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Zero's Fic Binding - POSTCARDS

Duology collection of fics by @sineala

This was my pitch to Sineala originally for the Marvel Trumps Hate 2024 winning auction item(s). Since so many of her fics are these huge epic novels, I wanted to gather a few of the 'smaller', short fics together into one bind instead.

I was spoiled for choices - it took the longest to actually pair down the list of fics to include to settle around an relatively equal wordcount for both books.

There are 8 fics in each book, divided by POV.

TS || Pages: 312

When You're a Stranger // The Libertine // See You at the Bitter End // The Jar // So Much to Confide to You // Not So Secret Anymore // Like a Comet Streaming On / Trust Fall

SR || Pages: 287

Icebreaker // Mercy in You // Love Across the Multiverse // To Make Much of Time // Your Name on Every Wall // Down to Zero // Sucker Punch // Think of This as Solving Problems

I didn't wanted to do love letters as a theme. The idea of these little moments from different parts of each of their lives, snippets from different times and different timelines and different cannon - they felt more bite sizes. Coupled with them being the 'shorter' fics that Sine's written, i grabbed onto the postcard with the main idea of the duology. You can't write as much on a post card as you would in a letter - making them more bitesize. But it's the thought - the intent - of sending a post card that i liked. The Thinking of you in this moment of it.The Wish you were here. With me.

The postcard headers were very fun to do. Each is specific to the fic - I did so much unnecessary research for these, it’s not even funny.

I added old vintage stamps to each of these too. It’s what originally inspired the idea for the whole thing. I wanted to try and do something 3D and tactile for each of these headers.

Sineala's collection of fics is vast and abundant. Almost every version of Steve and Tony are contained in these two anthologies. Do yourself a favor, if you haven't had the pleasure of reading any of her quote shorter unquote fics - pick one of these bad boys form the list and enjoy.

sineala

I am so thrilled about this pair of anthologies of my shorter fic! I remember spending a lot of time going back and forth figuring out what fic of mine would fit best in which anthology, and POV was a really cool way to split it! I also like that it's not just all 616 and is probably a fair representation of my, uh, range on the angst-fluff spectrum. :D

I am definitely going to have to go through now and look at ALL THE HEADER IMAGES oh no what a terrible fate.

Seriously, this is beautiful; thank you again!

#other books for inspo

zerosconsort

Zero's Fic Binding - Straight On Till Morning

Straight On Till Morning by @sineala

Fandom: Marvel (Comics)

Ship: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark

Start Date: 01/12/25

End Date: 03/30/26

Pages: 245

I've had SotM on my binding list since I first pulled the trigger and jumped into this hobby. I had an idea for what I wanted this bind to look like, and MTH2024 gave me the opportunity to do all the things I wanted to with it.

I...love this book. I love this entire bind - from the wild cover to the spine to the end papers to the chapter headers. The sparkly black book cloth. The color contrast on the cover. And the art. I especially fucking love the art.

Gods this cover is so many lines. So many lines.

I wanted to wrap the book around the fic. I wanted the space themes, the trek font, the chapter breaks to all match the theme.

Pulled it off, i think.

I will admit: I am not a Trekkie. I'm not typically a space gal, with the expectation - it seems - of any space fic related to Stony. I'll eat that shit all day and ask for more. But when it came to the slices of Star Trek lore that I wanted to add, I did the best research I could to get the vibe right. But there is SO MUCH of it, that I had to settle with doing the best I could to match the vibe as well as possible.

I treated this bind as the 'main' book bind for Marvel Trumps Hate 2024 winning bid - in that I wanted to go above and beyond with what I had originally proposed. So, I went on the hunt to get my hands on something I love more then anything to add to my fanbinds: I commissioned art.

@zappedbysnow fucking knocked it outa the park. I am, honestly, blown away at the art that she made. I picked out at one scene per chapter for her to draw, provided my (frankly lackluster) trek research, some (not well articulated) descriptions with some (really bad) rough sketches for the compositions of the illustration I wanted. Zapped took my brain dump and ran away with it.

Special shout out to the Trekkies in the CapIM discord for the assist as well. Nether Zapped nor I are versed in Trek lore, so our collective research on the very specific outfits for this very specific time period were...not as good as we (read: I) originally thought they were. The lore-accurate check was wonderful - thanks for the help, ya'll!

I love this fic. If you haven't read this wonderful novel - please do yourself a favor.

#other books for inspo

celestial-sphere-press

Fanbinding: To Conquer An Emperor by @zarasu

Transmigrating into the stallion novel he hates most is bad enough, but why did it have to be into the body of one of the protagonist's wives? Shen Yuan spends exactly two months dealing with harem intrigues, sullen maids and his husband utterly ignoring him before he decides to go on an extended holiday. Very extended. Surely no one will care if he just forgets about being married and becomes a cultivator, right?

I made this book for @waterloggedowl for the @renegadeguild annual exchange! It was very fun getting to return to Scum Villain fandom for this! When I started fanbinding I was deep in danmei fandoms, but I've been off in Star Wars for the last few years.

I was blessed to be able to use the chapter art by @sunshine-dies . Their work is on the dust jacket, and I got to do a couple of fun spreads like these.

Beneath the dust jacket the book is bound in colibri bookcloth, with crepaldi marble paper inset for the fan and foiled with silver.

The same marbled paper is also the endpapers! I diverged from the standard SY color scheme here for two reasons: 1) sunshine-dies' art is in a lovely blue hue, and 2) Shen Yuan is never Shen Qingqiu in this fic, so a color change in the theme feels appropriate. The endbands are done in my asymmetrical style to match, and I painted the edge a polarized blue on black.

Back to the inside - since LBH is the emperor in this fic and inner court drama plays a large role, I created a vector pattern based on one of the wood lattice screen designs in the Forbidden City. More traditionally speaking this would be within a rectangular frame, but I kinda like the rough edges.

#other books for inspo

duran-binding

I made this tutorial on foiling your book edges a while ago :) Here it is in its entirety. Any questions feel free to message me I love making these!

#resources

roseserpentpress

Did someone say Automatic Bookbindery Stats Calculator?!🧮

✨Ever wanted an organized place that after inputting data about the books you've bound, it easily calculates stats such as number of books you've bound per year and total number of books you've bound over the years, or total number of fanfics you've bound? Then look no further, this google sheet is set up to do this for you! Feel free to make a copy and try it out! ✨

🧮 Some stats automatically calculated include🧮:

Number of books made per each year

List of fandoms you've bound for

List of ships you've bound for

List of different books sizes you've bound

Total # of books

Total # of unique books

Total # of copies

Total # of fanfics bound

Total # of words bound

Total # gifted

And many more!

Okay, used cars sales person schtick aside, I personally had already begun this as an easier way to track what I've bound since I find this sort of stuff interesting, and I was already listing the fanfics I had bound in a google sheets to keep track of them... so then why wouldn't I just already start to calculate stats? Except originally it was p broken since I half-assed it, but a little while ago I finally found some time to hammer out all the issues (probably), so I believe now it's all set and ready to go. If you do use it and notice an issue do let me know, and also I do want to note it's been solely set up (so far) to take in already finished bookbinding projects.

#resources

runawaymarbles

Fanbinding(ish): Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

(More photos below the cut, and I'll add the rest in another reblog.)

I had the idea for this four years ago. I actively started on the typeset about two years ago. I finished the typeset in about two weeks before the NG news broke--in fact I'd sent him an ask on tumblr just before he left, asking him if there's an explanation for Good Omens's inconsistent dropcaps. Maybe I'll ask the publisher.

Anyway! I almost didn't keep going, but I'd already put an insane amount of hours into the typeset, and also, fuck it. So I did it mostly for me, but also for Terry Pratchett, and also for the vine.

For those who aren't familiar, a red-letter Bible is one where everything Jesus says is in red. I thought it would be funny to do one where everything the antichrist says is in red--and then I also thought it would be funny to do pull-out quotes like my Catholic Youth Bible had, and then I thought, why stop there, and that's when things started to get weird. Trying to get the text to line up coherently around the trees and the mountains especially was delicate--and of course if I changed something on the page before it would throw everything out of whack.

The cover was inspired by those giant Bibles with covers that are an inch thick with a cross or something like that debossed in the middle. The text wasn't long enough to make it that thick, but it's two layers of thin board glued together. Leather on top, and then I used a foil quill to do most of the design--anything that's a circle is a brass stamp.

I make the design on Illustrator, and then had the cricut trace it onto the foil with a sharpie. I found that a lot more effective than printing it out and trying to do the foil quill through the paper stencil. I'll let you try and guess what shape I used instead of a cross, and will put the answer under the cut.

Doing gold page edges was a bitch and a half; I sanded off attempts about a dozen times. Fake gold was a bust; so was heat activated foil. I ended up doing one layer of acrylic paint and about five layers of gold acrylic.

And because I got this a lot about My Immortal: no, I'm not going to share the typeset. Even before Everything, I feel fine justifying this because I own the paperback, the deluxe edition hardback, the DVD, the script book, and the coffee table book. But I'm not actually into book piracy. (Unless you are the Terry Pratchett estate, in which case, sharing is caring.)

runawaymarbles

#other books for inspo

celestial-sphere-press

Fanbinding: The Desert Storm (series) by @blue-sunshine-mauve-morning

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!

This is 1 of 2 posts for today, a massive project that I have hit a significant milestone for: completion of both my & the author's 15-volume set of the 1.1 million word The Desert Storm. This is the fic series that got me into Star Wars as an actual fan.

Four years after Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi Order, a grieving, struggling Ben Kenobi finds himself inexplicably taken back in time, crashing headlong into the foundations of fate. Grasping hope and vengeance with both hands, Ben rebuilds his identity and seeks to change the course of history: by saving Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi Order, the galaxy - and just maybe saving Obi-Wan Kenobi along the way.

My design for this typeset was significantly influenced by mem, who had begun a typeset before me and selected black & white images for the title pages, a trend I continued.

As this fic series has meteliculous attention to both canon & EU lore, I stuck with aurebesh characters for titles wherever appropriate, which occasionally gave me some fun opportunities for chapters & tables of contents like this:

For scene dividers, I used a image you can interpret either as twin suns, or as an eclipse.

While I committed to a more classic and less elaborate design for this series, I still rounded & backed every volume in the set. "Editioning" high numbers of similar books like this is often considered in bookbinding circles as necessary to practice skills (I am at 37/45 volumes), and I can certainly say that I have gotten much better at a number of things along the way. The largest book in this series is 616 pages; the smallest, 160 - and I needed to round & back both.

Further thoughts...

#other books for inspo

brunheiffer

For @charlottemadison42, copies of her iconic works What We Make of It (Shotgun Wedding) and Or Be Nice

Both are human aus. What We Make of It features teacher Aziraphale, Crowley as the single parent of Adam, (his nephew), and a forbidden relationship due to workplace rules. And Crowley has to keep the job to keep the insurance for a chronically ill Adam. Probably one of the best takes on Adam I’ve read. E, 213,340.

Or Be Nice has the most hysterically funny prank war between Aziraphale and Crowley as neighbors going the enemies to lovers route. Banter and characterization are exquisite! These are fandom classics for a reason. E, 151,368.

#other books for inspo

celestial-sphere-press

Fanbinding: Atlas, by @distractedkat

(pls click photos for better quality)

Between what was and what will be stands James Tiberius Kirk, in all his fractured patchwork glory. Because saving the Federation was only the beginning.

This fic has been on my to-do list for a long time, and serendipitously got pushed up for me to do RIGHT NOW because I needed a fic I could use to demonstrate layering boards for cutouts for a class @pleasantboatpress and I taught for Binderary. @finalfrontierpublishing had a great typeset, so I rushed to get the text ready enough for the class demo that I could start the cover... and then things got out of hand. Whoops.

I started with a basic circle cutout for the globe, which then grew a secondary layer for me to sandwich copper wires into. Atlas got printed onto marbled paper and added in on top. Then I developed a plan to have the moon-earth orbits, etc on the cover...

...and I needed a sun & I had this awesome paper I decided to use for endpapers, so we get a stupid complicated paper inset too...

...and I had been meaning to try out French double core endbands so why not do those in the colors of the earth from space...

Annnnnd then I was going to a box-making class & this is the kind of delicate that kinda needs one. so. here we are!

bonus: that art peep in the background is a super awesome metal print by @natureintheory

#other books for inspo

teleportbooks

Fanbinding - Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

This is my last round of experimenting with bamboo strips, for now at least. For these books, I used bamboo for the spine, and attached them to hard boards for the cover. The string going through the cover boards follows the look of a stab binding, but doesn't actually go through the pages. Instead, the folded pages are sewn to the strings on the spine with a narrower thread, in a variation of the secret Belgian/crisscross binding. The spine ends up being very flexible; it can lie flat or even fold all the way backwards, and although it ends up feeling kind of "loose," it's actually pretty sturdy. I made a box for the set to give them some more stability when sitting on my bookshelf.

Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know features a couple of plot-relevant books, so I thought it made sense to use with a binding method that called attention to itself. Many thanks to @spockandawe for letting me use your typeset!

#other books for inspo

a-gay-old-time

Here is a quick little tutorial for how I do the titling/designs on my books! All you’ll need is a printer, some white chalk/pencil graphite, painter’s tape, a tiny paintbrush, and some fabric paint! You’re basically going to make some homemade transfer paper in order to transfer the design to the cover and then carefully paint over the design once you’ve got it on the book.

First, you’ll print out whatever design you want to have on your cover (this can be lettering or pictures–just remember you will be painting over this so you want it to be a big enough size that you’re confident that you can paint over it and still have it be clear). Then you’ll flip the paper over and rub either white chalk or pencil graphite on the backside of the design you want transferred (white chalk for dark bookcloths, graphite for light colored bookcloths). Next, you’ll tape your design down where you want it on the book using painter’s tape with the chalk/graphite side facing the bookcloth. The next step is to carefully trace over your design with a pencil–this transfers the chalk/graphite where you trace to the bookcloth.

You should now be left with the lettering/picture in chalk/graphite on the bookcloth! And then the last step is to paint over the design with some fabric paint (I really like the Lumiere by Jacquard metallic acrylic paints, as they are opaque but also a really nice thin consistency that’s easy to paint with and they’re designed for use on fabric…the non-metallic paints by Jacquard are also good but I like to thin them out a little with water because they’re a thicker consistency–I found these paints at Blick).

Here’s a finished example of what this ends up looking like!

#resources

celestial-sphere-press

Book Decoration: AKA All The Ways I Don't Use a Cricut

(this post is for people who don't want to buy an expensive cutting tool, or for those that do have an expensive cutting tool that would like to mix things up a little)

1. Print That Shit

If you're already printing your own textblocks, an easy step for titles is to print them. Above is a title printed onto an "obi" of decorative paper. I measured out where I wanted things on the finished book and laid it out in Affinity, then printed it on a full sheet & trimmed it down to wrap around the book. A more simple method is to print & glue on the label into a slight indent in the cover (to protect it). A third option is to do the spine in bookcloth, while you print on paper for the cover and then glue that paper onto the boards (this usually looks even better when it is a three-piece bradel bind).

2. Foil Quill / Heat Pens

The heat pen is one of my go-to tools, but it can be a bit touchy about materials. The most popular version is the We R Memory Keepers' Foil Quill (which is one of the most ergonomic), but other pens exist that can get you to a higher heat temp, finer lines, or more consistent foil. For example, I have a pen created by a local Japanese bookbinding studio that fares way better on leathers than the WRMK quill & with a finer tip, but it's hell to control. Best results in general are on paper or smooth bookcloth (starched linen, arrestox, colibri - even duo will work but its less solid). The fuzzier a bookcloth is, the less your foil quill wants to deal with it. This means the heat n bond method of making bookcloth does not play nice with a heat pen usually, but there are two solutions: 1) use this tutorial on paste + acrylic medium coated bookcloth instead that will get you a perfect surface for the heat pen, or 2) use the pen on paper & then glue onto the cloth. I did a video tutorial for both foil quill use and this type of homemade bookcloth for @renegadeguild Binderary in 2023.

You get the most consistent results by tracing through a printed template that is taped in place, as I do in the video above.

3. Paint That Shit

Acrylic paints will do you fine! The above is free-handed with a circle template, because I wanted that vibe. If you need straight lines that won't seep, lay them down with tape first & then paint over it first with a clear Acrylic medium, then your color. Same goes for stencils. Two more examples of painted bookcloth:

4. IT'S GOT LAYERS

By using layers of thinner boards, you can create interesting depths & contrasts on your cover. You can also make cutouts that peep through to the decorative paper behind. The most important part to this technique is the order in which each edge is wrapped. To get a good wrapped inside edge, you will split the turn in into tabs to get them to conform to a curve. You can also layer multiple colors of bookcloth without multiple layers of board, as seen below left, so long as you mind your cut edges for fraying.

5. Inlaid... anything

Mirrors! Marbled paper! I saw someone do a pretty metal bookmark once! The key is creating a little home for it to live in, which is pretty similar to the above layering method. On one layer you cut the shape, & glue that layer onto the bottom solid board before covering. You can do the top layer as an entire 1 mm board (like I did for the mirrors) or a sheet of cardstock, like I would use for inlaid paper.

6. Decorative Paper

Decorative paper is always helpful & adds to the paper hoard... & its effects can be layers with other techniques, as below. Marbles, chiyogami, momi, or prints & maps of all kinds can be great additions. Some papers may need a protective coating (such as wax or a sealer).

7. Stamps (with optional linocut)

While I've not used many more regular rubber stamps, I do know some who have, successfully! And I've used one once or twice with embossing powder (see photo 3 up, the gold anchor on the little pamphlet bind). What also works is to carve your own linocut or stamp, & then use block printing ink to ink it onto your fabric (as i did above). A bit time intensive, but it was nice how easily reproducible it was, and I liked the effect I got for this particular bind.

These methods are not exhaustive, just ones I've used, and there are of course many others. I haven't gone too into detail on any of these for the sake of length (& post photo limits) but feel free to ask about more specifics. Usually I'm using them in combination with other options.

#resources

renegadeguild

I hope yall don't mind questions (idk if this is outreach and highlight only blog) but for someone who is planning their first bind, how do people who can't afford tools like cricut normally decorate their covers?

Hello!

There's a couple of posts that have been made by Renegade Bindery members, such as:

@a-gay-old-time's post about how they do their painted covers

@celestial-sphere-press's post about how she has approached binding with alternative book decoration

There's also some resources from other people in the general bookbinding community, such as:

DAS Bookbinding's video about Paper Labels

If other members have some resources, please respond to this post. And good luck on your first bind!

#resources

renegadeguild

Binderary 2025: Week 2

In the Renegade Bindery Discord Server, we are once again running Binderary during the month of February. Attendance is free, and a link to the 18+ Discord Server can be found on our website.

Whether you’re new to the world of bookbinding or an aged veteran, join us for a month of binding fun! This event is all about community & learning, be it trying something new or refining existing skills.

All our workshops are run by members of our fanbinding community, and some of them are even on Tumblr!

Here’s the list of who’s running the week 2 workshops:

All About Bookplates: @silentsunpress Typesetting in LaTeX: @queercus-books VI: Villainous Imposer: @simply-sithel Typesetting in Affinity: @kate2kat Typesetting in One Click: Microsoft Word Macros 101: @owlwinter8 Bookbinding Craft Along 2: Noodle Cutouts and Cover Board Fun: @celestial-sphere-press & @pleasantboatpress Italian Paper Case Bind Pt. 1: Eka InDesign for Beginners: @misanthropiczombie The "Single Section Conservation Binding" as a Beginners First Binding: Experience, Variations and Ideas: minx Decorative Papers: Triple Threat: @starblightbindery, @duran-binding & @mourningmountainsbindery

#Binderary2025

renegadeguild

Binderary 2025: Week 1

In the Renegade Bindery Discord Server, we are once again running Binderary during the month of February. Attendance is free, and a link to the 18+ Discord Server can be found on our website.

All our workshops are run by members of our fanbinding community, and some of them are even on Tumblr!

Here’s the list of who’s running the week 1 workshops:

Specialized Typesetting in LaTeX: Celandine My Immortal and the History of Fan Studies: Parsley Typesetting in Google Docs: @sayornispress Introduction to Typography and Typesetting: @bearclubbooks Renegade Round-Up 2024!: @fanboundbooks, @robins-egg-bindery & @celestial-sphere-press You Shouldn't Have to Pay for that: Making Your Typesets Pretty For Free: @daemonluna Bookbinding Craft Along 1: Noodle

#binderary2025

undefinedkosmos

Bookbinding: The Secret Garden

Having been at this hobby for over a year now, I decided it was high time to make something I could share with people who aren't part of Fandom. Project Gutenberg to the rescue, with a copy of The Secret Garden, something that holds special meaning for me and my parents to whom I will be gifting the book.

This was my first time incorporating more than one color of foil in my cover designs. I'm really happy with the effect!

I used soie perlee silk thread for the hand-sewn endbands and jute fiber marbled paper for endpapers. With my favorite trick of using the same paper for an Oxford hollow for that peep of color in the spine when the book is open.

I recently was gifted a color printer, so of course I had to play with incorporating color in the typeset.

It was challenging to capture the nature of the cover colors in a still photograph, but I'm enamored with that colorshift as you turn the book over in your hands! All in all, I think this is some of my best work to date.

#other books for inspo

spiderverbiclespress

Handbinding of Time to Orbit: Unknown

I started reading @derinthescarletpescatarian’s Time to Orbit: Unknown about halfway through its publishing, and I knew pretty immediately that I wanted a physical copy and that it called for some leveling-up of my binding chops.

I sewed these endbands off the book (on a flight!) (this remains so much easier than hunching over a press) and then glued them on:

This is the first textblock I chisel-trimmed, after a bunch of practice notebooks, and my fussiest edge decorating yet (it’s a watercolor spatter then an ink spatter then watercolor pencil then graphite, buffed. Which would have been totally manageable except I decided to decorate the edge after all the endbands were attached. Thank goodness for masking tape.)

Also what a nice opportunity to break into the good paper.

The slipcase wasn’t part of the original plan at all, but I had exactly enough bookcloth left for it:

I’m so excited to be able to spring this story on unsuspecting visitors who poke through my bookshelves. (Since I printed this, Derin has made ebooks and paperbacks available as a two-volume set. Go check them out!)

#other books for inspo

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