#fic binding

[navigateme]

“Free from the wicked torment of sin; free from the last fuck I’m handing in”

Halfway through reading Dear Your Holiness by MollyMaryMarie for the first time, I knew it was going to be one of those fics that I read over and over and over again so it’s no surprise that it’s the one I chose for my very first bind!

@mollymarymarie thank you for creating such a masterpiece, I’m obsessed 🤩

Everyone in the bookbinding community has been so nice to me so far but I really wanted to give a huge shout-out to @vellichorbindery for sharing this gorgeous typeset with me and being so kind!!

Since this was my first bind, I definitely made some mistakes and learned a lot but I’m so proud with how the finished product turned out!

This is for personal use only; I will not do commissions.

#bookbinding #fic binding #dear your holiness #mollymarymarie #wolfstar #marauders #mine #favorite fics

[nocturnus33]

"Book binders are making fanfiction physical, so it can sit alongside the authorized tales"

#fantastic ficbinders and where to find them #fanbinding #fan art #ficbinding #ficbook #bookbinding #fanbind #fic binding #fic binders #the verge #fandom life #fandom things #fandom #omgreylo

[haxkattpress]

Away Childish Things by @letteredlettered

I'm so excited to finally share this bind of one of my all time favorite fics! Thanks to lettered's generous binding policy, I decided to go all out.

This bind has a foiled cover and spine, hand sewn silk endbands, and thirteen custom chapter headers. It was also my first time rounding and backing.

You can find more pictures and information about my process under the cut.

For the cover and spine, I recreated the design of Beasts of the Field (1902) by William J. Long.

I wanted something that captured both the whimsy and maturity of the story, and this cover fit my vision perfectly. It also gave me the opportunity to recreate another antique cover from the public domain.

Unfortunately, the design was a bit complicated for my Cameo 4, so I was unable to fill the lines in. You can also tell that the foil did not adhere properly near the bottom, so the flowers are lighter than I would like them to be.

Because of the trouble I was having with my Cameo, I decided to foil the spine by hand. I deeply regretted this decision two hours later, and it took me four hours to finish foiling. My wrist still hurts!

Sewing the headbands was my absolute favorite part. I was encouraged to try them by a lovely binder on Instagram, and I ended up completely addicted. I splurged on some fancy silk thread so I could give this fic the royal treatment it deserves! I think they look like beautiful little caterpillars.

As for the rounding and backing... I'm not going to talk about it. Nightmare. Lots of nervous sweating. Emotional agony. Next topic!

I worked on the typeset back at the beginning of January when I had some time off, and it took me a solid week of obsessive editing to complete. My sister suggested that I use Harry and Draco's patronuses for the chapter art, but there unfortunately aren't many public domain illustrations of deer and foxes playing together.

It was at that point that I also decided that I wanted the animals to match the respective ages of Harry and Draco and the tone of each chapter. For the 13 chapters I ended up editing 25 different illustrations together. The bulk of these are taken from vintage versions of Bambi and Reynard the Fox. It's possible that a few stock images from 1980s nature books snuck in there, but I did my best to keep them all pre 1925.

I'm not a skilled editor, and some of these are worse than others, but I'm quite proud of what I was able to cobble together. On the final page I put a young fox and deer running off together. I wanted it to seem like Harry and Draco's inner children had been freed.

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that this bind took me about 4-5 months to complete! I started in early January, and went wildly off track learning how to round, back, and sew headbands. And then I was hit by some killer creative block that only lifted last week!

There are still many things I could improve on, but I'm so proud of everything that I learned and accomplished with this bind! A big thank you to lettered for inspiring me with such a wonderful story. <3

#book binding #fic binding #fanbinding #fanfic binding #drarry #away childish things #harry x draco #my binds

[saradika]

bleed for me

I’ve been working on a new hobby for a while (and it’s far from perfect!!) but it’s cool to think I made this from start to finish!

#also trying to get comfortable sharing the process of learning! #parts I liked: typesetting!!!! and the designing and weeding the htv #parts I did not like: the actual construction haha - I pressed too hard with my heat press and glue seeped out on the cover & back #AND painting the edges - I think I did the wrong method #but! I think the next one will be even better #and for clarity re: some binding discourse #I’m binding for personal use only and with authors permission 💖 #graphics are from Canva but edited by me #fan fic binding #fic binding #jess binds

[artemisiasthings]

The Great IKEA Game by @batsandbugs

She’s done. My first bind. 🤌🏼 I’m so proud of this book and I cannot believe I made this with my own two hands!!!!

The story is incredible, The Great IKEA Game is a fic I come back to time and time again when I need a pick me up so it was a no brainer to choose this as my first bind. It’s the perfect length and I know I’m going to be eternally grateful to have it in my shelves if society collapses and the apocalypse comes 😂

I learned so much throughout this process about typesetting, materials, graphic design, conservation-grade techniques, and everything else that goes into making a finished, readable book. I wouldn’t have such a beautiful finished project without the incredible support and tutorials from creators on instagram and TikTok! I was blessed to find an answer for any question that came up either through existing videos or through kind responses to my frantic 3 am insta stories.

Needless to say, having a physical book that I CREATED WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS is fueling my god complex and I cannot wait to bind even more 😈

Progress Posts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

#my stuff #fanficbookbinding #fic binding #maribat #daminette #the great ikea game #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #batman #marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne #bookbinding

[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 !!

#book binding #bookbinding #ficbinding #fic binding #fanbinding #fan binding #handbinding #hand binding #tarot #tiny book

[becomingfoxes]

It's Lexi day everyone! Happy Birthday @lexirosewrites 🥳🎉💜 Thank you for for all the mind blowing, gorgeous fics you've given to this fandom! 💜💖💞

Me and vinyl are mortal enemies but I'm really happy/proud of these typesets and designs. And I'll post the full Vanity Fair edit later! 🥰

#my art #steddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #steddie fanart #fic binding #fanfic binding #book binding #bookbinding #fanfiction bookbinding #Andria binds fic #omegaverse

[batjokewholaughs]

So I got in to bookbinding a few months ago and finally made a collection of all my batjokes stories. Since money is tight I told myself to stick to only supplies I already owned, so while these wouldn’t be my first choice of endpapers for this material, I still think the skulls are cute. The cover art was hand foiled with a foil quill pen and took a little under 3.5 hours.

Huge shoutout to everyone in the Renegade server for lending me their opinions and advice while I designed this little chonker 🙏🏻💜

#batjokes #batman x joker #batman/joker #batjokes fanfiction #batjokes fanfic #batman fanfiction #bookbinding #fanbinding #fan binding #book binding #fanfiction binding #fanfic writing #sleepy bat bindery #batman #the batman who laughs #tbwl #fic binding #fanfiction #fanfic writers #my fanfic #renegade #renegade bindery #my writing

[mothdogsart]

Okay, this is gonna be a long one, so I’m putting it under a cut. Folks on Reddit have asked for a walkthrough of my bookbinding process, so I’m going to detail it. A few steps I forgot to take pictures of, but I’ll keep them in the list so that the workflow hopefully makes sense.

🌟 This is not meant to be an in-depth tutorial! For bookbinding/fanbinding tutorials with guided steps I recommend LadyBobbitt on TikTok or DASBookbinding on YouTube. 🌟

Fic pictured in every step after Step 3 is “Pretend for Me” by @obsessivelollipoplalala because I was working on an author’s copy! 🌝

Step 1 - Typesetting (not pictured)

Step 2 - Printing and folding the signatures (not pictured)

Step 3 - Punching the signatures. This is a 3D printed punch cradle from Etsy. I don’t recommend the Memory Keepers brand one on Amazon—it’s really shallow and hard to get centered punches.

Step 4 - Sewing the signatures, aka my least favorite part. Everything is downhill after you get it sewn. My preferred method for sewing signatures is called the kettle stitch.

Step 5 - Clamping the text block, reinforcing the spine with mull, and adding fake endbands

Step 6 - Gluing endpapers onto the text block after the spine reinforcement has dried

Step 7 - Measuring and cutting the cover chipboard

Step 8 - Forming the cover. I glue the chipboard to a central piece of cardstock. Some people find that this makes your creases less sharp, but I like the extra reinforcement.

Step 9 - Dry fit the text block to make sure everything is sized properly (not pictured)

Step 10 - Gluing the cover onto the bookcloth (this is the underside—the edges also get glued and folded over onto the chipboard)

Step 11 - Casing in the text block (not pictured). I add glue to the outsides of the endpapers and stick them to the inside of the cover. Once everything is placed correctly, I wipe off any excess glue and make sure there are no air bubbles anywhere.

Step 12 - Placing parchment paper between all wet/glued areas to prevent moisture transfer to the pages.

Step 13 - Press! (Not pictured)

Step 14 - Let dry overnight, then you have a book!

Not including the dust jacket making process here because it would require me to take screenshots from my computer and I’m sick rn so who has the energy?

Anyway thanks for looking if you scrolled this far :)

#bookbinding #fanbinding #ficbinding #book binding #book binder #bookbinders of tumblr #fic binding #my bookbinding

[penguinmerchant]

New Fic binding!

I've got a new fic bind! Today I want to show off @wrenaspun's lovely fic, All This and Heaven Too. It's seriously so good and so sweet, Lamen mixed with fairytales and legends (my favorite) and it's written so beautifully. Go check it out!

Anyway, here's the bind:

It's another binding like my Captive Prince short stories bind, with the cloth on the spine and then cardstock for the printed cover. The lighthouse illustration was a custom image done by my boyfriend and I think it turned out wonderfully!

More details about the binding process under the cut.

So since this is a shorter story than some of the others I went back to a 4x6 book. It still feels very nice in hand though, I think I'm getting better at either setting the textblock in the case or just measuring better (probably that last one, I'm usually too impatient to measure correctly) but these two books are probably some of the nicest set books I've made yet.

The back has a little flourish on it too, just to spice things up a little.

Endpapers are from Wagara Studio, I seriously love this chiyogami paper, it's almost like fabric and it's so easy to use. Setting this book and my previous binding were so easy with this paper. It would make an awesome cover as well, it seems really durable.

Some inside pics, the title page and the little section break image. I really love the title page image and I kind of wish I would have done that for the cover, but the design is so detailed that it would be impossible to do with HTV and it's too big to just do with the cardstock. So it had to be split like it is, but I'm still glad this picture got included.

The bookcloth is really not this stripey/checkery, I don't know why it came out like this in pictures. Ignore the mess in the back. I have to for sure clean up my little table before starting on the next project.

Anyway, not too many notes on the actual binding process this time. I did end up making an entire cover--HTV and everything--that turned out to be too small (remember that thing I said about me being mad at measuring?) because I made the spine 9mm instead of 10mm and like a dummy I forgot to test it with the textblock before doing all the work of finishing the cover. That one mm is such a small difference but it meant that the book couldn't be closed and so I had to scrap it and start over. Gonna be testing my covers for sure before I spend so much time on the design work. Gutters on this were 5mm, foiling on the cloth (I think it's dubletta cloth) was done with HTV, foiling on the cardstock cover was done with toner reactive foil.

Author copy will soon be on its way! Everyone please wish it good luck with the postal gods.

#fic binding #my binding #captive prince #lamen #selkies #lighthouse

[auphaniim]

After a ton of work I’ve finally got one of my favourite of all time fics in book form!

This is Equals in life (Partners in death) By the amazing @reggieblk !!

This was truly a labor of love and i think its one of my best ones so far! I’m currently editing the typeset for the couple things i missed during my initial print, and ill be posting that soon!

#ah IM SO HAPPY ABT HOW THIS ONE TURNED OUT #thanks to reggieblk for being amazing n sending me the edited version so i could avoid ao3s hell formatting #book binding #bookbinding #fic binding #ficbinding #harry potter #tomarry #harrymort #fanfiction #my art #tom riddle #voldemort

[robins-egg-bindery]

The Sorcerer & The King by winterhill

Canon AU -- Merlin's death is only the beginning; with no-one to protect the kingdom, Camelot falls to an enemy sorcerer and Arthur is forced to serve in the court that he once ruled. When an escape attempt goes horribly wrong, Arthur is rescued by someone he never expected to see again -- and it's their destiny to put things right.

fic by winterhill

art by lukita

404 pages / 85,529 words

Title Font: Neoteric, Ever, Celticmd

Body Fonts: Pilgrim, Far From Homecoming, YOZAKURA, Aliya Ramsey

More on the process below the cut!

Ah, this wonderful fic! This was a fic I hadn't read before @runawaymarbles put it on my radar, and it was utterly wonderful! Proof still that the well of fic is deep and vast, and there will always be another beautiful story waiting for you.

I had a lot of fun binding this one; aiming for a tome kind of vibe, with a full Better Than Goat leather case, deckled edges, and gold accents coupled with the Celtic medallion, which boasts both a dragon and a trinity knot. I thought this was fitting, given that the coin analogy between Merlin and Arthur comes up quite a bit in this fic - the idea that, because it's a canon AU, they've strayed away from their destiny, and what that could mean for Camelot. The trinity knot also symbolizes the cyclical relationship between life, death, and rebirth, which is another recurring theme throughout the story.

I also chose some medieval, old-style elements for my typeset, include the side ornaments, and making the margins bigger on the whole. I definitely need to bind more Merlin fic; I forgot how much of a delight this fandom is!

#fanficbinding #fanfiction #fanfic #fanfic bookbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #fanfiction bookbinding #ficbinding #fic binding #fanficbookbinding #renegadepublishing #me myself and i #merlin #bbc #merlin bbc #merthur #arthur pendragon #merlin/arthur

[gargoyleandgremlinpress]

Renegade 2023 Bound Exchange: Strike Anywhere by Mad Lori

My recipient for the annual @renegadepublishing bound exchange this year was @sits-bound, which gave me the chance to explore some new Schitt's Creek fic!

Strike Anywhere by @madlori is a Schitt's Creek AU, where Patrick is a firefighter in Toronto, and David is a municipal engineer called in to consult on structural issues at fire scenes. They HATE each other on first sight, fight constantly… and inevitable end up secretly hooking up… and then secretly dating… and then secretly married, too embarrassed to admit it to their coworkers.

I had fun with the theme for this one, and used a blueprint image for the endpapers, and so many flames. So many! I'm really happy with how it turned out in the end, but there was a moment where things VERY MUCH had not gone to plan.

I like how the case turned out in particular! Too bad that I then had to cut the entire text block out of it and add sixty missing pages the day I planned to put it in the mail.

So let me set the scene. It's Dec 28. Exchange books are due in the mail Jan 1. I have spent several hours the day before finishing off stenciling the cover and spine of both books I'm sending, and am taking pictures before I package everything up. I flip to the back of the second book, and… huh. I know I formatted the AO3 metadata at the back of the book. Did I miss a page somehow?

It is then that I realize that something has gone badly wrong. On checking the typeset… my printed book ends at page 216. The typeset ends on page 277.

I got the textblock out of the case, sacrificing the endpapers, but with everything else intact. Realized that my pre-cut textblock paper was still sitting on my desk at work. Decided fuck it, I need to reprint the endpapers anyhow, and skulked in to use the big colour copier, even though I was on vacation.

The signatures fit into the case! Some funky cutting and gluing was required to take out the few duplicate pages and the blank pages from the original, make some tabs out of the edges, and glue it all in.

The mull did not come off as well as the endpapers, but it DID come off.

I cut off the sewn endbands, and the bookmark, glue everything back together, and trek back into work the next day to use the big guillotine and retrim the textblock.

The edges are re-speckled! Sewn endbands would mean forcing the needle through multiple layers of glue, and time is tight, so I made endbands out of bookcloth to match the case.

And! It! Fits! Casing in actually went better the second time.

I DID get it into the mail by the deadline, and it safely arrived in @sits-bound's hands, so now I can share the saga. I still can't believe it fit back in the case.

#fanbinding #fic binding #schitt's creek #renegade bound exchange 2023 #of narrowly averted disasters #and how I am too stubborn to admit defeat

[heyjude19-writing]

hi fandom folks: I'd like to explicitly state that I no longer allow binding my fics for commission. No money should be exchanging hands where my stories are concerned.

My full transformative works policy is here. Thank you in advance for respecting my wishes and keeping fandom free.

#fan fic binding #fic binding #keep fandom free #keep fanfiction free #dramione #drarry #transformative works

[nocturnus33]

The meaning of mistletoe by Endrina, first volume of The secret language of plants. @llendrinall I have read this charming story several times. The voice of the narration, with its fairy tale reminiscence, is something I really like. Endrina is a great author, it is worth reading their novel length fics.

Typeset by Lindsey P. For those inexperienced in fandom, this story can be read for free at AO3.

What I like:

It's quite a simple binding, but something in it remind me of the old editions of my childhood. Reading it give me a special kind of joy, it's both, the comfort of this story and the childhood-like feeling this tome brings me while holding it

What I could do better:

I had problems with the guillotining of the edges, but went ahead [I had already lost a lot of material with a failed first printing]. I couldn't say what happened, but - for me - that mistake gives a Je ne sais quoi to the edition that I love. I don't know why, but when I was a child, back in the 70's, I had many books with the same feeling. The paper was a bit thicker than usual, and the edges weren't perfectly cut. I didn't realize, until I sat down to read this edition, that this binding conjures up memories of my childhood.

Special thanks: During the process, I had a severe case of printer hiccups (Or binder's brain hiccups, to be more precise) but @getfuckedblr hold my hand and helped me.

@llendrinall 

[If I learned to bind, you can do it too. It's not that difficult... ok a little at first, but it is doable. Don't buy fic binds, ok? It spoils fandom's fun]

#fanbinding #ficbook #ficbinding #bookbinding #fic binding #fic binders #renegade bindery #fan binders #fan art #endrina #fic books #fic book #fanfic bookbinding #fanfic binding #my workshop #my progress #my stuff #amateurbinding #fan bind #fan binding #fanbook #fanbind #fanbound #remus lupin #severus snape #harry potter fanfiction #little harry #gen fic #AO #ao3

[wishbonemotel]

My first ever bookbinding project is complete! Put together the fic Ithaca is Gorges by @gisellelx as a gift for someone and I’m pretty happy with how it came out all things considered. Many lessons were learned

The cover is real suede so the book also smells like leather

#there were some mishaps along the way. two of the pages may or may not fall out #and i got some glue on the cover. BUT. again. overall i’m proud #bookbinding #book binding #fanfiction #fic binding #twilight #wishbone gallery