serpentsnestpress

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book from the sky (tianshu) xu bing, 1989-91

I was so excited to see a copy of this in real life bc it's something I studied in art history. this is a book that was typeset and printed by hand using wooden blocks but every one of the characters was invented for the sake of the piece and does not correspond to any word in the Chinese language

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Fanbinding: Vulcans are Fangirls Too

Bind #9

Vulcans are Fangirls Too by @jouissants

Date Completed: 12/28/2024

Size: Octavo. 10,838 words, 116 pages.

Copies: 1 (for now...)

My former college roommate has been obsessed with Star Trek since she was a kid, 100% shipped Kirk & Spock, but had somehow missed the world of fanfiction.  Since we routinely give each other whatever strange new craft we’re learning, she needed a fanbinding gift for Christmas.  I wanted a fic that was short enough that it didn’t feel like I was giving her an assignment but still long enough to have a real plot, plus not too fluffy and not too angsty.  "Vulcans are Fangirls Too" was the goldilocks fic.

I am now in love with Octavos (8 pages per side of printer paper).  They’re so small and cute and perfect for stories around the 10,000 word range.  I had fun finally using the “command gold” bookcloth in my stash and I think I’m finally getting the hang of HTV - it turned out nearly perfect this time.

Formatted in LibreOffice Writer with Liberation Serif as the body text font, Eras ITC for the title page and page numbers, and Federation Classic for the spine title. There are several letters in this story so I used the Ink Free font for Kirk's handwriting and Segoe Print for Spock.

Finished late at night right before going to visit and exchange presents the next day.

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I did a faux rebind of Dune as a birthday gift for a friend of mine. Thankfully, his girlfriend sent me pictures of his own Dune Edition (in German) and its measurements. That way he can use this book sleeve for the German edition too. He’s been complaining about that design for quite a while, basically every time we enter a book store.

I also hand-stitched this little desert design into the book cloth, because I don’t own a cricut lol

And here is how it works:

Here’s the tutorial by bindrebindery on ig

And here's the tutorial for all the tiktok kids

She's been a huge help throughout my adventures in rebinding books, and straight up just deserves more recognition.

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OBJECTIONABLE (V1.0)

A font pack by @ingthing​!

Never hand-draw your own “objection” bubbles again! Inspired by that one lawyer game.

Free for non-commercial use. 

Do not redistribute/repost!

A pack of 68 high-resolution PNG letters and punctuation marks PLUS a bonus Kura’inese SATORHA! and a big, blank speech bubble to fill!

I also plan on introducing a Telegram sticker set (free for use, of course)

If you use this font in your work, it would be nice if you sent me a nice message! It took me a long time to make this, and I’d love to expand it but I like to be encouraged!

DOWNLOAD FROM MY WEBSITE!

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a real love story to this "Gorton" font used by old routers

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First time 3-section/signature conservation pamphlet hard cover binding of a short little fic about letters of IM Fell fonts fucking.

YOU HEARD ME. So is that a serif in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? (an adventure in typographical intimacy) by bladedweaponsandswishycoats (jeweledichneumon)

Very fun little thing to read!

And here's a process photo of making the covers

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"Gritty Kills Tony Stark" by Copulation Matrix.

Bound in April 2023

❤️‍🔥A very short fic about restorative justice. ❤️‍🔥 Cased in orange faux fur with guillotine pendant decoration ❤️‍🔥 The signs held up by the people on the endpapers are the original tags on Ao3, and they are waving banners with the Flyers logo and Ao3 logo on them. ❤️‍🔥 Modified artwork of "La mort de Maximilien de Robespierre" by Giacamo Alprandi c.1799)

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I made this zine last year to teach Japanese stab binding. It's a technique that every artist should know—with just a few tools, it's so easy to bind your own sketchbook or to make a physical version of your art/writing/etc. Download the PDF version (with bonus photos & tips!)

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Quilted book thing- been calling it the lake book

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Alright. I'm calling it done before it kills me. This is Second Head. It's an Art Book containing instances of the phrase "second head" in fanfics found on AO3. I'll explain much, MUCH more in the cut.

So when I say 'art book', I mean this is an intrinsic piece. I have no motivations aside from personal amusement and interest in outcome. A lot of money was lost/transmuted into free frustration in this project and I have no claims, obviously. I will prolly be the only person alive to read this.

THAT SAID. I have noticed in my years reading fanfic, there's a few linguistic shibboleths that arise in authors who also have experience in the mines. I think there's not a soul alive who hadn't wandered across a 'ministrations' when reading Narutos oral sexing. There's- Hold on. Here's some pix.

There's an impulse, I think, to in-group even when performing a creative act. A feeling that there are certain ways one Should go about the act, by virtue of seeing it performed that way. Especially so when 'training' at the act is often just Doing. Double Dog Especially when the act is exclusively for oneself with very little oversight. Which is to say, we make what we see and we make what we think we should make. At least, at first.

Now, I've been noticing 'grew a second head' (to insinuate surprise) in fanfic for some time. I've never seen it used Outside of fanfic. That may speak to my own bad habits but it got me curious. So a friend and myself downloaded a mirror of AO3 from July of 2024. He did some code- Stuff to scan the mirror for "second head" and of the ~13 million works, ~70k (English) results were returned. That's a rounding error, honestly, but Far FAR more than I expected.

This book is 401 such examples that I personally selected for a variety of reasons. The number itself was arbitrarily chosen. Each page is separate fic, the roughly 300 words around our key phrase.

I don't think repetition or mirroring is a negative thing. I think it's quite charming. Nor do I think it's a sign of a 'bad' artist or 'bad' art. I think it's a signifier of personhood, of belonging, of enthusiasm. Of culture shared and wishing to share. I think it's real sweet. I always smile when I catch a 'grown a second head' in a work.

And it's really fucking funny when it's John Sherlock getting a sloppy toppy. Bless.

Edit: Fixed a very VERY funny error.

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Mine has a soundtrack!

There’s something cosmically beautiful about bookbinding fanfiction. Not the bookbinding of fanfiction for monetary gain (which is undoubtedly morally wrong) but rather bookbinding as a gift for someone you love. Or simply bookbinding for the sake of having the story in a tangible form. After all, doesn’t it deserve a place on your bookshelf, too?

But that isn’t the beautiful part. It is this: the melding of something new with something as old as language itself. Fanfiction (at least compared with bookbinding) is a strikingly new phenomenon. Modern fanfiction has only been around for a few generations. Bookbinding, on the other hand? It can be traced back to 2nd century India. It’s a dying art — one that’s been reborn in order to immortalize freely written words.

Even better: the scribes in India who first invented the process of bookbinding used it to create religious texts. In a way, aren’t we doing the same? Fanfiction isn’t a religion, of course, but if you love a story enough to bind it, isn’t that a form of reverence in itself? Isn’t it holy?

Yes. You make it so. The needle and the thread, the newly creased paper, the hardly dried ink … your fingers consecrate it. And as you slip the book onto the shelf, you make it a temple.

And isn’t that just lovely?

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My version of the wallpaper from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

I took some liberties, but I tried to get both aspects of the pattern described in the book:

At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.

I didn’t realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind,—that dim sub-pattern,—but now I am quite sure it is a woman...

It is always the same shape, only very numerous.

And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.

...

And... yeah I do realise it looks sort of kinky.

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I IMPLORE you, please stop it with this kind of binding on books! As a reader I hate these, and as a bookbinder I hate these!!

The name for this nonsense is a Swiss binding, btw.

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Atlantic Salmon Population Data in New England Rivers

The book is a salmon parchment-bound collection of data tables regarding salmon populations and management in New England rivers. Sewn onto the cover with fishing line are pieces of salmon parchment dyed in onion skins and stamped with the names of the data tables used. The edges are decorated in graphite, which adds to the shiny fishiness of the design. The endsheets are handmade paper with bits of plant material, which I thought evoked the feeling of standing in a river.

All of the salmon parchment used was made by me, the binder, out of skins procured from a local sushi shop.

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Fanfic Bind: Kinda think that I might be his type by @kiwiana-writes / I really hope I can get him alone by @clottedcreamfudge

I’ve been wanting to try printing a cover design onto bookcloth for ages, and I’ve always wanted to try one of these flippy books (I don’t know the proper term for it lol) for ages, so why not combine two experiments into one?

Originally I planned to print the entire design directly onto the bookcloth, but then I remembered I had this gorgeous holographic HTV in my stash, so in the end I only printed the watercolour splash that stretches the whole way across the cover, and then went in and added the vinyl lettering afterwards.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so paranoid checking that I was glueing things in the right order/direction/etc but by SOME miracle I did not entirely fuck it up! And of course, the action shot:

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Codex Rotundus “266 almost perfectly circular pages of parchment have been bound together to build a block of 3cm height with a diameter of only 9cm.”

The initials of the metal clasps point us to Adolph of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein (1425 - 1492) as the owner.