a leather cover, a difficult technique. 

At one point, when the day was winding down and just a few of us were left standing inside @duran-binding's kitchen, a passionate discussion ensued about the history and origins of a fandom I'd never heard of. And in that moment, my mind took a snapshot from above: the five of us animatedly discussing fanfiction and how our favorite fandoms could potentially intersect. It left me feeling intensely grateful for being invited into this community of fanfiction binders.

So yeah. 10/10 recommend. 

[celestial-sphere-press]

Царевна by Vodolej

Fun fact: this was supposed to be one of my two projects I for sure completed this Binderary, but I caught a really bad flu, so who knows about the second one. But this turned out exactly the way I wanted 💛

The story is a sort of a fairy tale that one of the characters is telling to himself, so I leaned HARD on that vibe. This is an A6 sewn-boards binding.

👑 I think this is like my first bookbinding project where 100% of art was done by me. Front and back covers are inspired by Russian wooden architecture, the half-title page with the summary has my take on a traditional wooden window frame, and the scene divider is Slavic-ish ornament, all of it having something dragonish in them.

👑 I got really into Slavic calligraphy over this past month, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to practice my vyaz tangling skills (a key feature of the traditional Slavic calligraphy is that every project has a metric fuckton of custom ligatures (hence the name ‘vyaz’, something knit or tied together), that the calligrapher makes up based on some general principles), so the title, front matter, summary, first and last lines are all done by me in Procreate. This particular style is based on Viktor Pushkarev’s ‘tall vyaz’.

👑 The title is additionally embellished with gold ink that looks absolutely stunning in real life despite my rather shaky brushwork.

👑 The ribbon I used for the spine and ended of the cover was a really lucky random find when I was shopping for linen for an unrelated project. I mean look at it! The featured pairing of the story is literally called ‘scales of gold’, how perfect is that?

👑 I really like working on shorter stories because I feel like I can get away with more unhinged design choices in the short form. Which is why I used Cyrillic uncial font as a body font to really hammer in that ancient manuscript feel. This is one of the tamer varieties of that font, but I decided to go for readability over those really pretty archaic letters that I really enjoy.

👑 The paper is 120 gsm Papier Paille made with bast fibre (straw from flax and hemp) rather than wood pulp, and its suggested use is for wedding invitations and the like, so I was cackling maniacally the entire time I was printing this gleefully obscene story on it.

All in all, VERY happy with how this turned out.

[celestial-sphere-press]

Fanbinding: National Service

I was inspired by @celestial-sphere-press and @pleasantboatpress 's Binderary presentation on cutouts, inlays, and onlays to attempt a tricky one. The marbled paper inlay was cut out by hand and has some ragged edges as a result, but it looks just as cool as I hoped it would. I'm still getting the hang of sizing cases for flatback books, so the spine piece is too large, and the hinges are uneven, but shh. It opens and closes like a book, I am content and will revise my method next time! I used @woodlandwarbler 's wonderful typeset of National Service by burntcopper to make this bind.

[celestial-sphere-press]

Source

If you haven't already heard the sad news, ALL JoAnn stores are closing (it was previously reported that only some stores would be closed).

Important: JOANN GIFT CARDS WILL ONLY BE HONORED THROUGH FEBRUARY 28. If you don't have time to get to the store, use them on the website.

[celestial-sphere-press]

Fan-binding Questionnaire: Designing a Third Space

Hello <33

I'm a uni student with an assignment to design a shared space for a community of my choice. I still haven't bound any fics myself, but I lurk around on tumblr and reddit looking at fan-binding projects, and I knew pretty early on that this was the community I wanted to design a space for.

I want to know from others (from you guys!) what would make this place comfortable, safe, and useful for you.

I've made a questionnaire to get feedback, and I would be so grateful to anyone willing to fill it out. It's anonymous, and it's only got two demographic questions (age and gender), both of which you can choose not to disclose if you don't feel comfortable.

Otherwise, 6 of the 16 questions are open-ended ones where I ask you to describe your relationship to fic-binding, and what you might want out of a shared space; the questionnaire is also pretty informal, so feel free to ramble if you have the time.

This questionnaire is for people who have completed projects before, but it is ALSO for people who are, so far, only aspiring fic-binders (like me!) - I want to hear from you! Why don't you bind, and how can we get rid of those obstacles?

Thank you so, so much if you do end up filling this out. <33