I became a fanbinder after stumbling across @armoredsuperheavy and @renegadepublishing and was really struck by the idea. I remember being a young teen and wanting physical copies of some of favorite fics. Now, as an adult I have the ability to do this.
I am not selling my work / taking commissions for fanbinding. Do not ask.
As a reader and binder I believe in The Three Laws of Fandom. Be nasty and you’ll be blocked.
MY TUTORIALS 🎨
Making Custom Covers (Google Doc | Tumblr Post)
Making an Inset (incoming... eventually lol)
THE CLOVEN HOOF BINDERY LIBRARY 📚
For past, current, and future binding projects please look at the list of my books here.
This book has reached its recipient, so I can share pictures now! This is Deadset by @pbaintthetb, an amazing Nie Huaisang fic in which Nie Huaisang is murdered and becomes a tgcf-style ghost.
I did a kintsugi-look binding for a different calamity au (ironically, one in which Jin Guangyao was the ghost) but spoilers, this was the fic that I first thought of using it for. And while my first attempt was just a surface design on the cover, I built this into the structure of the book itself. The cover structure is inspired by Ben Elbel's "pixel binding" which is a book cover made of many tiny squares; using irregular pieces here makes it not quite as flexible, but I'm still very happy with the effect.
The individual sections of the cover were glued to a thin, flexible paper, then covered with a decorative paper that I worked down into the spaces between (definitely use paste rather than pva for this). The gold is deco foil, often called toner-reactive foil but it adheres to dry pva as well, so I simply filled the channels with pva and then applied the foil using the head of a pin to apply pressure (you don't need heat when applying it to pva).
For the rounded spine, I used leather pieces so that I could still have the thickness but they would be flexible enough that I wouldn't have to sacrifice the irregular shapes.
The way Ben Elbel builds his pixel binding books is the textblock is wrapped in a suede cover, basically like a paperback but suede, and then the pixel binding cover is glued to the suede at the spine. I'm not sure that duplicating this construction was necessary here, but it worked out well enough. The suede-covered textblock is an interesting look and feel all by itself actually.
AHH!! im so excited that this project is finally in the author's hands. it was my pleasure to bind @jaebirdpikeri's endlessly fun tsukasen fic craving to touch (with art by the extremely talented @north-sta). this was one of the first tsukasen fics i read in the fandom and ive been drafting (and re-drafting and re-re-drafting) designs since last summer--the author requested a celestial-themed bind and i had to deliver. im so pleased with the results :3
this bind went through a few different iterations--i got almost through the case drafting stage and literally the night before i was planning to start making cutouts in my boards i woke up at like 3AM and completely changed the entire design. it switched everything from a mostly full-cloth bind with a few minor details to a faux three-piece bradel (flatback) with bunch of moving parts, but it was totally worth it in the end.
the is fabric, mulberry, and lokta layered across 20pt, 50pt, and 70pt board with HTV titling and accents. there was a minor issue with the cover titling disappearing into the background but i went over it a second time in white slightly off-center to create a sort of drop shadow effect with the gold and i think it turned out really lovely.
the edges are hand-mixed speckled blue metallic paint and gold calligraphy ink with a 4mm gold silk bookmark, 10k gold clasp, and celestial charm. i sewed 2-thread, single-core medieval style endbands as usual, and the blue thread is a close match to the thread used to sew the textblock together.
the typset for this one was particularly fun. i found a bunch of different starmaps from the 1600-1800s and used them to accent the different chapter pages. there are nine total, each rotated three times across 23 chapters and the title page, showing the both the progression of time and tsukasen's relationship throughout the story. i also included ursa major/minor and orion constellation accents on empty rectos because i felt those were fitting for the characters.
here are a few additional typeset samples! and shoutout as always to my friends for listening to me lament about one thing or another on voicechat or in person--this time mostly about math, haha. until the next one!
This is a collection of one-shots featuring works by @smugrobotics, @hoko-onchi-writes, @arminaa8, @jtimu, @orolin-writes, Lately, @ghaniblue, @toomuchplor, @lemonlimelea, @citrusses, @its-the-allure, @greattemptation (plus one by me).
I wanted to host a chill binding event that was deadline-flexible and low-barrier for new binders. This meant no exchange and no typesetting.
Enter: The Bind-This-In-Your-Style Shinny!
The idea was simple:
Authors opted in to be part of the anthology.
Once all works were collected @citrusses and I created two versions of the same typeset: one letter and one A4.
Binders had four weeks to take that typeset and bind it in their style.
I already had art in mind that I wanted to use, but I wasn't sure the artist would let me. I shot my shot anyway, and he said yes! The piece—"Curious" by Brad Welch—is a graphite on bristol rendering of the seared-in-my-memory shower scene.
In exchange for letting me use his art, I made a copy of the bind for his own collection.
The endbands are made with with Trebizond silk thread using DAS's two-colour front bead method. I also hand-marbled the end papers.
It was my first time attempting a clear dust jacket, and I'm really happy with how they turned out. The transparent material is inkjet-compatible projector film, which a friend of mine recommended. The graphics were designed in Affinity Designer and applied with heat transfer vinyl.
As for the typeset, @citrusses and I met over video chat to set up the bones of it. We created a doc that detailed fonts and other design decisions made. Then we volleyed it back and forth until the thing was complete.
After having @dogearedbindery review the Letter typeset, we made an A4 version, which @mojowitchcraft looked over (thanks, pals!).
This was a super fun event, and I've loved seeing everyone's take on the bind!
I read this AMAZING Kingdom Heats fanfic called 'Moon Out of Phase' by @beastenraged, and i loved it so much that i wanted to keep it physically on my bookshelf! I bound it, designed and made the cover myself! its a total of 560 pages! thank you Beastenraged for giving me permission to print your fic!
Bookbinding: How Dare You!? / Cheng He Ti Tong by Qi Ying Jun
I also made this for @spockandawe for an exchange! But I wanted to bind it myself, too. Would you believe I made it halfway through this novel before realizing it was by the same author as Are You OK? (the author's name is different on different platforms I guess?) I was like "this author's doing some very neat stuff with transmigration ... hey, wait a sec!"
Since the concept of this novel is transmigrating into a transmigration novel, I made a triple-layer cutout cover. The outermost cover is the "original" novel, followed by the in-universe transmigration novel, and finally the actual novel, where instead of a proper cover design it gets a hastily-written* sharpie title on note paper.
I was going to put more colors in the endbands and fewer in the splatter-painted edges, but it turns out if you only use brown paint for splattered edges ... even if it is a very nice brown in other contexts ... it looks like the book is moldy. So I added some blue too and at that point I thought a multicolored endband would be too much.
My laser printer can't print to the edges of the pages, so for the floral background, I printed just the border on my inkjet printer, and then printed the text of those specific pages afterwards.
There is a typographical easter egg! If you've read the novel, you can see if you can figure it out (it's present on one of the pages pictured here).
*actually I wrote it it about ten times before getting a version I liked enough to use
A bind for @renegadeguild 's 2025 Tiny Book Exchange!
[An exchange where you typeset a smaller fic and then someone binds it for you! [or you only typeset a fic or just bind someone else's submitted typeset, ya got options]]
typeset made | bind made (you're here)
I got to bind @bossbot97 's lovely typeset of @croik 's Kane & Feels / Ghost Wax crossover: The Title of this Fic has been Redacted for your Safety! (which i'm realizing now I didn't get any other interior pictures ahhhh)
The finished book measures approx. 2"x 3"
This fic features the characters from both audio dramas hunting/being hunted down by a creature with a bird-like skull covered in feather-like shapes, so I took that aspect and ran with it.
I initially wanted to have more to the cover of this bind but life got a bit in the way and I was honestly quite liking the more simple look for this. Makes it feel more like a mysterious and ominous book you'd just... find somewhere, yaknow?
Overall, the chisel trimming turned out alright. Surprisingly harder to do on a smaller book than a full sized one! (At least for me lol). First time sanding/edge-coloring and that turned out not bad!
Materials:
I actually got this bookcloth from a Talas sampler pack (and they don't label their samples) but I believe it's Asahi Bookcloth in #2379 Black. (And it adds such a neat texture for this bind.)
The endpapers are black cardstock with overlapping feather textures printed on it, so the pattern is subtle until it catches the light.
Bound using linen thread and archival pva glue, endbands sewn using single strand embroidery thread in a faux-double core style. Printed on Hammermill 20lb cream paper.
Cover:
An inset window that holds a paper cut bird-like skull. Made with cardstock cut into different layer silhouettes, painted details, glued together, waxed, and then glued into the window (which took so many little tabs to get that shape lol)
I really wanted to do a sort of anthropology journal/schoolwork sort of thing with the brain as the focus since it's a large part of the fic. To add to the feel I added a table of contents and the chapter Author notes at the end of each chapter stylized as Reference Notes!
I dont have a cool Minc, so I (poorly) foiled the cover page and titles on the inside with my good old mini press.
And a bonus at the end with Creep Part 2 Epilogue, which was so so cute to read.
A love letter for my favorite fanfic: Boy in the Box
by Mellow_Yellow aka @ohjafeeljadefinitelyfeel! This cover was also one of my first embroidery projects that I made with this fic bind in mind if I got the green light from the author—it's inspired (loosely) by one of the final scenes in the fic and captures a lot of the isolation and melancholy I always feel in this story. So unbelievably happy to have this on my bookshelf forever ❤︎
The Renegade Bookbinding Guild is proud to announce we are officially a 501c3 educational nonprofit! This is a significant and exciting milestone for Renegade! Renegade’s official non-profit status allows us to support the growth of our various events as they become more money and resource intensive. Renegade's focus as a nonprofit is on building community, providing education, and promoting preservation of written works.
To read more about this very exciting announcement, information is on the Renegade Bookbinding Guild website, along with details about the updates to guild membership.
501c3 Status Update
Renegade Bookbinding Guild's current board can be viewed at the link below.
The Board
Renegade can now receive tax-deductible donations!
Donate Here
Renegade will NOT move any resources behind a membership "paywall" or in any way limit current or future resources in the Renegade Bindery Discord server.
Renegade is currently recruiting volunteers to assist in the Binderary Mods & Website Designers roles, among others!
Volunteer Applications
We also have a new logo! Thank you to @starblightbindery and @runawaymarbles for their respective work in how our logos have developed over the years.
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
bonus bonus: cutting out the sun, and the cardstock layer goes under the bookcloth to create the indents that the pieces of the sun fit into like a puzzle
materials notes: colibri uran bookcloth, extremely delicate handmade Japanese paper for endpapers (did an adapted form of made endpapers) that i think? is from Itoya?, marbled jute paper for Atlas + globe, copper wire, copper acrylic ink for the edge, silver + rose gold foil applied with handheld foil quill pen, japanese hand-sewing silk for endbands.
Another jayvik book!!! This is the incredible divine alchemy of the self, by r0sie_p0sies.
This fic was recommended to me by dear friend @ilgaksu and holyyyyy shit. It was written pre-s2 and yet somehow ends up in the exact same emotional place as the finale; the similarities range from larger scene beats all the way down to certain dialogue choices. Rosie just gets these characters, through and through!
As usual, process chatter under the cut!
It's fitting for a jayvik book that this first attempt was chock-full of experiments and new techniques! This is my first hardcover quarto Legal size, which I really loved doing. I also finally have a proper finishing press, so I was able to properly round and back a book for the first time! The shoulders are a little weak, so I'm hoping to improve when I make Rosie's author copy. I also used my foil pen for the first time and handwrote the little blurb on the back.
Most exciting, this was the first time I tried an inset! I used some of my favorite blue Momi marbled paper; rectangle placement is heavily inspired by one of @pleasantboatpress's gorgeous binds. Loveee me a good rectangle, heh. I thought an inset was fitting for this story; as you can probably tell from the title, the fic is all about transforming oneself--through grief, through illness, through love. I wanted this to be a book of contrasts--stark white for a kind of blank canvas (also a nod to Viktor's hexcorized dolls in s2), blue and gold for magic/hextech. Here's an abridged version of what I sent Rosie while chatting about design (please picture me as that It's Always Sunny conspiracy meme, but in DMs):
The framework of the fic being alchemy, creation, a literal step-by-step guide for how to create something divine, is something I really want to explore! I really like the idea of this kind of blank canvas casing + swirling paper inset. All the love and life and messy tendrils of illness surrounded by this...blank divinity. That divinity as a medium, a container, for the complicated human experience. But also the inverse--the blankness of the canvas drawing attention to the brilliant blue/gold of the inset. The bright light shining through the windows of their living room in the ending scene juxtaposed with the moment of their (possible? wonderfully ambiguous?) deaths; those two moments being, in many ways, the same. A window into their lives loving each other, seen from both the outside and within. *insert lots of keyboard smashing*
Interiority and vulnerability were also two themes I wanted to convey. So with that theme in mind, I tried something very, very new to me, and thought, fuck it, let's try to use paper vellum for the endpapers:
You're not really supposed to use paper vellum for endpapers because 1) it wrinkles and curls like all hell and 2) since it's translucent, it means you can see the inside of the boards and the tapes. But for this bind, I decided to lean into that effect--I scribbled the four stages of the alchemical process (the framework of the fic's chapters) onto the boards so you could see them when you opened the book (I wanted to evoke jayvik's "mad scientists" vibe lol); I cut the supporting linen tapes into points (a nod to the rune Viktor carves into his leg brace) and painted them gold so they'd stand out more (they reminded me of Vik's spine brace; I mean hell, they're literally sewn into the spine of the book for extra support. It felt criminal to not incorporate them in some way!); I tried to be more intentional with the glue brushstrokes while casing in to give the paste-down a more painted effect; and finally, probably the thing that was hardest to let go (and which I'm still a little unsure about, to be honest), I let the damn endpapers wrinkle, for more ~texture.~
The overall effect is something I'm still mulling over, even as I write this--it kind of goes against everything I've learned as a bookbinder, and almost makes me feel (or rather, the book feel lol) naked. These are the parts of the book you aren't normally supposed to see, put on display the moment you open it. But! I think that even if it's not the strongest from a design perspective, I think thematically, it works. Reading this fic made me feel like I was being carved open, so I wanted the experience of reading the book to be a little vulnerable, too. Also: beauty in imperfections, right? :3
Aaand that's all for today! A million thanks again to Rosie for letting me bind her wonderful work <3
And once more for the road: you can read divine alchemy of the self on ao3!
This anthology took me a looong time to figure out, first composition-wise, and then the textblock had to wait for some month while I figured out what I wanted to do with the cover. ⚔️👒
💚 My main idea was GREEN, because I wanted to collect my favorite Zoro/Luffy pieces (about being deeply not normal about each other and also about inappropriate use of Gear 5) and use different Japanese woodcuts for each piece. The fancy linework in the typeset was inspired by @swordsmans's style.
💚 The endbands are a random assortment of greens, and the cover is hand stitched on nice emerald green linen. The feel of the book in my hands is well worth my poor pricked all over fingers (I am very new to any kind of embroidery).
Full cloth binding with paper onlay (Bradel binding)
materials used
inner book
paper - schleipen fly 05, 115gsm
endpapers - Ingres Bütten (black)
endbands - linnen thread wrapped with chiyogami paper
case
boards - 1mm grey board
spine stiffener - card stock
cover material - Iris book cloth (black)
paper onlay - chiyogami paper
title - hot stamped with heat activated foil (white)
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
bonus bonus: cutting out the sun, and the cardstock layer goes under the bookcloth to create the indents that the pieces of the sun fit into like a puzzle
materials notes: colibri uran bookcloth, extremely delicate handmade Japanese paper for endpapers (did an adapted form of made endpapers) that i think? is from Itoya?, marbled jute paper for Atlas + globe, copper wire, copper acrylic ink for the edge, silver + rose gold foil applied with handheld foil quill pen, japanese hand-sewing silk for endbands.
The Courting Season by @anarchycox (The Witcher TV, 47k), casebound at folio size for @silentsunpress as part of the Renegard 2024 binder's exchange!
I leaned into a flowery, elegant design for this one, and used a lot of William Morris assets and motifs to decorate the cover and typeset, and the result is really nicely cohesive - I even embroidered the cover and gold-foiled the edges!! Fonts used: Georgia (for body text) and Felix Titling (for titling).
Hi! I'm also a fanbinder and I absolutely *need* to know how you did the cutout page in front of the title page for Away Childish Things 😂 Is it just glued on like the endsheets to the textblock? Bc my first thought was just put a full A4/Letter sheet on the outside of the signature which wouldn't actually work bc then you'd get a random solid colour page in the middle of the book 😂 It's a beautiful bind btw, I loved it! And also the editing with the patronus????? absolutely incredible!
Thank you so much!
I actually did the cut out by hand with an xacto knife. Your fingies will hurt. Then I added it to the book exactly like you’d do pasted on end papers! Note: I did this BEFORE trimming so that way the paper is flush with the textblock. If you add it after trimming then it’ll be weird and annoying.
You DO get a piece of colored paper showing but I personally don’t mind it. If it bothers you, you could color the edges in acrylic ink (my preferred medium), or paint, leafing, etc.
