shalottpress

[shalottpress]

Silence by @airplanned

Silence by @airplanned is a lovely introspective fic where Zelda and Link have both been banished to the temple of time and begin an awkward friendship there under a vow of silence. I really loved the the worldbuilding around the religion and the description of daily life of the abbey. It is gentle and beautiful and I could rant about Zelda and Link's relationship in this story for ages. I'm so thrilled I have a copy for my physical collection now.

The beautiful art on the cover is done by @aquaticpal and perfectly illustrates the moonlight kiss from chapter two. Thank you so much for once again for giving me permission to use your art for this one-off personal edition!

My maths was slightly off as can clearly be seen on the cover, the border decorations do not go far enough over, which is annoying but not annoying enough for me to redo the whole cover. I am a recovering perfectionist and trying to practice the belief that done is better than perfect. I normally prefer more colours on my printed covers but this really suited the tone of the story.

Casing is never my friend and I will learn to live with it. I think I am actively getting worse at this point but that will not stop me making books!

Huge thanks to @airplanned for giving me permission to bind this fic and to edit my copy to be an edition that uses UK spelling!

More pictures and a video below the cut.

[shalottpress]

After a day of bookbinding going wrong, I really needed this.

You all need to hear this:

1. You probably dont suck at your craft as much as you think you do, I bet a lot of people are amazed at what you can make, and

2. If you actually are the Literal Worst In The Whole Wide World at your craft... who the fuck cares? What are they gonna do, call the police on you? Keep making your shitty little things, youre the boss of you, fuck the haters.

[shalottpress]

I need to learn how to do this.

Learnt a new end band technique (faux double core) it's insane how much neater/more consistent my results are 😂

Now I've gotta cut off the first one and redo it.

Highly recommend this tutorial - it was so easy to follow!

[shalottpress]

This is absolutely incredible!

Epic: The Musical

Hand bound book created by me. Original lyrics written by Jorge Rivera-Herrans.

These are the title page spreads for every album in Epic.

Images of the cover can viewed here.

Artwork featured within this book include:

Ulysses Returning to his Palace after Slaying the Lovers of Penelope, Ordering the Women to Remove their Bodies. 1780-1820 Neoclassical. Nicolas-André Monsiau

Neoptolemus throws the infant Astyanax from the walls in front of the powerless Andromache. Public Domain, artist unknown

Polyphemus. 1804-1878. Friedrich Preller the elder

Travel of Poseidon by Sea. 1894. Ivan Aivazovsky

Lady Hamilton as Circe. 1782. George Romney

Aeneas Taken by the Sibyl to the Underworld. 17th century. Jacob van Swanenburgh

Ulysses and the Sirens. 1867. Léon Belly

Athena appearing to Odysseus to reveal the Island of Ithaca. 1717-1784. Giuseppe-Bottani

Odysseus in front of Scylla and Charybdis. 1794-1796. Johann Heinrich Füssli

Odysseus and Telemachus Kill Penelope's Suitors. 1812. Thomas Degeorg

Took me hours and hours of work before finally noticing I spelled Ithaca wrong. I swear to fxcking god, one day I will manage to typeset one book that doesn’t have a MAJOR typo/misspelling.

[shalottpress]

Advent by @clara-aeri

Advent by @clara-aeri is another one of my favourite zelink fanfic that I have been binding alongside my copy of Roots. It features a Zelda and Link figuring out their roles and place in the world post BotW and how Zelda in particular is coping with the weight of her role moving into the future. Its full of angst, hurt/comfort and brings me such joy. I am so thrilled to have created a physical copy for my personal collection.

The bind itself is Lurelin Village themed, given that a significant amount of the story takes place these. I had picked the endpapers and decided on the vibes I was going for quite a few months ago, and this means I have been on the hunt for art of Link and Zelda at Lurelin for months! On my hunt I found this @eerna art of the pair in the sea at Lurelin Village and I once again knew this was the one for the cover. The fact we can't see their faces just works so well for the story inside. Again huge, huge thanks to @eerna for giving me permission to use of the art. Also, if it wasn't clear already, I live laugh love how @eerna depicts Link and Zelda together in all of her art, please check her stuff out if you haven't already.

I am completely in love with this typeset, and really proud of how it all came together in the end. The sheikah symbols mirror the UK text and I enjoyed being able to bring part of the ways the fic was edited on ao3, like the spaces between letters in the same word and using these sections as break points in the book, and to translate this into my typeset.

I didn't case this as well as I would have liked and the fact that the title on the spine is not quite central is frustrating but something I have to live with at this point.

Once again, massive thanks to @clara-aeri for giving me permission to bind advent and to edit my copy to be an edition that uses UK spelling!

More pictures and a video below the cut.

[shalottpress]

These are stunning, the inlay is gorgeous.

🕯 A Strange & Stubborn Endurance and All The Hidden Paths - by @fozmeadows 🕯

This was the 2nd part of my trade with @lizz_binding . Originally I meant to just do ASASE for our rebind trade but wanted to spoil her a bit so gave myself an excuse to do the sequel for her as well by calling it an early birthday present. (Her birthday is mid-june)

Last year she really raved about Book 1 and I'm so glad I read it because it's absolutely stunning. The writing is beautiful, the world-building is gorgeous, the story is wonderful. 10000% recommend.

Since I was doing both books I leaned into the filigree theme of them and decided to do inlays of them embedded into each other. The two lighter greens on each book is inlayed bookcloth with the darker green being the htv. I went with greens to match the Tithenaian colors.

They're not perfect but I LOVE them!

[shalottpress]

they kill us for their sport by dance_at_bougival

they kill us for their sport by dance_at_bougival is one of the fics I read in 2012 way back when and have had saved ever since. It's a haunting character study of Elia Martell and lives rent free in my brain. So when I started this hobby I knew this would be one of the fics I was going to fanbind and while it is not the neatest by any stretch of the imagination I am so thrilled I have this copy for my bookshelf.

I absolutely cased this like a madwoman and burned the vinyl on the spine when I was careless with my heat press. I also only realised when I was uploading this that I have an extra 'l' on the title which is infuriating. Dyslexia gets me once again! I have no real excuses for any of these issues and have decided to love the wee book for all it's flaws.

This is another bind that I have had waiting around as a textblock to be bound since the middle of 2024 and so I am pleased to finally have finished it.

If anyone knows how to get in touch with the author, please let me know or send this along!

More photos under the cut.

[shalottpress]

This is stunning, I’m in awe!

Sacred Bodies - VER

Full cloth binding with paper onlay

Again many thanks @sticksandsharks for the kind permission to bind this work.

Materials used

Case Boards - grey board 1mm Spine stiffener - cardstock Covering material - book cloth (pigeon grey) Paper onlay - chiyogami paper title - gold foil (hot stamped)

Inner book Text block - Schleipen fly 05 (115gsm) Endpapers - coffee paper (120gsm) Endbands - linnen core (10/3) and chiyogami paper

Format: ~ 9,8cm x 14,2cm

See WIP pictures here

[shalottpress]

Trouble the Water Series by @themarydragon

Calm Waters Run Deep and The Quiet River Rages (along with the oneshot Remember the Spring) by @themarydragon are some of the first BotW fanfictions I encountered. The series just encapsulates Zelda’s POV during the series and these stories are cannon to me. I have reread this series multiple times and now can do so with these hardcover beauties.

These binds were heavily inspired by Taylor Swift and I went hard on the 'Zelda's Version' theme. For the covers I used the Midnights album cover as my initial design inspiration with the font and art combinations. For the typeset chapter headings I used the 'Taylors Version' font and line drawings of lilies to evoke silent princesses. I used lyrics from The Prophecy/The Archer for Calm Waters Run Deep as these are very pre-calamity Zelda coded to me, and then Sparks Fly/Peace for The Quiet River Rages as these really aligned with Zelda after she leaves the castle. These came together really beautifully in my mind and I love the final result.

I knew I wanted to do printed covers with art of Zelda on the cover and was looking for ages. The text blocks have been languishing on my shelf waiting for their covers to come since December 2024. When @eerna posted the amazing and thematically perfect before and after art I fell in love with the art and once I had permission to use the art, I couldn't make these covers fast enough. I am so glad I waited to make these covers. (So many thanks to @eerna for letting me use her gorgeous art in my covers once again!)

In terms of mistakes, casing as always was a bit of a nightmare. I had issues with my guillotine when I cut one of the text block slightly on the diagonal, rounded the spine and then had to unround the spine and fix my fuck up which I hope to never have to do again. It was better than printing a new text block but my gosh the stress. I also realised when I was uploading this I have used @themarydragon's Tumblr handle for the cover rather than MaryDragon which is her ao3 handle and used all inside of the books, but at this point I am going to have to live with that mistake!

Huge thanks to @themarydragon for giving me permission to bind these fanfics and to edit my copies to be editions that uses UK spelling!

More pictures and a video below the cut.

[shalottpress]

When I am on my 16th hour of typesetting.

[shalottpress]

Party of Two is a truly excellent smutty botw zelink fanfiction by @omegazeta5, and I was so happy to bind it into a wee quarto. This story features a Zelda and Link who are renegotiating their relationship post the calamity, and his amnesia, and also most importantly they are horny. Chefs kiss, I loved every word.

I was inspired by the meal Zelda prepares and the assistance Link begrudgingly provides for the chillies hence the peppers on the back, also this is a spicy fic and so I felt it worked well multiple ways.

My casing skills remain abysmal and maybe that will just be my calling card at this point.

The vinyl did not burn or melt particularly which I am counting as a win!

Many thanks to @omegazeta5 for giving me permission to bind this fanfic and for allowing me to edit my copy to be an edition that uses UK spelling!

More photos and a video under the cut.

[shalottpress]

Roots by clara-aeri

Roots by @clara-aeri is one of the fanfics which made me decide I needed to learn to bind books. It's one of my absolute favourite botw fanfictions and if you haven't read it, what are you doing? It is out of this world, stop looking at this and go and read it! I am obsessed with this version of Link and Zelda and their relationship, and how link slowly recalls their relationship over the story.

I have been working on this bind for since August last year. I had been struggling to find a fitting cover since 2024 and to find the courage to use my guillotine on it. I am so pleased with the final result.

There were lots of first in this bind. It's a chonk of a fic clocking in at just under 250k words which meant I needed to split it into two volumes in the end. I learned how to make my own bookcloth so I could use the beautiful concept Artwork of the Master Sword released to celebrate Breath of the Wild's one-year anniversary for the cover. I made my own headbands and endbands using the bookcloth on the spine. All in all I am so proud of how far I have come with binding when I look at the finished volumes.

I made some mistakes like the title pages with the small lizard I used for breaks in different places, but because the lizard gets higher between vol 1 and vol 2 and I had intentionally reversed the image so the lizard was looking a different way for vol 2, I have decided it is that the lizard is meant to have climbed higher between the volumes.

I love the chapter headings and how the typeset came out it makes me so happy.

Video is before the cut because I think these binds are best in motion with the shiny gold vinyl. I was inspired that I wanted it to look like sunlight coming through the trees in the korok forest.

Huge thanks to @clara-aeri for giving me permission to bind this fic and to edit my copy to be an edition that uses UK spelling!

More pictures below the cut.

[shalottpress]

This is so beautiful!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Design inspried by the White Rabbit Candy

It's been on my to-do-list for a very looooong time to make a White Rabbit Candy inspired rebind

It's an HTV wrap cover, and I'm glad most of the measurement turned out correct

[shalottpress]

announcement! book?

So. I keep being asked if I have a published book that people can buy. Short answer: no. I'm a full-time student who hasn't had the time or energy to figure out how to self-publish, and publishing poems for free online means that I can't submit them to literary journals.

HOWEVER. I've been thinking, and I've decided that I'm going to compile some ~bespoke pdfs~ that I can sell. I can't describe exactly what I'm going to do with them, but it's going to be more than just blank text on pages.

They'll be downloadable, obviously, and I'll also sell a separate pdf formatted into signatures for those who would like to try their hand at bookbinding!

AND over the summer I'm going to be binding physical copies and selling those, too. They'll cost more, because they've been hand-bound and everything, but I hope the fact that they're made with love and not by Jeff Bezos will count for something.

I strive to make this affordable while also keeping in mind the labor that it takes to make them.

[shalottpress]

These are absolutely gorgeous!!

A Tragic Age Duology -

No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen and An End to the Bitter Frosts by @stitchingatthecircuitboard

These are my first #haladriel binds and they were really a labour of love. Although I realised after that I forgot a word in the title of the second books.

The beautiful artwork is by the talented Boomdafunk. The chapter artwork represents a location of where the characters are in the fic. I really wanted this to help visualise some of the beautiful locations and vibes from the show.

Each book has a multi page glossary and trivia page as the author had packed so much information into the authors notes, that I would’ve been wrong to exclude them.

These are free to read on A03 and remember to keep fandom free.

[shalottpress]

Erring Star by La Reine Noire

Erring Star by La Reine Noire (@poorshadowspaintedqueens on tumblr) is one of the first asoiaf oneshots I read which did not deal with characters from the main series. Its a truly gorgeous fic which puts meat on the bones of Shiera's character, develops her relationships with the people at the court of Daeron II, and I revisit it regularly.

I went for none traditional colour combinations for a Targaryen book binding as Shiera was a great bastard and not in the line of succession. Also I felt matt silver/indigo fitted her better plus it reminded me of stars in the night sky which is apt.

I love how clean this one came out - I initially tried to use the beautiful title font Aerotis but when I tried to weed the design it was just impossible and I already knew it would be impossible for the vinyl on the spine so I scraped my plans and used the lovely Baskerville Old Face for all of it. I adore how it came together in the end.

Many thanks to @poorshadowspaintedqueens for giving me permission to bind this fic and helping me with the initial typeset as I was creating a UK Spelling version.

Normally for quartos I like to have a picture on the back but the summery for the fic itself worked really well here and I liked this without any other adornments.

This was cased better than my previous quartos so maybe there is hope for me yet!

More photos and a video below the cut

[shalottpress]

The tooling on this is absolutely incredible! I’m way too scared atm to try and work in leather but this has me tempted to try!

And as a binder who always has problems with casing in, I need to look into split board bindings.

Bookbinding: The New Deal by Closer

Moar bookbinding! This one is a Suits fanfic that I bound for @brambleberrycottage's birthday (pictures shared with the author's permission).

[Same disclaimer as always applies: I do this for fun; no money has been made from this project!]

Notes on the binding: This was my third leather book, but my first time sewing on cords (my previous leather books were both split boards). The actual sewing process was definitely...something. Sewing is usually my favorite step of a bind, but not this time. (Possibly because I was sitting on the floor at the base of the stairs sewing the book on a shelf under my desk, as that was the easiest sewing frame hack I could come up with - once I rig something that will allow me to sit up like a human being and not be scrunched up like a hermit crab, I am sure I will enjoy the process more.)

So the sewing itself was a bit painful, but I did really love how the board attachment played out in the end, with the cords laced into the boards. It is SO satisfying not to be doing case bindings anymore! It's the same feeling of relief I had when I first learned how to do split board bindings - you have so much more control over the placement of the cover boards, so much less opportunity for skew, so much more stability. No more casing-in anxiety necessary. (You do acquire all-new steps to be anxious about, but for me, it's worth it).

Notes on the design: I've never actually watched Suits, but the fic itself takes place in and around Harvard Law, so I used that as my inspiration for the book's design. The book is covered in crimson leather from Siegel. Endbands are handsewn with metallic red and gold threads. The blind tooling on the cover is a street map of Cambridge, MA, which I drew onto tracing film and then tooled through the film onto the leather. (So far I've only used a foil quill heat pen to do this, because brass tools are expensive. I'm taking a class on traditional tooling soon and I'm VERY excited for it, but for now, this is what I have access to.)

The gold outlines in the design highlight the buildings of Harvard Law. (These lines are also not actual gold tooling - paint pen for now.)

^ early design work, featuring unsightly eraser smudges.

I followed a similar theme/color scheme for the interior. For the endpapers, I used acrylic paints and a dry sponge to make a crimson and gold pattern:

For the title page, I modified an image of Harvard's Veritas shield to display the fic's title and author.

The chapter headers may not immediately ping an association for anyone who doesn't live here/spend a lot of time on the T, but they were the first thing I came up with - they're designed to look like the signage for the Red Line, which is the subway route that serves Harvard Square.

Notes for future me: The one thing that went "wrong" with this bind was that the endpapers ended up being short at the foreedge. I knew this was going to happen before I pasted them down, but I had to make a choice between two undesirable results - the boards were already VERY slightly curved inwards after doing the fill-in, and if I used paste on the endpapers (so they would stretch), I was worried it would pull too hard as it dried and make the boards curve too much. But if I used PVA, the endpapers wouldn't stretch enough and would end up being short. I decided I would rather have short endpapers than warped boards, so that's what I went with, but next time I might try doing one less lining inside the boards and hope that the pastedown will handle more of the counterpull.

Despite little things like that, I had a great time with this! Every time I make something I learn new things, and every time something goes "wrong" it's good to look back and be like "ten years ago I was duct taping the spines of loose pages that I covered in cardstock! i'm doing fine, actually." Lots of progress has happened and lots of fun has been had, which is ultimately the point.

Big thank yous are owed to @brambleberrycottage for letting me send her all my bookbinding experiments, and also to Closer for a) writing this fic in the first place and b) okay'ing the sharing of photos! Much appreciation goes out to both of you :)