#and thinking about learning bookbinding

[wonderarium]

a book really is like. the pinnacle of objects. just peak form. the rare human win for coming up with them.

[eulaliasims]

Round 6: Farseer 1 / 4

None of the households are going to be played in order this round and I'm just accepting that at this point.

Anyway. River has moved out on their own. I probably should've left them with Orla and Maddan, but that house is small and also they probably wouldn't have gotten any focus this round with the drama that those two have going on. And wouldn't you know it, I forgot to roll a ROS for them until after I finished playing. 🙃

Drustan, I'm gonna lock you in one of the damn caves at this rate.

River has planted a new garden at their cottage. Working outside with the plants is good for their nerves; very soothing.

River is very sociable for a sim with two outgoing points. Throw a party this, want to go on an outing that and so on.

Just a friendly backrub between gal pals! Do we think Sun has noticed Jia is flirting with her yet, or has she inherited Norweni's obliviousness? I'm starting to think it's the latter.

Speaking of Norweni, she's also at the market today and getting shoved around by Shep. Shep, girl, chill a little bit, okay?

Norweni: Shep. I'm going to do you a favor once and assume you've been drinking, and tell you to go home and sleep it off. Got it?

Brigid swooped in immediately afterward to compliment Norweni, lol. This is not at all an obvious attempt to suck up to her.

Oh, yeah, we're supposed to be following River, not Seax family drama.

Anyway, River has slowly been making friends with people in the village, like their new neighbors, Helenet and Elmet, or Gede here, who they met at the summer festival. Gede is a very cheerful and smiley man!

[grassbreads]

How many people would I have to bribe to get official English print releases of Tai Sui and/or No Pollution, No Public Harm?

Ten? Dozens? Hundreds?

I don't even want retranslations. The fan translations are good. I just want to goggle at pretty cover art and hold them in my hands physically.

[grandtheoristpeach]

if I see anyone post fanfic on goodreads or sell bound fanfic, it’s on site

[mantisgodsdomain]

If we ever appear as if we are being taken by some sort of frenzied, desperate madness, that is probably because that is exactly what is happening. We apologize for this sincerely. We are having to watch a handful of rich idiots burn down everything in some sort of horrific slow-motion train crash and every day that passes feels more and more like we are frantically pulling scrolls out of the library of alexandria while watching a thousand more things go up in flames to be lost forever. It is a feeling of a sorts. We are not especially fond of it.

[crookedbranchbooks]

Amber Skies by @cryptotheism

June 12, 2025

Full cloth case binding with paper overlay and design in heat transfer vinyl.

I followed Amber Skies when it was being updated weekly, and read the latter half of it live. Even though I hadn't reread it in since, so much of the worldbuilding and the imagery stuck with me. So when I started thinking about internet-published texts to bind, Amber Skies was one of the first things to come to mind. Almost all of the styling of this book stems from me finding the black and white geometric patterned paper in paper source. It defined the "black and white with yellow accents" color scheme, and inspired the maze motif in the title page and chapter headers. The "maze" is meant to evoke the complex, confusing, and often deadly shafts and halls of Teleth Thadeyn, and the front page design is roughly the shape I imagined the megacity to be (although I would not be shocked to learn that I'm off base there, Heaven being at the top of a spire is a fun visual but not structurally sound). The yellow accents on the cover are all in a handwritten/hand-drawn style, meant to contrast against the stark black and white lines, representative of all of the people (and creatures) that have passed through Teleth Thadeyn and made their home their long after the death of the architects. The symbol on the back is the shaft-diver sign for danger, as described by Kali: "an inverted triangle with a cross through it."

Materials: covers - 2 mm grey board spine stiffener - paperboard covering material - white linen bookcloth overlay - screenprinted mulberry paper with geometric design vinyl - siser easyweed yellow vinyl

endpapers - yellow fine paper with gold printing endbands - faux double core french endband, with cotton embroidery floss edge painting - yellow and orange acryllic paint textblock paper - Church bookbinding paper, 20lb, cream, 8.5x11

Typeset: Designed in Scribus. The body font is Libertinus Serif, headings are in SaaSeriesDDOT. Maze images from Adobe Stock.

Cover Design: Designed in Photopea. Font is Permanent Marker.

dimensions: 5.5"x8.5"

[pyrrhiccomedy]

I am genuinely so proud of my wife for becoming a crafts person over the last few years.

Like, I was always a crafts person. I was an arts and crafts kid. My parents sent me to classes or summer camps or after-school clubs pretty much continuously from when I was about 5 years old, and over the years I did metalsmithing, stained glass, polymer clay sculpting, loom weaving, oil painting, charcoal drawing, clothes-making & tailoring, carpentry, woodcarving, macrame, miniatures, beading, jewelry-making, basket weaving, leatherworking, paper-making, bookbinding, papier mache, decoupage, sand sculpting, and probably more that I'm forgetting. There was never a day in my life while I was growing up when my entire bedroom floor wasn't taken up by 2-5 different ongoing art projects. As an adult, it's given me the firm confidence that I can walk up to pretty much any crafting skill, and get the hang of it, and enjoy doing it.

My wife never had that. She wrote, but that was really her only artistic outlet. Art & craftsmanship were just not any of her business. She always expressed admiration for my gumption when it came to making things with my hands, usually with a "bigger idiots than me have done it" attitude, but she was certain she'd be bad at it if she tried it, and that she wouldn't have fun. As evidence, she would offer every time in her life when she had attempted to learn a craft, and didn't have fun, and all the Arts And Crafts kids picked it up a lot faster than her.

Which like - yeah! Learning how to do a new craft is a skill all on its own! Fine motor control is a skill developed over time! So is spatial reasoning, and materials intuition! She wasn't just 'trying to learn wreath-making,' or whatever, she was trying to learn how to learn how to make something with her hands AND wreath-making, at the same time, so of course it would take her longer than the kids who already had the first part, and of course it would be more frustrating for her. I knew she wasn't uniquely bad at crafts: she just didn't know how to approach picking them up, because she was never encouraged to learn.

And then the pandemic hit.

And while we were all trapped inside and going insane in new and exciting ways to all of us, she tentatively decided to pick up embroidery. She probably wouldn't stick with it, she explained: she'd probably be bad at it. It probably wouldn't be fun. But she thought embroidery was pretty, and literally what else did she have going on?

And then she did stick with it. For over a year. And she got pretty good at it! She embellished a baseball hat for her sister with cactuses and wildflowers from where they grew up which came out adorable. She made an embroidered portrait of one of our friends' cat that they still have displayed in their entryway. And she discovered - and remarked on it often, with mild surprise - that she was having fun. She'd say a lot of stuff like "this stitch was so frustrating at first, but now that I get it I really like doing it," or "I kept getting this tangled but I've figured it out now. I just needed to relax."

Then she took up pottery. We did that as a couple for about a year, too. Now she's a knitter.

And it's just been so great, to see her eyes light up when she sees a sweater she likes, and hear her say, "I could make that!" She's slowly let go of the perfectionism that I think holds a lot of people back from doing crafts: that dismay when you make a mistake which leads to discarding a whole project, or starting something over. More and more she's taking on the veteran crafter attitude of "oops lol, whatever I'll just keep going." She's picking things up faster. She's taking pleasure in learning incremental steps. She's started to see crafting as something that relaxes and engages her, instead of as something inherently frustrating. I've gotten to watch her learn to find joy in making something with her hands. I always knew she was creative and artistic and capable of learning how to do anything. It's been so much fun to watch her start to take that on as part of how she sees herself.

We have this running joke about how she will prematurely declare herself to be in an era. Like, she'll go swimming twice and announce that she's now in her "swimming era," and then never go swimming again. Or she'll make one smoothie, buy a bunch of fruit, and declare that we are now in a "smoothie era," and then a week later we have to throw out a bunch of fruit that's gone bad.

The other day (while she was knitting, and I was sitting on the couch next to her doing crochet), she went, "I feel like I've gotten - like, I'm a bit crafty these days, I think. Like, I've done a couple of different crafts, and gotten pretty good at them. I think this is now, kind of, you know...something that I can say that I do."

I supplied that I would even go so far as to say that she was in her "crafting era."

Her eyes widened. "It's an era?"

I pointed out that it was something she'd been doing pretty much continuously for the last three and a half years. That feels like the start of an era to me.

"Yes," she decided. "It's an era. This is my crafts era. I'm a crafts person now."

She's planning to make me a sweater with a duck on it for fall.

[inexplicifics]

Since you're on an answering kick, I've been wondering what the early days of Zofia and Auckes' relationship (both as friends and lovers) was like. How did they go from total strangers to allies to training and meal partners to Zofia's "I'm horny, he seems the best option" and Auckes' startled "gods PLEASE yes" to a longer term attachment? I realize that could be an entire long fic on its own, if you ever truly fleshed it out. Like. What was it about each other that drew them together?

You know, I think I'm going to pull Sergeant Hanif in here, not in person but as someone Auckes remembers. Most Vipers, I suspect, haven't had a lot of amiable interactions with humans, but Auckes has met someone who was willing to talk to him and even expressed concern over his injuries, and that someone was military, so there are some similarities with Zofia.

I think they start as sparring partners; a lot of Witchers are going to be wary of fighting a human, because of the risk of hurting her, but Auckes will take the chance, and then it turns out she's good and also slowing himself down to human speed is a useful drill. And so they end up chatting, and then Zofia ends up at the Viper table, and she's blunt and has a filthy sense of humor and isn't fazed by Viper ruthlessness.

In short, she's marvelous and Auckes doesn't quite know what this strange warmth in his chest every time she chooses to sit next to him at supper is, but he's definitely figured out that she's fucking beautiful with a sword in her hand and he would very much like to get to know her better in a carnal sense. However, Witchers aren't exactly taught courting, especially not Vipers, and she's not a prostitute, which means he hasn't got a script for approaching her.

So when she approaches him, well, "Gods please yes" is about as coherent as he's gonna be.

On Zofia's side, Auckes respects her skills and doesn't assume she's going to spread her legs for him just because she's female, and the Vipers are the sort of crude she understands, and it turns out they can swap stories pretty easily, and he's smart and doesn't assume she isn't.

You know, it occurs to me that he probably teaches her to read. He's very literate, as all Witchers are, but she's a peasant mercenary; she probably can't read a damn thing when she first comes to Kaer Morhen. And he doesn't think of teaching her as being something remarkable; he's pleased that she's willing to spend time with him and learn a bit about bookbinding, which is a pleasant hobby for long winters. And why shouldn't she learn to read? It's a useful skill! It will make it easier for her to study the bestiaries, which is important if she's really going to go out on patrol with Witchers!

So Zofia thinks of Auckes as not only safe but kind, in a strange awkward rough-edged way. Also handsome enough, if you like 'em brawny and scarred, which she does. And things progress from there.

[pannman]

Alastor thinks reading your favorite book can get him closer to you

Reader: Hey guys have you seen my book?

Alastor: Oh, you mean this one?

Alastor holds out book*

Reader: yeah! Alastor what are doing with my book?!?

Alastor: reading? I thought you'd be happy! Now once I'm finished we can engage in discussion about it

Reader sighs: fine. just return it when ur finished. And be careful with it. It's signed by the author

Alastor: of course I will treat it like the child I never had

Later Alastor is reading.... while doing the dishes*

Alastor hums a tune and turns the page but the book slips and falls into the sink*

Alastor: Oh! Oh my! This is not good!

Alastor tries to dry it off but it's completely ruined*

Alastor: now they'll hate me forever for sure... unless...

Later*

Reader: Hey, Alastor you finish my book yet?

Alastor: yes as a matter of fact I did, and I have a little surprise for you. I quite recently (very very recently) got into bookbinding. Soooo tada! A new cover for your book... and new pages. And might I add you have incredible taste in literature. No doubt evidence you are quite intelligent-

Reader: -you messed up my book and did this to cover it up didn't you?

Alastor: maybe...

Reader: why?!? What did you do to it?!?

Alastor: I was reading while doing the dishes and dropped it in the sink

Reader: WHY WERE READING WHILE DOING THE DISHES!??!

Alastor: I saw you listening to one of those audio books while washing plates and I wanted to try it!!!

Reader: then why didn't you use an AUDIOBOOK!??!

Alastor: I refuse to learn about those frivolous gadgets you tap tap tap all day

Reader: you mean phones?

Alastor: yes!

Reader: Oh my God! I can't believe you were so careless with something important to me! I mean... of course you were!!!

Alastor: I could care less about you're opinions of me. I took advantage of a bad situation to do you a kind a gesture

Vaggie: WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP!!! Alastor! Why don't you just tell them?

Alastor: tell them what? What! I... I don't know what your talking about

[lightningant]

Any recommendations that have similar vibes to Venom or Valor?

About to humiliate my self because I'm about to list a very limited range of fics that are significantly better than mine with very different styles from mine. But you need this information

I started writing Venom or Valor specifically because of:

Bookbinding by Asenora/ @saintsenara, tom/myrtle - at the time I was only just barely sketching out why I was so fascinated with Tom and piecing together how his grandiosity and drama and mood swings spoke to a primal longing within him and this fic didn't press my buttons so much as smack me up the skull with a 2x4.

A Learning Experience by Laeveteinn, mostly gen - incredible character study of Tom's 10 years at Borgin and Burkes. Ending made my toes curl.

yes I realize the humour that neither of these are tomarry. Sorry I only ship it because I think Harry would make Tom happy like I'm indulging my favourite child

Some other stuff I think contributed:

Strings of Fate, by dizzydreamer, Tomarry - Every chapter has me absolutely screaming in laughter because Tom doesn't know how to act. Just an INCREDIBLE parade of deranged behaviour, really unfolding his worst tendencies like a beautiful flower. Babe you gotta stop licking the book

Consumption by Laeveteinn, Tomarry - quite possibly my favourite tomarry fanfic in the whole wide world. I want to hand-feed this to squeamish newcomers. If you like my Tom Laeveteinn is basically mandatory reading

Innocent (until proven guilty) by Laeveteinn, Tom/Grindelwald - pointing this one out specifically because this fic is activating villain apologia of the likes never before seen within me. Dumbledore bashers don't have the range to write this specific texture of child neglect. I feel like I am witnessing actual family drama. Grindelwald genuinely anguished and trying to find direction in his life grooming Tom is like something my mom would tell me about my cousin. I feel like I got to drive out to see him. I got to drive out across Canada to see Tom and tell him. I got to tell him that he should probably find himself before shacking up with a 60-year-old man famous for manipulating his way out of anything. My baby cousin Tom

Lover's Spit by amelinda and k3u, Tomarry - I keep calling this unrecommendable and then keep recommending it. Cannot repeat enough times that it is about Tom Riddle being inadvertently groomed by 4chan to be an edgelord stalking and threatening to rape the boy he has a crush on in a manner so grotesque he becomes a media sensation as a figurehead of horrifying internet depravity corrupting our children. That all being said. I've never read a fic with such loving worldbuilding it makes me think "should I stop reading fanfic and get back into literary fiction". I absolutely love the cadence of Tom's thoughts and the way he code-switches to slur-regurgitating 4channer. Most importantly: good face-tearing slowburn

dum spiro spero by Asenora/Saintsenara, Tom/Rookwood - Another pseudo-hanahaki, really concretely cemented my desire to ship Tom with anyone who can make him happy. The way Rookwood talks about Tom is truly incredible. The humour is impeccable. The monologue. You know the fic is good when it makes you wail IRL. Asenora a fantastic author, not just for Tom but for character studies in general. 10/10 Merope fics

Sorry this is almost entirely two authors. As always, I am a slow reader of the likes never before seen AND I'm picky. Nothing else has contributed to how VoV reads. It really is just these fics and Thor Ragnarok.

[bluejayblueskies]

Aftershocks | knifemartin

(IDs in alt text)

Another favorite Rusty Quill Gaming fic of mine--Aftershocks by @knifemartin! I was absolutely blown away by the worldbuilding, the varying relationships and their different forms of love and intimacy, and the clear and vivid visuals throughout. I have been craving Zolf, Wilde, and Sasha living together as a happy little family ever since I finished it, and I think often about the scene where Zolf discovers that Wilde is an angel. The various visuals in the story definitely inspired this bind--in particular, the gold and white of Wilde's former and current wings and the wings themselves.

This is another book that makes use of the new things I learned during Renegade's February binderary event. It also uses double-core endbands, has trimmed (and splattered) edges, and uses a chapter header motif that I've seen floating around in bookbinding spaces occasionally and that I've been wanting to implement in some of my own binds! I was also able to finally make use of the white fibrous paper with gold squares stamped onto it (for the half-title page) and the gold fabric-like paper (for the endpapers), both of which I've had in my paper horde for ages.

And, of course, my favorite part of this bind--the wings on the covers! I found a tutorial online for an angel wing wall decoration, scaled it down, and cut out all the feathers using my Silhouette and a white fabric/paper roll I picked up at a used craft store (I think it's wallpaper, but I'm not quite sure!). Then, I glued all the feathers down to a base before gluing the wings themselves to the covers. I really like the 3D effect I got by not gluing down the tips of the feathers, and I think they feel really nice to the touch! I had a very strong vision for this book, and being able to realize it so cleanly was so so much fun.

[untitled-tmnt-blog]

Now that 2024 is coming to a close:

1) Of everything you've made this year, which ones are you the most proud of?

2) What are a few of your favorite things (art, comics, fics, etc) that someone else has made this past year?

As far as my own stuff, I would have to say:

This Hide and Seek animatic -- I love making animatics, but they end up taking me a LONG time! That does mean that when I finally finish one though, it's very rewarding to see the full thing!

This scene, for the rottmnt cut intro project -- It's a short scene, but was a lot of fun to do! I also think it shows how much I've improved, even from my first scene for this same project.

This hardcopy of IMBI -- I'd never tried bookbinding before, but I had so much fun learning how and was really happy with how it turned out!

These mixed media collages -- It was one of my first times experimenting with mixed media, and I think they ended up looking pretty cool! Plus, just like the others... I had a lot of fun with it! (I suppose it makes sense that my favorite pieces are kind of just the ones I had the most fun doing, huh?)

And then, for other people's stuff... I'm sorry, but I'm just so indecisive! I have to at least pick a few things from each category!

"Long" Comics:

Here There Be Turtles (by @theelvishfiddler) -- This is hands-down one of the most impressive fan comics I've ever seen! Not only does it have incredible art, but the characterization is spot-on, and the storyline is so engaging that I am absolutely dying to see what happens next after every single update! I've seen people saying that the quality is even better than the official comics, and... yeah, no doubt about it, it really is! This comic is INSANELY good!

You've Been Portal Jacked! (by @wickcipher) -- This comic has such an interesting premise, with an artstyle that I love and SO much potential! I was immediately hooked by the first chapter, and was so excited to see it continue! Very much looking forward to seeing where things go from here!

"Short" Comics:

This Raph comic (by @e-turn) -- Raph and Leo tug at my heartstrings sooooo much! And the effect of Raph's time spent under the krangs' control is something that I never get tired of seeing explored. He loves his brothers so much, and would never EVER want to hurt them... but now he has these memories of himself doing exactly that, and those memories are just so much at war with who he is as a person, and AAAARRRRRGGHHHH!!!! I love it.

This Splinter comic (by @charcoaldustonmyfingers) -- THE EMOTIONS. I enjoy seeing this one every time it crosses my dash, and it has yet to lose its impact. Splinter loves his boys so much!!

This alternate movie ending, and part 2 (by @magisav) -- Beautiful, and heartbreaking. Both at the same time. The look on Leo's face is ingrained in my memory forever.

This Firefight fan comic (by @sludge-city) -- This one is such a well-done adaptation of some of the most emotional moments in this incredible fic! It was heartbreaking enough reading it the first time, and seeing those emotions depicted on Leo and Donnie's faces ripped my heart to shreds.

This redrawn IDW scene (by @purplepixel) -- The redrawn panels are beautiful, and I love the coloring! But also... man, this hurts so much knowing what comes next! Donnie, nooooo!

Multi-Chapter Fics:

Emotional Support Water Bottles (by @dandylovesturtles) -- This series is easily one of my favorites! Poor Leo goes through so much... and yet even when it's over, that kind of experience will undoubtedly leave some scars behind. Not physical scars, but very real nonetheless, and I've loved seeing Leo and his family try to navigate their way through that.

Firefight (by @remedyturtles) -- A true classic, at this point. With probably some of the most intensely emotional scenes I have ever read. Highly recommend, if you can handle that level of hurt before the comfort!

DFL's Whumptober 2024 (by @daflangstlairde-art) -- Technically a series of fics, which are unrelated to one another. But they are related in one important way: making me FEEL THINGS. Each one is so well-written, and I've been hooked all the way from the first fic to the last!

Oneshots:

The Shadows May Go (by @remedyturtles) -- This fic. THIS FIC. It made me cry. Splinter loves his sons so much, and even in his darkest moments (perhaps especially in his darkest moments), Leo knows that.

Now the Darkness Comes Alive (@goodlucktai) -- The role-reversal that I didn't know I needed. It's beautifully written, and like I said, Raph and Leo tug at my heartstrings so much! I started drawing something for this fic a while back, and desperately want to finish when I have some more free time on my hands again!!

Bed Sheets (by @dandylovesturtles) -- Splinter is not a perfect parent, by any means. But he loves his sons so much!! This fic is practically the embodiment of those two things, and it makes me emotional every. Single. Time.

Art:

This drawing of April and Karai (by @darkpolicepsycho) -- absolutely beautiful!! I love how you can just feel the power of Karai's ninpo flowing through April.

This drawing of Raph with cherry blossoms (by @pelmenya-owo) -- soooooo pretty!!! The colors. The lighting. I cannot possibly overstate how gorgeous this drawing is!!

These Undertale-style drawings of April, Raph, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey (also by @pelmenya-owo) -- I've never played Undertale, but I love these little animations so much!! Very cool.

This drawing of Samurai Leo (by @kathaynesart) -- I showed this drawing to my husband, and he immediately asked for it on a T-shirt. It is PHENOMENAL.

This Hollow Mind drawing (by @grey-viridian) -- I haven't read the fic that this is from yet, but oh man, the emotion in this scene!! Family protecting family. I love it so much.

This drawing of Leo (by @oh-lordy-lord-save-me) -- The colors. The colors!! The absolutely STUNNING colors!!!

This TNV art (by @windide-blog) -- I'll admit, I still need to read TNV. But even without context, the scene depicted here is amazingly well-done! I can only hope to be able to draw scenes as beautiful as this one day.

This art of Leo falling through the sky (by @sad-leon) -- The background is beautiful. The imagery is beautiful. The animation is beautiful. All around: beautiful.

This drawing of FMA Sprout, plus this one (by @intotheelliwoods) -- I just love these so much! Brotherhood is probably my favorite anime, and man, Sprout makes a great Edward Elric.

This drawing for the Turtles Together zine (by @andva-ri) -- This one has everything. Splinter. April. Draxum. Big Mama. The turtles, of course! I love all the different scenes, and how seamlessly they come together into an absolutely gorgeous art piece! This is a level of skill that I can only hope to one day come close to reaching!

This drawing, also for the Turtles Together zine (by @staticwither) -- Just look at those bright, beautiful colors! Truly incredible. This scene was already great in the finale, but this art piece somehow manages to take that energy and multiply it tenfold! It's beautiful.

This drawing of Leo with water lilies (by @tangledinink) -- I absolutely LOVE the paint-like style of this one! The level of detail on this is insane, and it's just downright one of the most beautiful art pieces I think I've ever seen. I want it on a throw blanket.

This Kingdom Hearts AU drawing (by @boxfullaturtles) -- I have very minimal knowledge of Kingdom Hearts. But even without that context, this drawing is just SO GOOD! I love the stained-glass design! And the way all the characters are in their own circles, and Leo's head is lined up inside of one as well, but continues down into a full-body drawing. Gorgeous.

AUs:

Posessed AU (by @grey-viridian) -- Such an interesting premise!! It somehow manages to be absolutely heartbreaking, but also so much fun at the same time.

Tiz Sep AU (by @tizeline) -- I love the comic. I love the characterizations. I was hooked on this AU from the moment Leo starting infodumping about Sonic! But also, Mikey campaigning for president of the multiverse while Donnie works against him was perfection. I just love seeing these characters do literally anything, because they're just so enjoyable to watch!

"The Besties" (2AL by @intotheelliwoods & SLAU by @dianagj-art) -- I'm aware this is like, an AU crossover within an AU kind of situation, but man is it so much fun! And also, so much more emotional than you'd expect turtle multiverse shenanigans to be.

Animations:

Rottmnt Restored (by @emichen88 & @powerauerart) -- Incredible. Amazing. Phenomenal. Astounding. 100% would watch again and again and again.

This JJK WIP (by @seasaltcosmos) -- I don't care if it's unfinished, I LOVE this!!

That was... slightly more than "a few." And I'm sure I still forgot some. I could go on and on about all the awesome stuff people here have made, but I had to cut it off somewhere!

[moonfeatherquill]

Make a pamphlet

Tons of people are realizing that you can make books at home, a fact that totally floored me two years ago when I found out about it. Is that you? You should make a pamphlet!

Sometimes, people show up to the bookbinding community and ask something like, “I would like to bind a 100,000-word fan fiction into an heirloom object/gift. Where do I start?” You should start by making a pamphlet.

I think some of them don’t like hearing that, and I think I understand why. They are not approaching bookbinding as a hobby to learn and explore; they want a DIY project that will result in An Object. But this isn’t like when I painted my shutters, and all I needed was a paint sprayer, some fasteners, a chisel, and YouTube to get me going. For most folks, it’s more like if you wanted to design and build a shed from scratch, and you’d never held a saw. Why not draw up and make a little firewood shelter out of cheap lumber first?

Why not make a pamphlet?

Now, if you are coming from a strong crafter background, and especially if you already do a lot of papercraft or chipboard box-making, you can admittedly skip the pamphlet phase. But should you?

Pamphlets are cheap! Quick! Fun! Pamphlets and other simple bindings let you play with tools, materials, and techniques without expending excessive time or precious materials. You probably have everything you need already. Bookbinding is a craft with dozens of best practices and rules of thumb and recommended materials, and each one is negotiable. If you truly understand the importance of a given recommendation or standard, you can decide how much it’s worth to you and your projects. If you’re a novice crafter, you’ll quickly figure out if this fussy paper-bending nonsense is enjoyable for you at all–without buying a bunch of tools you may not use again. If you’re experienced, you’ll have a quick win, get to play with new kinds of paper, and see how different materials work together.

And you can explore how to decorate books! 

So please, if you’re even curious about bookbinding, make a pamphlet.

I’ll even tell you how. With pictures!

[swaps55]

2024 Year In Review-ish

It's funny, I started to ruminate on how 2024 was kind of brutal on a few different fronts - lots of professional stress that sapped up my creative energy and exacerbated the burnout I've been running into after 5 straight years of nonstop writing.

But when I think about it...there's was still a lot of good, exciting things that happened this year. No, I didn't finish Mezzo - not even close - but I did write a scene that goes high on the list of things I am most proud of. Everything I did accomplish for that story landed right where I wanted it.

And while I didn't write as much as I wanted, I was creative in totally new ways. I picked up bookbinding and ran with it, which required getting some foundational skills in about a dozen different hobbies. I went from not even having a needle and thread in my house to being able to sew a textblock that only occasionally gets accidentally sewn into my chair. I learned how to design and cut vinyl. I developed an unhealthy addiction to metallic paper. I learned how to round and back (with loooooots of room for improvement, but I can do it). I've gotten comfortable with cutting and measuring, and even more important - I've gotten comfortable with fucking up.

I still can't use a foil pen with any success, but that's for 2025.

I can make things for my friends now, which is something I've wanted to be able to do for years. For Christmas, I typeset and bound a Stephen King book that exists only as a PDF - one of the first "ebooks" that my dad proudly paid for, downloaded, and printed out two copies - one for him and one for me.

For 20+ years my printed copy has lived in a box that has moved from Virginia to Kentucky to Texas to California. His printed copy has lived in a 3 ring binder with the rest of his Stephen King collection. Now he has a bound copy.

That's a big win. That feels really, really good.

Mezzo is going to get written, and I'm going to be proud of it. But I really have needed the time to rotate my crops and redirect my creative efforts into something new.

It's also important for me to remember that ten years ago I had the worst year of my life, even if it ended on a hopeful note on New Year's Eve. This year was rough, but I got to spend it with the person I love most in the world, and my goofy ass dog who is currently dying to steal the rest of my lunch.

It's been a challenging year, but still a good one.

Hoping all of you have some joy and comfort on the eve of this new year. 2025 might be scary, but I'll hold your hand if you hold mine, and we'll figure it all out.

[spockandawe]

Oh my god, y'all. Forgive me if I'm being redundant, but I think i may have forgotten to post one of my BIG projects?? I just tried to look for this in my archives, and it should have gone up around March 17, but I... can't find it, it's not in my mdzs tag, it doesnt show up when i search yapp, and I was, uh. Arguably very distracted because I made this as emergency distraction material right before a big family funeral! SO, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO. My first take on single volume Mo Dao Zu Shi

One main goal: rigid yapp edges. Some people may quibble about whether that's the right name if they're rigid, but shhhh shh shh, bookbinding already has reached a critical volume of unsearchable key terms, like 'square' and 'shoulder,' I deserve this one, and not the unbearably generic term that slides right off my brain. And resources on how to do any edge overhangs are... thin on the ground, so hell yeah, let's smash em together.

Like one person online, a Finnish poet bookbinder or something, had an example of crisp rigid edges like these, but no clues on the how-to other than that 'yapp' term. I was only a baby bookbinder. I'm not even sure I was backing books yet when I saw it. But i REMEMBERED. And after figuring out boxes a little bit, i felt confident enough to go for it! I used guidance from one of my box making books for how to cover the edges nicely, and heyyyy, it worked!

Now.... mistakes were made. I was looking for trimming alternatives for chunky books that weren't chisels or sanding. Trying to fit different halves of my book into the guillotine then sand the sin out of it was... not the answer. Faux suede was also a mistake. I love it to bits, but it is possibly the LEAST forgiving material in the world for glue squishing onto the nice side of your material, and I sure picked some complex surfaces to cover with it. And also, the yapp edges are a little large. A little intrusive! I wanted them to be proportional with the thickness, and neglected proportional with my hands XD

It's no biggie, this whole thing was something I chose as a learning project, and man, I learned a LOT. I do love it a lot too! The faux suede feels great, the endpapers are great, and red foil on maroon fabric worked out super cool. I'm not going to repeat myself, which is why new mdzs is partially re-typeset, the binding will be different, and my next yapp edge project will be something new. But I'm so fond of this silly thing! Especially the surprise skeleton hands on the back, ahahahaha

[agent-jaselin]

What if collectors assuming Leitner’s just sort of spontaneously formed was wrong, in the same way old doctors believe that maggots forming from decaying skin spontaneously was wrong.

So what if occasionally some sad sack who gets touched by the fears early on becomes an author instead of an avatar. Instead of having powers just, being compelled to make books occasionally. Some enjoy it and intentionally spread the books, some hide the books away til they die and the books go out on their own afterwards. They can destroy books by other authors but can’t their own, it wouldn’t hurt them they just can’t bring themselves to do it.

Anyway au idea: Jon after running into mr. Spider is an author. Works as a bookbinder and goes around antique bookstores hoping he can learn more about the authors of leitners, hoping he can stop having weeks were he blacks out and wakes up having made a boom that forces people to eat hat own tongues or whatever else . He does not call them leitners anymore because how dare you name these creations after some weird *collector*

In his free time of course he destroys any book he finds. He’s just only safe from one he makes, but he still doesn’t want the older ones to hurt people. He ends up running into Gerard Keay either because he’s looking for an old leitner, or because Gerry heard of on of Jon’s book thinking it was a leitner.

Jon hates Gerry because he assumes he is a collector and he doesn’t like people obsessing over the books as pieces of power. It’s a piece of him that hurts and he imagines it was true for the nameless authors of the older books too. He doesn’t like people treating them like toys.

When Gerry finds out what Jon can do he hates Jon, because he assumes he makes these awful things on purpose. That he’s some kind of monster like his mom.

Eventually them becoming allies and falling for each other as they realized their views on the evil books are aligned, Jon proving it by helping destroy or contain mary’s book. Later on Gerry helping Jon’s distress by destroying the books in his care so he doesn’t have to worry about them hurting people once he dies or they get stolen. Weird little partnership of hunting and destroying leitners but also jon originals.