moonshinebindery

[moonshinebindery]

😫😫😫OKAY!!!

#pit babe the series #garfield pantach #pit babe season 2 #this love doesn't have long beans

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In a world where idols/actors try to portray their perfection, it’s always refreshing to see an actor who is unapologetic himself 🧡

#khaotung thanawat

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How could I forget this.

#Steve Buscemi #The Impostors #The Impostors 1998

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Book No. 22

I bound my first tiny book last week, a very small copy of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by @tsttoain, and I am a convert. I love the cute size, I love that fucking up only costs one (1) sheet of A4, and I love turning a project around in a single evening. Seriously. 4-5 hours, including typesetting, and that’s with me pausing to figure out each set as I went. Amazing. It is a *revelation.*

Not only was this my first tiny book, this was also the author’s first foray into this ship and into writing smut; I really like the symmetry of trying something new in my binding when she was trying something new in her writing. I bound two copies, one for the author and one to keep.

I am always grateful to the @renegadepub discord community for their support, but they really came through this time as I gave myself a crash course in tiny typesetting and binding and turned this around in just a few hours.

With the exception of the pages, both copies are made entirely of scraps from previous projects, and I am delighted at how they’re both a new and complete object in their own right, and simultaneously one that carries with it the ghosts of other books books I’ve bound to date.

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #moonshine bindery

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Book No. 9

Ages ago now, @kangofu-cb reached out about having a copy of A Heart Worth Loving bound, and I was so excited to work on this for her. So excited that I sent it off with taking any photos of the finished book, in fact, and had to sheepishly ask for some after it arrived. Luckily she was super accommodating, ty lovely! (If you haven’t read the fic, check it out, it’s really beautiful.)

I don’t want to say that this bind was cursed, but it was absolutely the most challenging bind to date. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong, from the typeset to casing in. I guess it was inevitable that I’d case in upside down eventually, but I was gutted to lose the first endpapers, a wooden-floor effect paper with gold highlights that I’d found specially for this project; I ended up ‘saving’ half of them so there’s an unusual double-endpaper thing going on. But this marbled paper is also quite classy I think.

The cover was a pain as well; I wanted to reflect the apartment that’s the setting for most of the fic, but I did not know what I was doing with HTV so attempt one came out incredibly wonkily. Luckily, I already knew I wanted a copy for myself.

The thing I like best about the author copy is the envelope in the back, which has a little booklet with all the fic’s art. I used Sea Lemon’s accordion pocket tutorial, kindly recommended in the Renegade Bindery discord, and the construction was far simpler than I worried it would be. Next time I’d adjust the spine and hinge gaps more to accommodate the enclosure, as it was bulkier than anticipated, but as a way of including art I think it’s not bad.

It’s always nice being approached by an author instead of having to go to them, which I get very nervous about, and CB was delightful to collaborate with on design questions, so even with the construction issues this was a fantastic project and I’m so happy to have been able to work on it.

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #moonshine bindery #winterhawk #kangofu cb

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Book No. 12

The wonderful @there-must-be-a-lock is running a fanworks-of-fanworks event right now, and I was lucky enough for @kangofu-cb to let me bind her fic Third Wheel as my entry. This is the fic that got me shipping Winterhawkhood, and I'm just inordinantly fond of it, so I was delighted to get a chance to play with it for a moment.

At 10k, it's just the right length for a little quarto binding. It's also a very hot fic about threesomes and roleplay, which makes it a lot of fun to read, but a little bit tricky to design a cover for. I played with a few ideas before settling on this very simple three-line motif, in chameleonic HTV, which wraps around the whole book. It's my first time trying a bigger design like this, and I'm not mad about the result.

What I am a little mad about is messing up the HTV on one of the copies; up until this point, this was the nicer copy and was going to go to the author, but this relegated it to my copy.

The main difference between the two copies is the inside title pages. My printer coped poorly with the bold line motif, so I went over it with metallic paint, and there's a slight variation in the silvers I used, as well as how neat I managed to be (I used a ruler and everything, I'm just clumsy. A lesson learned).

They also have slightly different colours on the covers. It's really hard to capture in a photo, but they both change colour depending on the angle they're held at, blue-to-purple or blue-to-green. (Obligatory pic of the books being prepped for pressing because it makes me laugh every time.)

The point of the fanworks-of-fanworks event is to show appreciation for creators of fanworks, just as they do for the source material(s) that inspire their fics and art, their playlists and podfics and fanvids and cosplays. I think it's a beautiful idea for an event, and I hope this little book shows some of the love I have for this fic, and the wider fandom community.

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #moonshine bindery #kangofu_cb #winterhawkhood #fanworks of fanworks #dc/marvel crossover

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Book No. 13

A tête-bêche quarto of two Hannibal fics by emungere, bound for @springkitten, which were exactly the right length to make this a satisfyingly chunky little book to hold.

I have to confess I'm only passing familiar with Hannibal, so I had to take a wild stab at the vibes (as Hannibal does at people, perhaps?), but they assure me that these were acceptable.

This was my first time typesetting from start to finish in Affinity Publisher, and I'm now at that stage where it's not so frustrating to use that I can't appreciate how powerful a tool it is, which is great.

I also trialled a new method of hot foiling, using a handheld foil pen with a plotter-cut vinyl stencil. I'm really pleased with the results here, which is largely due to the faux-leather bookcloth (also a first for me). It took the foiling beautifully, as well as taking creases nicely and generally being very fun to work with.

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #emungere #hannibal #quarto #moonshine bindery

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Today, I received my very own copy of Only Friends/Heart in a Cage bound by @mightymightygnomepriest with @moonshinebindery. It is an absolutely work of art. I cried for a solid five minutes when I saw it. I know I’ve said this before Rachael, but you don’t know how amazing it feels to see my words in actual print. It’s very much a dream come true and I cannot thank you enough 💕 Look how beautiful, guys!!

#I’m so glad you like it! #such a relief #this was a really amazingly fun project to work on #and I will read my own copy over and over I’m sure #only friends fic #bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #the eclipse #BL #thai bl #akkayan #akkaye

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Book No. 11

A fic-specific reading journal, with a typeset adapted from Battenkill Rose Bindery’s bookbinding register. I particularly like the index detail, as well as the late-18th century feel of the title page.

I wanted this to look right next to my register (the yellow-covered book, above), but not be an exact match, so I once again recycled a scrap of bookcloth for the spine. This time I used a piece used for practicing hot-pen foiling by hand, tracing over a sketch of vines.

I used paper I had on hand for the rest of the cover and endpapers (I think I had another project in mind for them at some point, but it’s now lost to the mists of time), and I like them for this anyway.

There’s some quite bad wrinkling on the endpapers, at the spine edge. I tried a wider hinge than usual, in the hopes the finished book would lie open more easily - it’s to be written in, after all - which may have something to do with it. So at some point in the future I will have to give in and start experimenting with paste, probably.

#bookbinding #fanfic #fanfiction #moonshine bindery #fic journal #reading journal

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Book No. 10

À tête-bêche quarto for LovelyFanficWriter (@firstkanaphans)’s gorgeous pair of Eclipse fics about Akk and Aye finding themselves in uni. They’re told from differing perspectives and feature some of my favourite tropes, including miscommunication that wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t quite so incredibly blockheaded.

I’m particularly fond of the endpapers, a sort of lustre-y, shimmery marbled effect whose colours I completely failed to capture here.

I left the fore edge untrimmed and only cut the pages as needed for the quarto folding; I feel like at this size it doesn’t hinder readability, and I knew I wasn’t doing to need a sanded fore edge for painting or gilding, so I decided not to take my chances with trimming. Also, I still have the scar on my finger from the last time I tried to chisel a text block, so.

I’m also really happy with the HTV cover, which includes some really incredibly fine lines (pencil above for scale).

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #firstkanaphans #only friends the fic #heart in a cage #the eclipse #fanworks

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Book No. 8

Another gift binding! I decided to make this book just over 24 hours before the last posting date to get it to its new owner before Christmas, and while it was fun (if chaotic) to bind a book from start to finish in a day, with only materials I already had on hand, it does have some mistakes as a result (though really, who needs a bookmark on a fic this short? And I don’t think the lack of endbands is going to cause any major structural issues).

The endpapers are my favourite detail. The story is about the ritual burning of the Yule goat each year in Gävle, and shockingly I had absolutely no paper on hand that was suitable for those themes. The design was done in Affinity and foiled with a Cricut (foiling card is so much easier than cloth!). 

The typeset had a couple of big errors, again mostly due to time constraints. The biggest was the title page so I foiled a card and stuck that in to cover it.

This fic is a particular favourite of mine, and binding it was a really joyful thing. I have fixed the errors with the typeset (although I have, of course, introduced fun new errors to it as well!) and will be binding my own copy soon, too. 

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #it’s beginning to look a lot like arson #marvel

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Book No. 6

A bound copy of Give Thanks To Broken Bones, a gorgeous Marvel/DC crossover fic by @thepartyresponsible. This is the fic that convinced me to give DC a chance, for which I am now very grateful. It’s also a favourite fic of one of my favourite people, so this copy is a gift for @bittercape. I will bind myself a copy at some point - I spent too long wrangling with this typeset not to - but probably not until the new year.

I trialled a lot of things for the cover; I had a really specific design in mind, and the final version is not quite right but is closer than I thought I’d get to it. The main thing, of course, was that it be as shiny as I could possibly make it, and it’s not far off.

The cricut did eat the foil slightly (hence the central TO on a wonk), but we are chalking that up to a design choice and moving swiftly on. I’m pleased with the jaggedy edge effect and the rest of the text, anyway. But my favourite design element is the pill-heart detail on the back cover.

As always, my goal (in addition to celebrating a fic I love and making a gift for a friend), was learning new skills and trying new techniques. I did learn a few things about foil, but honestly I think my main takeaway was that I really, really love shiny things ✨❤️

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #give thanks to broken bones #thepartyresponsible #moonshine bindery

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#bookbinding

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Book No. 5

A register of books bound! The text is a (very, very slighted edited) version of Battenkill Rose Bindery’s book journal, and the inspiration to make one in the first place came from Robin’s Egg Bindery who made a beautiful journal from the same typeset recently.

I wanted this to be a very quick, very economical, and very personal book. All the materials are scraps or leftovers from other binds, with the exception of the yellow lantern paper, which I bought a while ago with no particular project in mind.

The book cloth was a scrap I used to test foiling for other projects; I added the red foil dots to make it look slightly more intentional. (I also signed the boards before casing, mostly because once I’ve got the foil pen out I can’t be stopped.)

The boards were jiggled together with strips of leftover endpapers from another project, and the endpapers are a delightfully scrappy mix of whatever I had on hand.

#bookbinding

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Book No. 3:

A tête-bêche binding of Perfectly Green by @bottomvegas and Fluffety Flippity Floo, Totally Perfect Only For You by @moneskinwrites, two friends who wrote fics as a birthday gift for a third friend, and bound as a birthday gift by me (how lovely to be part of such a beautiful project, and how wonderful to work with so many people to make this!).

This was my first quarto binding, as well, and I did not anticipate how fiddly it would be working on a smaller scale. I did enjoy the folding, although I got the imposition a little wrong and ended up with screwy signatures; not helped by the fact that I only decided to make it a tète-bêche binding after printing and folding the first story, so the second fic was a short signature on its own rather than part of the same print run.

I think it worked out ok, though, and everything seems structurally sound.

The books are clothbound, with William Morris endpapers and double bookmarks. The hot foiling was done by hand using a stencil; I tried a couple of different styles (filled in and outlined) as well as accidentally using rose gold foil on one.

Two of the copies will go to the authors, and I may carefully foil their names on the spines if I feel brave enough between now and next spring.

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #giftbinding #kinnporsche fanfic #Kinnporsche ficbinding

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Book No. 1:

A bound copy of Baguettes At Dawn, by @bittercape and @mightymightygnomepriest (that’s me!).

Cloth and paper case with hand-drawn endpapers, and a hand-painted spine. I was delighted to find such thematically appropriate paper from Paper Tree Nook, even though it really clashes with the endpapers.

The spine was a mistake; you can see the test I did with a stencil, which didn’t work all that well. I then free-handed the spine on the final copies, but it wasn’t much better, although it did have the advantage of looking more organic I suppose.)

I was pleased with some of the small details in the typeset, including the small coffee bean scene breaks you can see on the third picture.

Two copies bound in total; one gifted to bittercape and the other kept for personal use.

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanbinding #mightymightygnomepriest #fanfic binding #bittercape

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Book No. 4:

Carry Me Into The Light by @theoldastronomer.

Bound as a gift for a friend, and hopefully I’ll be able to give the author a copy in person in the new year.

This is a really beautiful fic and I wanted to reflect that in the book design. I also wanted it to be small. I chose a quarto size in the end; really, the fic was a tiny bit too short and would have been better as an octavo, or with a typeset that took up a few more pages. But despite being at the lower end of what was comfortable to bind in quarto I think it turned out ok.

This binding was also a chance to experiment with foiling on the cricut (so. many. mistakes. were made.), as well as tinker with a little bit of graphic design. I’m really pleased with the cover in the end, and glad I learned some lessons too.

The last pic is a tiny bit of piecing I did to try and hide a tear made during casing in. It’s not particularly elegant but I think it looks a little better than the rip it’s fixing.

The book is clothbound only, with wrapping paper endpapers and pressure-transfer foiling on the cover.

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #theoldastronomer #kinnporsche #kinnporsche fanfic #Kinnporsche fanbinding