#2025 bind

[zerosconsort]

Zero's Fic Binding - Sixpence In His Shoe

Sixpence In His Shoe by scifigrl47 [@scifigrl47]

Fandom: Marvel (Comics) Ship: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Start Date: 02/05/24 End Date: 01/21/25 Pages: 253

I am, honestly, probably the most proud of this cover. This might be the most detailed, delicate, intricate thing I’ve made - ever. I know I haven’t been doing this long, but this? This is really good.

The amount of layers in this bitch is astounding. Sometimes I yearn for the embrace of a better graphic software then Canva. We’ll get there. Anyway.

There is an Owlcrate special edition of The Longest Autumn that inspired the shit out of me for this, along with the version of The Fine Print that i saw in Target that was this beautiful lined foil design. The idea of a mirrored, hyper intricate lace-like cover that wove all the individual parts of the story together drove me crazy. 

The vinyl is foil - which, if you are new to HTV and want to use it to make book covers, LISTEN: This foil sucks. All foil HTV sucks. It’s going to suck to cut. It’s going to REALLY suck to iron on. It will be worth it, but it’s going to try and drag your soul out of your body by your fingernails the entire time you’re using it.

Alright, lets talk about the process and the typeset. 

The entire theme of this fic is marriage - in both that the characters got married, are having a wedding, and are desperately in love with each other despite not actually telling each other that before said marriage and wedding. I initially was going to do a blue and white theme, more along the lines of really flowery modern wedding invitations - but then I read the fic again.

I forgot about the first chapter. Reading again, I paid more attention to what everyone around them was doing to celebrate marriage being legal. The process of it. The traditional feel of how it was done. And that’s the hook that I followed instead. 

Sixpence doesn't have chapter names - so instead I pulled some of the wedding traditions that I researched and used those as my chapter foundations.

Each chapter gets one, where I use the motif as the header and the scene breaks in the chapter. I also added the iconography to the chapter numbers in the header.

I made three of these in total. I fought this book every step of the way - I really needed to be a more experienced version of me to make this book the way I wanted to, but honestly? I literary did the best I could, and even I can tell that I did it.

The first copy of this book went to Sci - Its got a little extra character from being the first version, but out of the three sisters I made of this print run, she turned out the best looking. I'm keeping the most fucked up version (which is otherwise perfect, really, save for the fact that I put the FUCKING SPINE ON BACKWARDS), while the littlest sister is going to go to one of my best friends for a VERY belated gift.

This was a surprised gift for Sci - who had reached out to me almost 4 months ago and asked if they could maybe, possibly, have a copy of Maybe Tomorrow. I knew immediately that I wanted to make this for her too; I had the typeset in my Want To Make file since FEBRUARY OF 2024. So I dusted it off, dumped my other project to the side, and hyper focused on this book for about a month and a half. 

Sci - I admire the fuck out of you. You are a gift and a treasure, and I hope you are ok with me getting my little racoon hands on your fics. Thank you for being open to my interpretation of your work. It’s a privilege and an honor to bind them.

If by some miracle, you have not had the pleasure of reading Sixpence In His Shoe - or any of Sci’s work, #1 what the fuck, #2 please start here.

[violoncellobindery]

The Art of War: Technoblade Edition

Being a longtime Techno fan(since like early 2019? Hypixel Skyblock my beloathed), of course I had to make a copy of The Art of War. Also, it was a good excuse to finally read it, but just a regular copy wasn't enough. Of course not. The Art of War, by Sun Tzu: The Technoblade Edition! (Shoutout to MIT for having the translation for free online. And Lionel Giles I guess for actually translating it all those years ago).

This copy marks every single instance he quotes The Art of War in The Potato War series, plus a couple other few choice quotes at the start of some chapters(with a couple other easter eggs!) I then designed the cover to look like an enchanted book, because my little headcannon is that it's his copy he carries around in game. It is specifically an enchanted book because normal books don't have the belt (boring).

The ender chest was a gift from a dear friend of mine many years ago. I got so excited about finishing this bind that I instantly ran off to do a photo shoot with it :)

Progress pics and rambling, a per usual:

Really trying not to enter this hobby wallet first so this bind was a total fuck around and find out process:

My printer decided it didn't wanna print double side it and grabbed two pieces of paper, so originally I was gonna just reprint that page, but then I found a header error AND all the em-dashes mysteriously missing, except only in the body text?? Anyways when I reprinted it was fine and I had the correct off white/cream paper by then. End papers aren't super visible, but they're handmade recycled purple paper :)

Used graph paper as the stencil...don't do that. It was way too thin and the paint seeped under. I also didn't have silver paint. Make a proper stencil, guys. It's worth it.

Yolo-ed the cloth and glue for every single cover up 'til now, but this was the one that failed (third pic) and I ended up redoing the cloth from scratch, this time with acrylic medium/cornstarch paste filled cloth.

Tbh I'm not sure if I ordered brass or gold clasps?? Not that it matters?? But trying to find clasps big enough without getting 100 of them was rough. That is all.

But we did it! And now I have to go make another for a friend who saw it and instantly asked for one. The laser printer wasn't exactly cooperative but fuck it we ball.

Blood for the blood god. Technoblade never dies.

[celestial-sphere-press]

Fanbinding: Atlas, by @distractedkat

(pls click photos for better quality)

Between what was and what will be stands James Tiberius Kirk, in all his fractured patchwork glory. Because saving the Federation was only the beginning.

This fic has been on my to-do list for a long time, and serendipitously got pushed up for me to do RIGHT NOW because I needed a fic I could use to demonstrate layering boards for cutouts for a class @pleasantboatpress and I taught for Binderary. @finalfrontierpublishing had a great typeset, so I rushed to get the text ready enough for the class demo that I could start the cover... and then things got out of hand. Whoops.

I started with a basic circle cutout for the globe, which then grew a secondary layer for me to sandwich copper wires into. Atlas got printed onto marbled paper and added in on top. Then I developed a plan to have the moon-earth orbits, etc on the cover...

...and I needed a sun & I had this awesome paper I decided to use for endpapers, so we get a stupid complicated paper inset too...

...and I had been meaning to try out French double core endbands so why not do those in the colors of the earth from space...

Annnnnd then I was going to a box-making class & this is the kind of delicate that kinda needs one. so. here we are!

bonus: that art peep in the background is a super awesome metal print by @natureintheory

bonus bonus: cutting out the sun, and the cardstock layer goes under the bookcloth to create the indents that the pieces of the sun fit into like a puzzle

materials notes: colibri uran bookcloth, extremely delicate handmade Japanese paper for endpapers (did an adapted form of made endpapers) that i think? is from Itoya?, marbled jute paper for Atlas + globe, copper wire, copper acrylic ink for the edge, silver + rose gold foil applied with handheld foil quill pen, japanese hand-sewing silk for endbands.

[luuxxart]

happy trans day of visibility to all my fellow t4t shuakers 🏳️‍⚧️☕️🥞🏳️‍⚧️

[kokorohatsaru]

Welcome to 2025! Happy New Year everyone!

[maladaptivewriting]

i desperately want to learn how to bind books and fanfics but i do not have the time or money to do so and it literally makes me so upset

[zhalfirin]

The Lunar Year - Elsin

with kind permission of the author

Full cloth binding with paper onlays

Materials used

case materials covers - grey board (1,5) spine stiffener - cardboard covering material - book cloth, red paper onlays - commercial decorative paper

inner book text block paper - Munken polar, 100gsm endpapers - commercial decorative paper endbands - button hole silk

Format: ~A6 (10,5cm x 14,8cm)

Typeset in Affinity 2 Fonts used title font - Thelorin text font - Alegreya

[aylish91]

What's this? A double update~ Hope you enjoy! (not beta read, we die like men~)

A Promise:

Sirentale Horror Sans X Reader

In which Horror makes an accidental all-binding promise, but can't bring himself to regret it.

~~~

"You jumped…"

Horror's once full and cocky eyelight, was now a small jittery dot within his socket. Gone was his smug confidence, replaced by shocked and confused awe. He knew you had to feel the tremble in his large, bony hands as he held you close to his chest. Not even his tentacles were immune, wrapping desperately around your body as if you would disappear at any moment. You simply smiled, water dripping from his failed attempt at catching you.

"You promised."

Those two words, though breathy and soft, pierced his soul with more weight than he would have ever fathomed. It sent electricity pulsing through every bone and limb. You weren't supposed to… He had thought he was calling your bluff, but instead, you had freely given yourself to the ocean, willingly pushing yourself closer to him.

You truly wanted him. Him. The one most dedicated to the deceitful game he and the others had made to lure you to your death. To bond with. To share such intimacy as to make and create a…

He couldn't understand.

Emotions he had long buried deep within his soul threatened to overwhelm him as he held you delicately to his chest. "You weren't— Ya, ya don't… I'm broken, the least worthy…"

He felt your gentle hands brush against the sides of his skull. Soft. Warm. Safer than they ever should be. Sensations he did not deserve.

"You were the only one willing. The only one who could promise me. Why are you so surprised that you would be the one I would choose to love? You promised me everything. All that you are, and all that you will be. There's nothing more that I could ever want than that."

Because he didn't think you meant it. Because he didn't think you were serious. Because after everything he and the others were planning, he was the least deserving of such love…

His body shook, the force of such a promise complete, already forming the bonding threads between them. There was no escaping it. And he wasn't sure he wanted to.

"You're stuck with me. You know that, right? There is no turning back. A promise made is a bond forged for life…" He could feel his eyelight wobble as his voice became little more than a whisper. "You are mine as much as I am yours."

The soft chuckle that left your lips was as soft as a breeze, yet powerful enough to send another round of lightning through his soul. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

With a stuttering breath, he felt his eyelight expand in its socket and form something other than an orb. It was strange and foreign, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Instead, his body moved on its own accord to place a palm on the back of your head. Then, bridging the gap, it was your turn to gasp as the magic surrounding and protecting his teeth pressed against your lips.

It was soft and gentle against your smaller form, moving in tandem one with another as you pressed further in to reciprocate. Cracking his jaw to cautiously make a swipe with his tongue, he couldn't hear over his own soul when you, in turn, opened for him.

Stars, the radiating heat it brought to the relentless cold...

Pulling back, he began to hum. It was not of malice, nor subjugation. But of hope. Of budding lasting love. It was soft and lulling, one you could easily break away from if you desired. One that was meant to show and ask for, trust. One his intent could speak louder than any spoken word.

And you listened. By the Angel, you listened.

Smiling, you leaned in close to breathe feathery kisses against his throat and chest. Even though you knew what was to come, what he was asking, you allowed yourself to be pulled and lulled. You gave yourself freely. And as the water flowed calmly over top of you, he could feel your soul sing back to join his song.

Forever.

Together.

…

For a second time, despite everything, Horror promised.

GrandMaster Post Sirentale/Mertale Master

[astrolines]

i just think it's SO weird how this author always makes her characters get sexually abused, on some level???

I mean, out of everyone (core 10), only 4 ( hugh, katie, feely and shan) haven't gone through that, and two of those don't even have their own books/backstory yet. And now Mark ( gross) was already a rapist at 12?? That's just so messed up.

Like, I get she's trying to make the characters deeper or whatever, but it's done so badly? Half the time readers even forget it happened ex: Johnny's SA case.

Even the characters seem to forget this fact!! For example, Hughie is said to be loving and protective

he tried to protect Claire from Mark as a child but encourages his younger sister to go to a guy who tried to harass her in PUBLIC and even months after this Jamie is still spreading rumors about Claire.

It feels like shock value, not actual plot. And when it should matter like with Gerard (and Lizzie too, but we don't have her book yet)

it's barely there? Gerard's book just glosses over his abuse in, what, two chapters, then switches focus to someone else.

She'll write a whole graphic child abuse scene but skip the aftermath?? Just a time jump and zero fallout. Gibsie leave Cork for weeks and we have nothing about that time!!! Did he gave a statement against to mark? Dublin PD reopening the Mark case?

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Alan Ross- The Last Binding Trilogy by Freya Marske 

Tam Becket- Yield Under Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland

[hd-collab]

Here we go again! Drarry Collab Fest is back and we're ready to get started in just a few weeks!

We encourage all kinds of collaborations:

Co-written fics

Co-drawn art

Co-narrated podfics

Illustrated stories

And anything else you can dream up! Just like in previous years, we’re open to all kinds of fanworks as long as they’re collaborative. Mark your calendars and join the fun. The sky’s the limit!

Here's our 2025 schedule:

Sign-ups for premade teams: Saturday, February 1 - Friday, February 28

Solo sign-ups: Saturday, February 1 - Saturday, February 22 with matches sent by: Friday, February 28

Claiming: Saturday, February 1 - Saturday, May 24

Check-ins: Sunday, June 1 & Saturday, July 5

Works due: Friday, August 1

Posting begins: Monday, September 1 💙

Reveals: Friday, September 26

Check out all the rules and sign-up info below:

Introduction - Schedule - Pre-made Team Sign-ups - Matchmaking Sign-ups - Prompts - Submission Guidelines - Past Reveals - Credits

[zerosconsort]

Hello tumbler.

I'm still binding, but litlearly everything I'm currently make/ have made in the past 3 moths has been either a gift, a comission, or a surprise - so I have no new finished stuff for you.

I'm working a bind right now that I can share a snip of. I've never shared a cover WIP befor, so...here you go!

Still figuring out how I want to do this. Vinyl would be...crazy. Making a decision this week and printing this weekend.

Toodles✌️

[violoncellobindery]

tuc week 2022 anthology by blanketed_in_stars

I remember reading this series like daily back when tuc week 2022 was ongoing. Before then, I don't think I'd ever considered the ship. Fast forward 3 years later and armed with way too much power, it easily made my to-bind list, and I also really wanted to get into the practice of making author copies. Binderery let me check both of those boxes off.

Thank you so much to @blanketed-in-stars for letting me bind her work, which you can read for yourself on a03 here! It's fantastic and I recommend it to all the hamnet/mareth fans out there. Literally rewired my entire world view of them.

Progress pics and way too long history dive/ramble below the cut:

I really wanted something that looked like it could belong in the Underland, which posed a huge challenge. Their society was mostly reliant on technology from the 1600s, kept records with vellum and parchment scrolls, or in the case of Sandwich, carved them into the walls. But what about books?

Gutenburg's press started printing commercially in around the 1450s, but the first American and English presses started in 1638 and 1476, respectively. It wasn't exactly a new technology, but it certainly may not have been something one could just lug down to the Underland(or take on a ship). So were the lack of books due to never being in Gregor's viewpoint, Regalia being a society that didn't value books, or simply a lack of supplies? How much of the population, especially the Underlanders, could read, anyway? Was that something restricted to the rats, who often went topside to read (eat) library books, and the upper class in Regalia, or was most of the population literate? Could the spinners make a silk paper-like cloth? Could they cast their own type and run sheets through a press? What about handwritten books? (Did the Regalians even have a currency?) Maybe they were simply too focused on military affairs and had no time for books. There were simply too many questions to answer, so I ended up going "well, I want this bound and it doesn't have to be precise down to the letter. let's do this."

I went Coptic binding because it was first used as early as the 2nd century CE, though likely not a popular binding method in England. However, coptic binding/the codex ties back to the Roman diptych, which felt fitting for Regalia, as a very Greek/Roman inspired society. As for the fabric, I picked it simply because it reminded me of the jungle where we first meet Hamnet. The vines were too good.

I set the binding to pamphlet which felt way too thick, so I ended up reprinting it twice: the one you see above, and then the author's copy, which I was able to do in cream because my paper arrived the day after. Only the author copy has thicker boards because I found them after I cut the first ones and didn't want to waste those. It happens lol.

Once again, I'm thrilled with how it turned out :) and one final thank you to blanketed_in_stars for letting me do this and the Renegade Guild for all their help during Binderery!

[jtimu]

FTH - Paperback Fanbinds

I'm participating in the @fandomtrumpshate bazaar! I'm offering hand-bound paperback copies of your favorite fic. Or your least favorite; I don't judge.

Auction bids are for donations made to any of the charities chosen by FTH.

Options:

Three book set

Single book

Current high bids

More details under the jump!

What size are these? Legal quarto - ca. 7" x 4.25", about the same dimensions as a mass market paperback.

Is there a word count limit per book? Ca. 120k words. This is a logistical limitation - my printer can only create covers with so wide a spine.

Are these a high quality, professional product? The pages will be in the correct order and appropriately adhered to each other. I am a hobbyist producing hobby books, and flaws are integral to the process. More construction details here.

What do you need from me? An AO3 link or text file and, if it is not your fic, written permission from the author (blanket permissions statements count). I am happy to handle author communications.

Can I design my own cover, typeset, etc? Yes! I'm happy to work with your designs, or typeset/design it myself as you prefer. I retain final say on all design decisions.

Which fandoms will you bind? No restrictions, but I will probably not read it unless it's within my small set of personal fandoms.

Do I have to pay for shipping? I'll cover shipping up to $30 USD.

When will this ship? Within 12 weeks of donation confirmation.

Can I have a hardcover book instead? Yes - go bid at @citrusses stall.

[notbecauseofvictories]

there's something calming about reading blog posts from last year, and realizing that I was in this exact same headspace at the exact same time for very similar reasons (ie, the weather isn't great, I tend to want to stay inside which makes me unhappier, my company goes a little bit insane at the end of the fiscal year, etc.)

obviously it doesn't fix the feelings, and there are particular wrinkles unique to 2025 vs. 2024, but still....sometimes you have to sit back, take a deep breath, and acknowledge that February simply isn't your month.

[definitive-receipt]

I don't know if there is a point to anything I'm doing anymore, so I'm quitting!

I think what pisses me off most about the series isn't the mediocre writing, it isn't the subpar animation that I know the animators try with what they've got, it's not the predictable Amazon buyout, it's not the messy character dynamics or the lack of growth from anyone or a plot/worldbuilding... I think why I'm so emotionally invested in this failure of an animation company, is that its end products make me feel nothing. If anything it makes me feel bad for the fans that fool themselves into thinking something is there when nothing is actually being presented on screen. I get upset at the fact that it could've been something great about the themes of having the lower voices being heard, or how redemption can be found even in the worst of people. But I can go to any other series for that kind of theme. That is what upsets me over the fact that the director is a scam artist gleefully pretending to mask that she cares about her characters or animation when in reality all she cared about is a franchise of shilled meaningless merch of cardboard cut out stereotypes that nobody is willing to question her integrity over.

I will not watch any future season of either show, I've lost hope knowing she won't change or willing to give criticisms a chance. I'm tired and done knowing the critical side is just as meaningless as the show she produces.