#handbinding

[zerosconsort]

Zero's Fic Binding - Maybe Tomorrow

Maybe Tomorrow by @scifigrl47

Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel) – All Media Types

Ship: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark

Start Date: 4/12/24

End Date: 5/2/24

Pages: 433

On my list of fics to bind, Maybe Tomorrow was the one I saw the most clearly in my head before I started. I had an idea in my mind immediately - knew what I wanted the cover to look like, knew the chapter headers - the vision for this bitch was so clear the entire time I was working on it.

The fic is a an Annie retelling. I wanted the cover to combined a playbill vibe - pulling the city scape from some of the covers - and the Gatsby vibe. The Empire state building was my main inspiration - it combines those two thing brilliantly.

I could not find a skyline of New York that I like. So I made one. This cover is built out of MANY small squares that are masked behind other squares. There are…so many individual paces of this cover. It took me WAY to long, but I this was one of those times where I knew exactly what I wanted this to look like, and I did it.

Ok, let me nerd out for a second. Specifically I wanted the sun burst on the front - and on the top of the spine - here to look like some of the old art deco elevators floor indicators. The hollow gold really fucking pulls the whole cover together. The Broadway font, the hollow gold vinyl - honestly, this was my favorite cover. It's the most themed, that's for sure - and also the most detailed.

End pages are that lovely art deco arch. Commit to the bit. Can tell that the binding tape is a little thick/the end paper is a little to thin - so you can see them ghosting just slightly. Still, the shiny gold fans were fucking perfect.

Ok, moving on. The typeset for this chunky boy is also lovely. Every chapter has different top header frames. The Broadway style font for the headers and the drop caps are all gold.

This was my first try imbedding images into the chapters as well, relating them to whatever is going on in the fic.

Including the shot of my splash page too. I've started to define this a lot more now, but this was the first time I think I detailed this page this much.

This is one of my fucking favorite fics. I love everything about it - the plot, the character writing, the mood. Scifigrl47 was the first writer I tripped over on my way into the Steve/Tony fandom….fucking, what? Ten years ago? It's a pleasure to read their fics, always, and I'm ecstatic to have it on my shelf now.

If you somehow haven't read this fic, you're welcome.

[runawaymarbles]

Sheppard's Law, by @cesperanza

Version 3 of the fic I bound for the Renegade Bindery gift exchange! (you can see speranza and @gempothospress's versions here)

I had a lot of fun typesetting this--I took the epitaph motif from the section titles and ran with it. I have never seen any form of Stargate, so thanks to cesperanza and @annerbhp for consulting. Other things I hadn't done before making these three books: cover cutouts, or foil.

"I don't know much about Stargate," said I, "so I'll just put a Stargate on the cover. Should be pretty straightforward." I then proceeded to learn that foil quills were not my friend, that the cricut foil head was finicky as hell (it works beautifully on bookcloth-- but not on leather or buckram,) and in the case of this particular edition, remember too late that unlike leather and buckram, you cannot wipe glue off bookcloth with water. I think I might start taping wax paper over my covers when I'm casing in so that I stop having this problem.

That being said, both the foil and the cutouts were kind of addicting. So I might end up sneaking them into more books where they may or may not belong.

[egasbabindery]

My first tête-bêche binding, my first octavo, and my first time working with leather. This is a combination of two Star Wars fics I've adored for years, and which I nearly always read as a pair, so this combo seemed really natural. The stories are 'Wonderterror' by Peradi and 'Luke Skywalker. 19. Full Human.' by Samvelg. They both explore the premise of the Skywalkers as Eldritch creatures as a result of Anakin's (lack of) parentage, and they are amazing. I made an effort to reach out to both these authors for permission but received no response; if either of them request that this post be taken down, I will of course do so. But as this is a personal book for my own collection that will not be sold or distributed, I felt that showing it off was fair.

Printed on legal paper, font is Uni Neue(body text), Gearus (titles, headers, cover text), and Typographer Caps (drop caps). Images are composited from standard star wars and kraken/cthulhu conography, which is duplicated on the covers (with nearly invisible black squiddies underlying the flashy star wars logos, love how subtle they came out). Typeset in Affinity. Covers in black fairly low grade cow leather with HTV, endpapers printed from an image found in rawpixel's public domain archive, and headbands sewn on. Specifically made the bookmark ribbon long enough to run through the book twice, to potentially mark places in both fics at once.

[justheblueberry]

handbinding of A Study in Scarlette by kittebasu

There are people who want to live forever, and then there is Shinichi, who just wants to live a little longer than this.

this bind has been in my head since i first read the fic like, three years ago. i dreamed up so many ideas for it, for so long, and now it's finally done! the typeset was actually done in early 2022, back when i was still using google docs, but it went through a few iterations because i was just. so. fiddly. with every aspect of this book. it needed to be perfect (as close to perfect as i, an amateur bookbinder out of my depth, can get) and it had to be absolutely over the top, to reflect the insane amount of love and care that the author put into the fic itself.

the first time i read this fic, i barely knew what detective conan was, much less all of the intricate plot details; i was just along for the ride, but by the end i was completely invested. i went back and watched through the anime as well as a few movies (it took me six months) and then read the fic again. and then a few more times. kaishin and the world of dcmk has utterly gripped me. it's 100% this fic's fault and i love it so, so, much.

i went through a few iterations of visual designs and i'm really happy with the little details i managed to squeeze in.

the entire color scheme is based around red, because 1) it's a murder mystery, 2) for scarlette shinamoto (and the title of the fic as well as the original holmes novel it references), and 3) the irony of "lady red" actually being red. the secret fourth reason is that i think red/gold is a super sexy color combo.

i sewed the textblock with red thread to reference holmes' "scarlet thread of murder".

another detail i love is the five yen coin bookmark, it was one of my first ideas and it turned out even better than i thought.

i wanted the endpapers to evoke a sense of the white marbled floor of the ballroom, with the glow-in-the-dark kaitou kid caricature being the luminol on the floor, and the little pops of red looks like blood that's been mixed in. i lucked out in that the other side of the endpaper was like a lavender-purpley color, i like to think of it as a little wink wink nudge to the color of the actual Lady Red.

the chapter pages got a few reworkings, but i'm happy with the illustrations i ended up doing for each of them. the chapter titles are one of my favorite things about the fic, each one has so much meaning packed into it and flows so beautifully, and i wanted to put as much care into making them pop as possible.

the cover was a linocut carving i designed and carved, which i then printed onto the bookcloth, and ironed on htv on top.

i also threw in a couple of my drawings of my favorite scenes.

this is getting way too long, so i'll end it here. i'll have a separate post detailing the process every step of the way, if anyone wants to take a closer look. this fic is kind of directly responsible for getting me into fanbinding, so it's safe to say it altered the course of my life. i now spend way too much time (and money) looking at book stuff.

kittebasu, if, somehow, you see this and would like an author copy, i would be honored to make one and ship it to you; i would be overjoyed to gift you with any art i have the ability to make, because the fics you wrote have irreversibly altered my brain chemistry, and being able to give back in any capacity would be a dream. (thank you.)

a few postscripts:

i am not selling any copies of this fic. partially because i believe in the gift economy of fandom as well as firmly keeping fanbinding a hobby that will stay unmonetized, but also because it took me months (years, if we are counting when i first finished the typeset) to finish this and i do not have the strength.

however, if you are also a fan of this fic and would like a copy, i honestly, fervently, encourage you to give fanbinding a try! renegade publishing and its discord server are an absolutely wonderful and free resource. i knew nothing about bookbinding and had zero materials when i first started, but i've learned so much thanks to the lovely people there. if you're still apprehensive about getting started, i'd be willing to share my typeset of this fic as well as answer any questions about the making of this book if you DM me.

[etherati]

My first REALLY tiny book, a bind of Four of Swords. A sextodecimo! This lil guy is about 3" x 2 1/4" and is bound with actual cards from the miniature edition RWS deck. Because of the fun tarot imagery I'd been wanting to bind this one, but it's so short, just about 5000 words, so it had to go really little :3

Printed on pop-tone white from French, spine and sword detail done with HTV. I printed the main narrative in black and the flashbacks in blue, for visual separation, and the endpapers are of artwork done for this fic by the incredible @sandwichartistdatzu !!

[bittersweetbark]

Beautiful handbound (?) and very solid Blood of Elves!

[krsonmar]

So um...I did a thing. As in I made my first hardcover book!

For those of us on a gay pirate kick, I had a tome that I printed out and wanted to assemble a case for.

This is the lovely variegated rainbow-colored crochet thread I used (Aunt Lydia's 100%cotton size 10 in colorway Mexicana) to stitch the signatures (I did a Bradel binding).

This was my first multi-signature textblock, so go me!

And for the cover, I decided to use the "DIY bookcloth via Heat-n-Bond" method. I don't have very much space in my apartment to lay out fabrics and make my own bookcloth another way, and I'm happy with how this went.

You might have seen posts going around about this novelty cotton print fabric that answers the problem, "You know, there just isn't enough novelty fabric portraying images of the US Founding Fathers. And just as importantly...what if they were hot young shirtless twinks?"

This came from a Buzzfeed article about novelty cotton prints that I'd read, and when I tried to think of a fabric design for gay pirates, I said to myself, "You know, I bet the company that makes the sexy Founding Fathers fabric has something I could use."

Lo and behold, the Alexander Henry fabric company did indeed come through for me. This is called "Anchors Away" (not Aweigh, but Away) and it's in the tea or cream colorway (it also comes in IIRC, black, navy blue, and white).

I used the Heat-n-Bond method for this and did the same with some solid navy blue fabric for the spine, and then made my covers with some salvaged cardboard. I wasn't happy about the thickness of the board I had and this might be where I made a beginner's mistake. I tried to augment the thickness of it by gluing each of the cover boards to a matching-sized piece of cardboard from a cereal box, and I think either trying to combine the pieces of cardboard or the glue I used caused some warping when the cover boards were drying. I'd be very happy if anyone can point out to me how to prevent this going forward. Here's my finished product:

I am not ready to figure out stamping or foiling for titles yet so I'll get to that as I learn.

The endpapers on the insides turned out good (on the second try heh):

And I like how the signatures look when finished...

...although this shows the warping that occurred as the boards and glue were drying on the finished product:

Tbh I used Elmer's glue with just a few drops of water to make it a consistency I can paint on with a paintbrush for this, so that could be the issue. Glues intimidate me.:-/

But yeah...I made a book!

[calexinred]

currently listening to songs while imagining the agathario wedding...

[rollercoasterwords]

anyway. now that i’ve finished work & eaten food & am in a better mood the flip side to my earlier rant is that if u learn how to handbind fanfic urself & spend the time & energy making a beautiful book on your own for urself or as like a gift for a friend i do love u & i hope u live forever

[roughentumble]

hand binding copies of fanfiction did Not start in twenty goddamn year of our lord eighteen.

[alpinelogy]

been playing around in indesign with theoretically collecting my favorite graphics, getting them printed out properly, and then binding them on my own cause i like a good arts and crafts project and ive handbound stuff before and wdym i only have four graphics i like that used black as its base color? i thought i had way more?

[zerosconsort]

Zero's Fic Binding - Every Marine a Wolfbrother

Every Marine a Wolfbrother by Dira Sudis

Fandom: Generation Kill

Main Ship: Brad Colbert/Nate Fick

Start date: 2/10/24

End Date: 5/26/24

Pages: 430

My first anthology. This is a collection of fics from Dira that I read….back when I was working in New York, so at least 6 years ago. I fell into this fic coming off a mad dash of reading everything under the sun related to A Companion to Wolves, which I found because of a Stony fic.

Built the iconography based off the marine corp logo and a queen wolf. The crown of starts was a stroke of late night inspiration that pays off REAL well. The flat mat black on this book cloth? Fire.

Anyway, I have never watched the show. Literary this was all the knowledge about Generation Kill I ever had before I started reading in this fandom. My inspiration came from the memo pads reporters use - so I wanted that flip notebook flare.

First TOC. This water damaged, gold fleck, hard used notebook idea also carries through the whole bind. We commit to a bit in this house.

The font here for the header, as well as for all of the drop caps and chapter tiles, is based off the Generation Kill show font. I wanted to treat the separate fics as chapters, and I liked the idea of keeping the tag lines for each part of the series here too. Credit pages is…probably a little much, but I also like all the info for all the fics separated.

Chapter headers are flecked with ink. Section brakes are a WIDE verity of hand-drawn lines and slashes.

End papers are a notebook grid paper style - my personal favorite - and portions of the book have grid paper hazed into the background of the pages. And there are wolves in the typeset, sprinkled around. So. Many. Wolves.

Chapter breaks got their own graphics. The colors match the whatever soldier/wolf the chapter is about. Yes, there was a chart. No, I cant remember all the wolves colors now - but Bo is gray and Frost is blue.

Final shot is my very sad first headband. And a great example of what happens if you don't trim your paper edges with the chisel flat and even - you get a visible arch on the foredge. You can see the rough cut of it on the TOC page too. I think this was my first time chisel trimming period, so...not bad.

If your looking for a solid novel's worth of yearning and emotionally constipated men, read this fic series. Even if you dont know anything about the show, this is a good read.

[runawaymarbles]

Fanbinding: What Has Eight Tentacles And Isn't Allowed To Eat Pie? by @no-gorms

Another one I typeset, uh, in January 2023. But it's done! This was an experiment in using the cricut (off-brand) hot foil attachment on leather: it worked really well for small designs, so I thought, why not fly a little higher. Five hours and six sheets of foil later, I was spitting out saltwater. But I decided that the flakiness worked for the design, so I stuck with it. (I tried a second version and added glaire between the foil layers, but the spots that got missed in that one looked worse to me because of how solid the rest was.)

[hoje--aqui]

I really scary of Manacled, but i'm really curious too. So I really wants read, but I think 'maybe not now'. And I feel this really, really, really is this kind of history that I need be all pen on paper to survive till the end.

I was typesetting DMATMOOBIL this days, to handbiding, and seriously thinking on just binding a manacled edition and put on my shelf to a day when I lose my mind and decides to read it.

me trying to decide which of my fav dramione fics to reread tonight

[justheblueberry]

I Wish You Were My Husband by Feynite

book & clamshell box for @towns-end-bindery for the Renegade California Mini Exchange!!! THE REVEAL!!!! wow its been so long since i started this it feels kind of unreal haha

this exchange sent me on a journey through so many lovely fics and new fandoms that were a delight to explore! i have Learned Things about svsss and honestly the more i hear the more excited i am to (eventually!!) finally read it

about the bind itself, it was a bit of a ride. i learned like 5 new skills in total, including:

- cover cutouts

- suminagashi edges

- my first book box!!

- chisel trimming edges by myself, which, um, definitely couldve gone better but it was fine after a few hours of sanding

- using REAL TOOLS???? lost count how many times i forgot i have a bone folder and made my book arts teacher take psychic damage

i fiddled with the typeset for several months, but in the end finished the book like a month early. so naturally my hubris rose from the dead and decided that making my first box would be a great idea!

i finished it with like 12 hours to spare before i was heading to the airport because i never learn

big thanks to fran for organizing this and congrats to everyone participating!!! WE CAME!!!

[etherati]

I'm so proud of this bind!

So this is What Light Tastes Like by AshesAndHoney, and it's just such an endearing, sincere, and sexy execution of the "they wander around the countryside dealing with ever increasing levels of sexual tension and accidental feelings, while figuring out how to put it all together" trope. Which, I gotta say, I love being in a fandom where that's a common trope because ❤️💛🩵

The cover is done entirely by sunprinting with cyanotype treated fabric-- no augmentation or editing whatsoever, entirely printed with the power of the sun. I've included some process pics for this one because I really wanted to show that off. It's also my first typeset using Affinity, which allowed me to do some really fun things with the chapter header pages.

Legal quarto with patterned endpapers from French. The titling font is Swingset BB, the window icons are from the font Nature Boho, sun dingbats from the font Cute Sun, full page spread graphic is a stock photo that was heavily edited, and headbands are sewn on.

Done in advance for Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day 2024, will be shipping second copy to the author as part of this event.