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[zhalfirin-binds]

This wonderful book was gifted to me!!! I can't say much more than I love this binding! The style combines the two fandoms wonderfully. The endpapers reminded me of spirit ribbons too (I really wished they had used that concept more in Bleach). Those, the endbands, the panels that reflect the title page and the whole binding are just so coherent. It was simply a pleasure to hold in hand and read. It might be a stupid thing to be happy about, but I also very much appreciated to have room for my fingers to hold the book open without covering up text (and since we're already at the book body, the chapter starts are wonderful. Such an elegant solution, I'm absolutely going to steal this idea for a future bind XD)

Fanbinding: There May Be Some Collateral Damage by @metisket

Ichigo’s been ordered to go undercover at a magic school to bodyguard a kid named Harry Potter, and this would be fine, except that he’s about as good at bodyguarding as he is at magic. And he considers it a good day, magic-wise, if he hasn’t set anything on fire.

The last book I bound in 2023 - "There May Be Some Collateral Damage" a Bleach/Harry Potter crossover by metisket. I bound this fic as a gift for @zhalfirin for our meet up, and I was SUPER EXCITED because I think Zhalf is probably one of the few people I could bind this for, and I have been wanting to bind it for A WHILE. It could definitely be categorized as crackfic, but it is a wild and very fun ride through Ichigo's eyes into the ridiculousness of the Wizarding world (and vice versus for the HP trio).

My love of basic shapes is on full display here with trapezoidal chapter pages, rectangle inset panels, and little circular bursts for magic. This bind uses cranberry colibri cloth and a chiyogami paper I found reminiscent of the spirit ribbons seen in early Bleach. (Also... more colors of thread for endbands were purchased).

I traced and painted the panels for the cover with gold paint pen, splattered them to give a little more chaos to the image, and then varnished them before placing them into their settings in the boards. Similarly, the edges are splattered with the same color scheme. Titles and circle designs were hand-foiled.

This fic is even better explained by this quote from the author: "I wrote this mostly because, despite the surprising number of Bleach/Harry Potter fics out there, none of them seem to address the fact that sending Ichigo to Hogwarts is basically the same as swinging a wrecking ball directly into the side of the castle."

Thank you for sharing such a fantastic fic with us!

[zhalfirin-binds]

Edible Book Day 2024

the appetizers

A Commonplace Snack by Daemonluna

A collection of tropes and other ephemera, rendered in nori and rice paper. Sewn with a glass sweet potato noodle, ornamented with cilantro and lime.

This is how we roll (bamboo slips) by anonymous

This is the first book I have made since joining Renegade. I didn't think I'd get to make books and eat them too.

The (Not Actually) Matzah Plague Board Book by Noodle and Noodle's Auntie

10 Plagues by Noodle and Noodle's Auntie. Illustration by Noodle and Noodle's Auntie. Writing and Binding by Noodle. Materials: Gluten Free Matzo Substitute, fruit roll ups, fruit by the foot, sour belts, licorice, fruit rolls, sour sticks, cumin, water.

a fluffy breaduation by Sandy Kitty Bindery

i do not regret anything... except maybe the dentist bills ;)

Pancake Scroll by Zhalfirin

This was a lot easier than I had anticipated. A bit bland because I wasn't sure what I'd do the painting with and therefore didn't season the batter. It goes really well with a side of salmon and soy sauce though.

the mains

the iron chef secret ingredient was lasers by Lark

lasers are friends not food.

6/10, at least I chose turkey this year.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Thunder (Dragon's Thunder Press)

This was my first book bind ever. The case is French toast. The 2 signatures are each made of 3 omelet folios, and they're sewn with mozzarella string cheese strands. The end pages are each a slice of prosciutto, and they're pasted in with raspberry fruit syrup. Finally, the titling was done with black icing.

Sandwiches (And Books) Are Beautiful by Velvetwastaken

The ‘book’ ultimately failed to be readable as such due to a betrayal by the onion binding. But it tasted amazing, and thus I think still encapsulated the spirit of edible book day: good books are meant to be devoured.

and of course… … the desserts!

Mistakes were Marbled by anonymous

I baked a strawberry cake with buttercream icing. The buttercream set a bit too quickly for the marbled effect to work, and attempts to fix it caused structural damage, resulting in ... this. I would like half-points for retaining good flavor, despite appearances.

Brandy Snaps by Lottie

Brandy snaps for the pages, strawberry laces for thread. Complete with two weaver’s knots to tie the strawberry laces together

Book Cookies by six

Sadly not fully functional books - the cases are rigid sugar cookies baked into various open forms. The pages are edible wafer paper marked up here and there w/ an edible ink pen and the frosting quite tasty! Experimented with two different sizes and various page configurations. Fed some of them to various Renegade members. There were no fatalities.

Titles are overrated by Zhalfirin

I'm still baffled this turned out the way it did.

It's a delicious little baumkuchen chonker (app. A6 in size and about 6cm thick) cased in chocolate powdered marzipan.

Don't forget to vote for your favorite! And check out last year's winners here.

[zhalfirin-binds]

And because ONE project wasn't enough I tried my hand on a second edible book. I named it 'Titles are overrated', because they truly are... and my respect for people who paint their book titles by hand has grown again.

inner book: homemade baumkuchen (actually 2 parts glued together with apricot jam)

case: marzipan coloured with cocoa powder and a bit of powdered sugar, 'blind tooled' with skewers (the pointy end for the lines, the blunt end for the dots) dusted with cocoa powder

endbands: 2 colours of marzipan

false raised bands: more marzipan

glue: apricot jam

titling: chocolate pen

[zhalfirin-binds]

HAPPY EDIBLE BOOKDAY!

Do scrolls count as books? Probably not, but I feel they fit in here in the spirit of written records/stories.

So enjoy my pancake scroll fanbinding.

To be fair, on its own, the scroll was bland. Intentionally so though. I wasn't sure with what I'd be writing on it, so I left myself all options .

handles: bread sticks

scroll: pancakes made in the style of tamagomaki

writing/painting: caramel colour

size: 18cm x ~70cm (scroll size)k

[zhalfirin-binds]

bead on the edge endbands...

... and how to make them easier and touch them up a bit.

One thing I find incredibly helpful is using a core like 'glue on endbands' and then sew around it. It keeps the core in place and can even be done on perfect bound books. With sewn books I do a tie down in the first and last section to secure the ends more firmly to the text block, but it doesn't really need more tie downs.

I leave the fake core a bit larger than the book so I can work really the outside of the first section to the outside of the last. Only after that I trim the core down and try to cut it as close as I can to the endband thread without damaging it.

Still there's a good chance some of the core remains visible. If it blends in with the endbands and or covering materials I just leave it. If not I colour it slightly with a coloured pencil (I don't use coloured pens for that because the colour can soak into the thread and might be even more obvious than the visible core had been).

After that's done I seal the colour by dabbing a bit of PVA on the edge and the lower part of the first wrap of thread there. This also helps to keep that outermost wrap from slipping off the core.

If there is a little fuzz on the thread used for endbands, those can be burned off by running a flame over it real quick. It just burns the fuzz off but doesn't damage the thread. I've done this cotton and silk thread now, but I hear it also works for polyester thread.

As a last step I check the bead. Sometimes it looks a bit irregular. But that can often be fixed or at least lessened by pushing it down on the edge with a blunt instrument. I like to use my small bonefolder for that, but a blunt butter knife or a round tipped spatula would work just the same. Just check there's nothing the thread might catch on before using it.

Last I secure the endband by gluing a bit of tissue paper to the spine side of it. High enough to cover the sewing holes and start/ end knot, but not as high to be visible when looking at the endband once the book is finished.

[zhalfirin-binds]

Paper repair

I took apart a commercially sewn book and when taking off the glue, the outermost sheet of each section took some damage. I often get away with only some minor roughening of the paper. In this case the text paper was thinned considerably though (one got even torn) and I chose to reinforce the fold before sewing again.

The process is pretty straight forward. I made some methylcellulose glue, cut some japanese tissue paper (it blends more nicely with the paper when torn instead of cut, but I suck tearing it neatly enough) and set up finn board, blotting paper and some Hollytex for drying.

Then I spread the methylcellulose on the fold area in the opened sheet, added the tissue paper and went over it with a soft brush and some more methylcellulose again to smooth down the tissue paper.

Once that is done the sheet gets sandwiched between a layer of finn board, blotting paper, Hollytex, the sheet, more Hollytex, blotting paper and finn board again and gets to dry with a wooden board and a weight on top.

Hollytex is a non woven and acid free polyester material that allows moisture to pass through while not sticking (too much) to glue. So that's really helpful to keep paper with glue or possible seepage of it from sticking to blotting paper. I don't use it for everything that has glue involved (especially not PVA) but whenever I can't clean up any seepage or have glued the surface of paper as a treatment.

[zhalfirin-binds]

Edge colouring with acrylic paint

I was asked to go over my process for painting edges and I wanted to do a new one so I could take good pictures of the process. Alas, I don't have the time to do that at the moment so a quick write up with already existing pictures it is

These pictures only show the colouring of the top edge. Traditionally it's either the top edge or all edges that get coloured/decorated. Colouring the front edge of a rounded book comes with another set of challenges that I will not address here. (On the upside, colouring a straight front edge is just the same.)

The basic procedure is always the same though.

First up the book is set in a press. Trimming helps to get a more even surface and will help reducing the time one spends on sanding.

Prepping the bookblock I prep the bookblock and use some sturdy and not voluminous paper to cushion the bookblock between boards. A bonus on this is, the cushioning can adapt to the shape of the bookblock. As visible the pictures, these are from colouring the edge of book with shoulders (which means it has not only been rounded but also backed). By cushioning the bookblock I can protect the shoulders from being squashed by the boards when I apply pressure. The cushioning paper should also be larger than the book itself. Otherwise the pressure from clamping the edge tight can cause a smaller cushioning to leave marks on the bookblock. (btw paper from high gloss magazines is perfect, because it's very dense and will not be compressed/ reduce pressure on the bookblock)

Putting the book in the press For this you need a press that allows to have one side of the book (the one you're working on) point upwards. The paper is level with the edge, but the boards are a bit recessed (no more than 5mm). This is done to keep pressure on the bookblock without having to sand the boards at the same time. Also thinner bookblocks can quickly get sanded at an angle which is a) an aesthetic issue and b) causes trouble when taking the measurements for the case.

When the book sits tightly in the press (here the go to is, give it as much as you have! you want those pages so tight no water is seeping in and causes bleed! Sometimes paper quality is lacking though and it can't be avoided.)

Sanding the edge Sanding is, in my experience, the one of the crucial parts of edge colouring. A smooth edge will lead to an even result and removes one possible cause for flaking (there are more though). Even my trimmed books usually have a mark from the blade when trimming and to get an even looking result those need to go. I sand in different grits, starting with a 120 sandpaper wrapped around a block of cork or another tool for holding the paper. I go no lower than than to avoid getting even deeper groves than there still are. Then I follow up with 180, 240 and 320 paper. Usually that's enough to get a glossy sheen on the edge. (different book but you can see that gloss and the part I still had to go over in the pictures below)

Once they have that sheen...

DO NOT TOUCH THE EDGE!

I know it's hard. The temptation to just run the fingers over them great. They look so smooth and shiny. Almost silken to the touch... and they are... but I repeat YOU MUST NOT TOUCH!

The oils on your skin can interfere with a good result. Especially water based colours may not stick as well to the areas touched as others, glues and foils do not adhere as well, stuff like that. Applying colour When the book is in the press it's not removed or pressure reduced before the edge decoration is done. For the colour shift acrylic paints it's essential to get a dark foundation. Otherwise the colour will not show! I've done this with ink.

(This was really rushed and not neat at all, don't aim for a look like that! All the darker parts show where I did not have a smooth surface yet. Even the cutting marks from trimming are till visible.)

In my experience working with acrylic paints is more forgiving to laziness when sanding than inks. At least when it comes to even coverage in the end, possible flaking is a different matter.

The colourshift acrylic paint was way more liquid than the ones I'm familiar with, still they needed diluting (a first go with undiluted colour resulted in severe flaking). For the ratio on how to dilute I can't give measurements. I think I ended up with a rather thin colour and did several passes until I was satisfied with the colourshift effect.

No matter what coat is applied I use a soft brush that is wider than the bookblock to cover all at once and avoid to obvious streaks. The direction of brushing is from spine area to the front. I try to get the whole edge covered in 1 motion. To avoid colour seeping down the front edge I lift the brush towards the end so there's less pressure pushing a bit of colour ahead of the brush and spilling down the front edge. (I'm still working on that part, different paints behave differently, but that's the ideal to aim for.)

Now all to do is wait until the colour is completely dry. Which is rather fast with acrylics but takes a bit longer with ink. That step can be speed up a bit with a hairdryer on low heat and from a distance to allow the colour to dry evenly and then the book can be taken out of the press.

I've seen different approaches to separate the edges. Mine is a gentle wave motion. Holding on to the books spine and front and just twisting it and pushing the pages so they move against each other.

If all went well there's a rewarding crackle and no colour flakes off. If colour flakes off, it's back to square one, sanding until all is clean and smooth, colouring, drying and separating (and hoping this time all goes well).

As a reference for the colourshift paints I used, I did a test sheet for the chameleon colours. So here's a dot of the same colour on white paper as the stripes under or next to it on the black and also slightly different angles to show the colourshift (sadly it photographs really bad on flat surfaces)

[zhalfirin-binds]

Hi I saw your Carmella and the vampire text blocks and was wondering if you sell them in sheets somewhere?

Hello and thank you for asking, I'm sorry to disappoint though. I do not sell my typesets in any way, BUT Carmilla and The Vampyr are both public domain and freely available. As are the decorative frames by Alphonse Mucha I used (they are from the book Cloches de Noël et de Pâques), the fonts for the title (Boecklins Universe) and chapter title (Amarante) if you want to re-create it in your own fashion :)

[zhalfirin-binds]

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu & The Vampyr by John William Polidori

This time I'm sharing pictures of a typeset I made for fellow @renegadepublishing friends to bind at an in-person-workshop dimitris_bookbinding_corner (at least some of the fancy pictures).

Look at one of the finished binds created by @celestial-sphere-press

Sooo, about this typeset, what can I say? It was a joy and a pain to create this typeset to meet certain requirements in page count and size as well as getting to use wonderful book illustrations by Alphonse Mucha. Some typos were found, others, well now they stare me in the eye...

While the chapter start pages for Carmilla (on the left) were simply the original frames and illustrations with the text replaced by the text of Carmilla, I wanted The Vampyr (on the right) to look the similar, but yet different from the first story. There was no way around sticking to Mucha, because, well, nothing else went as well with is style than his style. After some experimenting with different works of Mucha I went with his moon and stars cycle in addition to the 1903 cover the 'Paris illustre' and the lithography for Flirt biscuits by the company Lefèvre Utile (today still known as LU)' from 1899 to tie them together.

The Carmilla typeset is actually a merge with the main text sourced from Project Gutenberg and notes sourced from a version found at the University of Pennsylvania. (I also learned the word 'odylic' from these notes. Before I'd have considered it simply a typo XD)

[zhalfirin-binds]

coloured edges with colourshift acrylic inks

One of the things that baffles me most is how these colours look like nothing on a white ground, just a pale pearly shimmer that often doesn't even look much like the colours it shifts to, but have a dark surface and there it is.

I still have to get the hang of how much to dilute these acrylic inks for colouring edges though (I had a bad case of flaking with the first edge I coloured and needed to do it new, but it still turned out with a nice shift eventually).

[zhalfirin-binds]

Detail pictures of my binds of Call Me Menace & Villains Never Retire by wingedcat13

I tried for a shadowy design since that felt most fitting for Synovus. It is not as dark as I had liked in some areas, but I love how dying the vellum brings out the different structures in the skin. The small veins and sometimes even the pores. All depending on what part of the hide the material was cut from and so I just kept it as it is.

Thing is, one never quite knows what comes from dying vellum, but despite all it's finickiness and surprises it holds in stock, there are things parchment can do incredibly well. Like having really nice corners where the edges of both turn-ins blend almost seamless into one another.

[zhalfirin-binds]

Inserting (durable) tapes after sewing.

Ever wanted to keep on working, but you didn't have all the supplies ready yet? That's what happened to me. I sat at home with a few books printed and ready to be sewn, but the tapes had not arrived. So what I did was I folded some paper the width of the tapes and and sewed on those.

Now paper doesn't make for good tapes and I knew I'd have mine in a few days ready. That's why I folded the pieces of paper in half, sewed on the folded paper and when the tapes arrived I replaced the paper ones.

I cut the tapes to length and inserted them into the folded paper with a part sticking out so I have something to hold on to later.

I pulled the paper, with the new tape partly inside, through until I was sure the sewing was in the middle of the new tape before I l held on to the top part of the new tape and pulled the paper completely out

Inserting the tapes like this took me about 1-2 minutes. But that was only because I had planned it ahead, if one pulls out an tape accidentally it's a lot harder to the them back in again (but also possible).

[zhalfirin-binds]

So, what happened was, I was rushing a step. Simply as that. Printing was already weird, because for some reason printer simply decided to stop printing before the last 2 sections were printed. (There was paper and toner a plenty.) I noticed as I was building sections/signatures (and after I had to literally had to fold back EACH sheet because I somehow had folded them all the wrong way, but it was fine, no harm done. Easy fix.)

I took extra care to fold the last sections correctly, got to sewing, finished the book and only on reading noticed... the very last section was folded the wrong way. All present and accounted for, but each sheet was out of order which made reading a hustle.

Luckily this is an easy fix.

I printed the last section again. Folded and cut in half so I had single sheets

In the next step, I cut out the pages in the wrong order and left over a small ledge, about 3-4mm. I used the cut out pages to adjust my book height. (I trim my books so the newly printed sheets were not the same height anymore as the trimmed book block).

I applied a small strip of glue on the freshly printed sheet that was next in order and pushed it under the first small ledge. (A piece of paper helps with getting a clean line and really just gluing a small strip without too much glue on it.)

I did the same with each new sheet and pushed it under the next empty ledge until they were all glued in. Now in correct order. Last I put some blotting paper and something (it's silicon paper, I use silicon paper for that, but really, a sheet of plastic sheet protector does the job just the same) to prevent any possible excess glue from gluing the papers to each other instead of just the ledge and let that dry between boards and with a weight on top

Last I trimmed the front edge again so the added sheets were the same length as the ones in the book block.

(Oh, and have a peek at this too narrow oxford hollow that got pulled loose.)

[zhalfirin-binds]

Sometimes I get impatient when binding books (not a good combination I know, but well). After folding and gathering and pressing the sections/signatures there is still a step to do that just takes a moment, adding the endpapers to the outer sections. Now just tipping them on would not take that long, true, but I pretty much always do hidden cloth-jointed endpapers to enhance the paper and get a more durable connection between bookblock and case or some other sort of more complex endpaper. Those take time to dry and I can't rush that (much). So what I do is, I just start sewing with the second section, but keep a tail about 1,5 x bookblock length. That way I can sew the first section with the endpaper once it's dry enough for that. The sewing process is no different from any other section where I tie off after the section. I simply turn the book around so the signature I want to add lies on top and keep sewing.

[zhalfirin-binds]

Look at things gone wrong with Moomin Midwinter

There's plenty that went wrong with this bind and stupid me kept thinking 'I can fix this'. Well, turned out I could not, some of the things that went wrong were just the step to finish it completely so, well, this is what came out of it

Most prominently, and first thing to go wrong, was the fact that I managed to pare a hole into my leather. Only later I realised, the display on my leather thickness gauge can be turned so it reads 0 thickness when the pushed down without anything in between. Instead of paring down to 0,6 or 0,7 mm I was usually closer to 0,3 or 0,4mm... which explains the hole. Of course the hole was not closer enough to the edge to be covered up or trimmed off too. So I decided to put a think piece of the same leather beneath it to cover the board and have the same colour. This might even have worked, had the hole ended up on a flat surface and in the area that gets the most motion. At least it's on the backside.

Next thing, I did not not sufficiently colour the white core of my endbands. I usually colour them with crayons, but for some reason the colour did not stick this time. I might still be able to fix this with acrylic colour. Either that or I ruin the leather trying XD

Then the mock up on the backside cover. Often the pictures I use are too small or have a too little surrounding the scene I actually want on the cover to be usable as they are without white frames. So what I do is I make the actual picture larger using GIMP of Affinity Photo to create a wider, patterned border and avoid blank turn ins. On the backside I did not notice I failed to make the edge large enough and blend in nicely so I have a more pale and blurry covered area and (to me) obvious edge shape of the tool I used.

Another thing I noticed too late and which was probably the cause for some follow up issues. I think I hung in the book block slightly askew. Now the inner book looks like it's cut askew too. (I measured back and front and I'm fairly certain the skew comes from a twist in the spine and not from the book block being cut at an angle.)

Following this issue, the squares were fucked up. Too large on one side too narrow on the other. I noticed that when I pasted down and closed the lid only lightly to check and fix any skew if necessary. It was necessary on back and front. So I pushed the paste down gently into a nicer position and pressed. Turned out fixing the position left me with wrinkles on the paste down side of the book. Luckily the pattern hides that rather well. (Have some close ups for better view)

Additionally, the paste downs, I cut 1mm shorter because I already suspected the cheap paper would stretch a lot, stretched beyond the book block still and are now visible even when the covers are closed.

[zhalfirin-binds]

Call of Cthulhu Tiny books WIP pics

All of those were done in the aftermath of Renegade's tiny books bang 2023. You see what happened was, I did a typeset (typesetting one book for the exchange meant I'd receive a copy bound by someone else!), but I could not decide which one I wanted to submit. So I did a test print of the different variations, but since they are so small and the test print took only 2 sheets and I had to print 1 sheet anyway to check margins and the design I picked, I just printed both sheets. Now there they were and it would have been a horrible waste to throw three perfectly good already printed books away. So I bound them and then I had 4 tiny book blocks to try different designs and use up scrap leather pieces that were too small for anything else. Only 4 months later all of them have found a new home and I could do more if I want to.

[zhalfirin-binds]

Visiting the bookbinders fair in Leiden (NL) I came out with a couple of very pretty handmade marbled papers by Papiers Prina from Belgium.

I could also check out the tairei papers I've seen online but hadn't been sure how they would look. The speckles have a wonderful metallic sheen and especially the grey/silver one is very subtle. The flakes of silver flash surprisingly like fish bellies in a pond.