Laurel Tree Bindery

  Laurel Tree Bindery is a small bindery specializing in one of a kind books and short print runs. Handmade books are made using traditional binding techniques and archival materials. Books communicate ideas & come in endless varieties. Custom work is our specialty! Careful attention to detail is used to create a unique book to your specifications that will last for generations. Book binding classes are available! Explore the possibilities with classes for all ages and skills. Children & adults benefit from the satisfaction of creating beautiful, functional books.   

[emachinescat]

Another new book I bound recently!

This one is also my own writing, and also the first Psych fic I've bound! It's honestly one of my proudest achievements. The fic is The Finch and the Mockingbird if anyone is interested. :)

It's a 67k word fic where Henry's past comes back to haunt him in the worst of ways when someone bent on revenge goes after Shawn in a deadly game inspired by the dark theme of revenge in To Kill a Mockingbird.

[ajconstantine]

Ineffable Picnics- California Bay Area Good Omens fan meetups

Pack your hampers and prepare for a heavenly (and slightly infernal) afternoon. You are cordially invited to two Ineffable Picnic meetups!

Picnic 1: Sunday, May 10 2026, 11:30am, Lions Wayside Park, Pleasanton

Picnic 2: Sunday, May 24 2026, 12pm, Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco.

Please reblog and share to spread the word! Feel free to reach out to me ( AJ Constantine) on Tumbler or Discord (I'd love to know if you plan to attend), or join the conversation over at The Ineffable Society on Discord.

[celestial-sphere-press]

hi! I wanted to ask about the Japanese silk thread you use – I'm going to Japan soon and wanted to pick some up in person, do you know of any stores in Tokyo that would sell some and if so, any brands you recommend? thanks so much!

Hi!! There are a bunch of stores where you can get this type of silk thread. It will usually be in the hand-sewing section, and sold on little cards.

If you're heading to Nippori Fabric district (great also for second hand kimono/haori/hakama shopping), you should also find some sewing shops that carry it there.

If not, most sewing supply chains will carry it. The two big ones are Okadaya (there is one outside Shinjuku station, but there are a lot in general) or a Yuzawaya.

If you find a more independent sewing crafts store, you might luck out and find some on sale (happened to me once way out in Takayama. 80m of silk for 80 yen. deal of the century. I hadn't even started sewing endbands yet, had no idea what I stumbled on but got them anyways).

As for brands, there's a whole bunch but sizing is pretty standardized so I'm usually not bothered about which one (I use KNK, Daruma, Fujix/Tire, etc interchangeably). You want to make sure the card says "100% 絹" on it. Check how many meters you get for the price and what size it is (9号 or 16号). 9 is thinner and my personal preference, but 16 will let you finish an endband faster.

(meters are noted down in the darkness on the bottom)

Once you come back and have fallen in love, you can buy a whole 171 color set on the wholesale site Nippon Chuko. They have a minimum 20,000 yen order but thr per-card pricing is the best you'll find anywhere except in the sale box of that random store in Takayama.

Best of luck to you in the endwyrm battle!

[roseserpentpress]

The second (and positively delightful) fic by @theopteryx that I've finished binding, as well as the first book I've done with leather! With the Indiana Jones-esque story, I really wanted to do a book bound in brown leather... and so I finally caved in purchasing a bunch of leather and some leather working tools and paint for leather bookbinding. I also in classic fashion of remaining true to the images I've cooked up deliriously in my brain decided I wanted to have a stone set in the center (also cardinal to the story) to further complicate matters (as well as doing cordage on the spine). I also rummaged through an old box of semi precious stones from my childhood, and to my delight found one that would work, although it certainly was not flat on one side; which is why I set it within a raised platform after also trimming part of the way through the cover bookboard as well, but I quite like the little elevated platform it is now on. Overall, I really enjoyed the process and am quite pleased on how it turned out, and am excited to continue to do leather bookbinding. As it was my first time working with leather, I've certainly learned a few tricks in which I'll apply to later books, as occurs whenever learning a new medium.

Can Never Wrong This Right (23.5k, E)

Written for the hc_bingo challenge, for the square of 'forced soul-bonding.'

It's 1949 and Dr. Way is a professor of Archeology and Frank is his constantly exasperated (and secretly pining) assistant. When their latest trek takes them to South America to locate the fabled Blood Stone, however, they both find more than they bargained for.

[heliotropepajamas-books]

Fanbinding: Left by lifeonmars

Project 50, Binds 68 & 69, and Binderary Books #9-10 Left by lifeonmars ( @marsdaydream ) Completed: February 21, 2026 Size:  Legal Quarto.  45,153 words, 231 pages

This is a fantastic magical realism story that was one of the first fics I knew I wanted to bind when I turned my attention to past Sherlock reads.  Because John Watson’s left-handedness is a major plot-point I wanted to incorporate a hand into the cover design and ended up finding the perfect icon set from the noun project.  That ended up establishing a round theme with the Type Keys font for the title and chapter numbers.  This was one of the only times where I knew what the cover would look like before I started formatting the text, allowing for a bit more coordination than usual.

Because I was using a bookcloth sampler pack from Book Craft Supply Co. for the covers the two books are not identical.  Neither are the endpapers - in this case a cozy plaid was as close as I could get to the traditional Watsonian cuddly jumper.

Formatted in LibreOffice Writer as usual, with Century Schoolbook as the body font and IM Fell Double Pica (of course) for other subheadings.

[keystonepublishing]

The Etho Zine by @ethozine

Well, a month has come and gone, and my latest project is complete!

I have never expressed my open liking of Ethoslab - I'm more of a Tango and Jimmy fan, if my past binds are any example. More often than not, I lurk in his videos and in the tumblr tags which is how I got to find out of the Etho zine project by @ethozine.

When I saw the finished work, I instantly knew this would be my next project after binding the MCYT Couture zine.

Continuing in my experimentation, this bind is made as a split-boards bind and despite some hiccups I found myself really liking the result! The hinges open without much pushback and the book feels so sturdy. I think I might have a new binding style...

I also added some cheekiness to the project. I used the fanmade emojis made by the zine team to decorate the front and back endpapers. The result? Mini-Ethos inviting me as I flip the covers!! (with the exception of ice cream Etho. noooooooo). To all the fanartists who made these, you all rock!

And finally, I had a sudden thought at the last minute as to the design of the cover label. In Malaysia, the bus networks here used to have these old tickets that are now fondly remembered as memorabilia. I looked at them one day and realized that these would be perfect to bedight the zine! So I drafted a cover label based on these bus tickets and printed them onto some leftover paper. It looks so beautiful!

Plus, the combination of the label, black bookcloth, red strip, and green-yellow endpapers create an almost Japanese aesthetic to the whole cover, which kinda fits as Ethoslab's skin is Kakashi from Naruto (and that his favourite color is green too!).

Special thanks to the team of fanartists and creators of the @ethozine for making this zine possible!

[heliotropepajamas-books]

Fanbinding: Sour Cherry Pie Life

Project 51, Bind 70, Binderary Book #11 Sour Cherry Pie Life by FaithDaria & paburke Completed: February 27, 2026 Size: Octavo. 19,101 words, 166 pages

Throwing it back to the early days of my fic-reading timeline with a crossover between Supernatural and Criminal Minds.  

Wordcount wise this is right at the breaking point that could work as either an Octavo or a Quarto, but given the time crunch before the end of Binderary and the pile of scrap materials I wanted to use up, I went with the smaller option.  

The typeset came together quickly with Coelacanth for the body font and Chenier for the title (going for a slightly age-worn look).  My octavos usually hover around 95 words-per-page but I managed to hit 115 with this bind.  

Things went a little haywire with the aesthetics once I was actually constructing the book.  I was making this at the same time as another octavo and it wasn’t until it came time to make the covers themselves that I realised I had accidentally switched the endpapers between the books.  It was too late to do anything about it since the textblock was all glued up with spine lining and mull so I just plowed on ahead.  And so my story about a serial killer has a very cozy feel.

[technofeudalism]

i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

[technofeudalism]

since this post blew up, i've been wanting to do an addition with all of the recommendations from the comments and tags. but there's a lot of them. some people might be crazy enough to sit down and seriously put them all in one post with descriptions. those people are honestly sick in the head.

anyway, here's all of the recommendations from the reblogs. not all of them are text-based, but it's a great mixture of styles. also don't forget the links in the second paragraph of the OP which will take you to FMHY where there are a bunch more games listed.

Games

A Dark Room - text-based science fiction role-playing game.

corru.observer - science fiction adventure web game.

Improbable Island - old-school text adventure game.

Candy Box 2 - incremental clicker game that evolves into RPG.

Arcanum - open source wizard clicker game.

sandspiel, Powder Game, Powder Game 2, The Powder Toy - more sand physics games.

Orb.Farm - fishtank simulator.

Façade - experimental game with a real-time interactive narrative where you try to fix a failing marriage.

The Catacombs of Solaris - trippy art game.

Yume Nikki Online - online version of the surreal classic plus fangames.

The Barncle Goose Experiment - combine element/alchemy game based on antique theories of abiogenesis.

Fallen London - free-to-play text-based open world RPG.

Nested - very unique text-based universe expanding game. described as possibly @orteil42's favorite thing he's ever made.

The Process of Elimination - interactive web novel (by @hypertextdog)

Discworld MUD - multiplayer, text-based, online game (a MUD, or text MMORPG) based on the Discworld books.

Horse Master - surreal text game about training a horse.

EYEZMAZE - flash (RIP) or HTML5-based puzzle games.

You Are Jeff Bezos - text game. spend Jeff Bezos' fortune.

The Password Game - challenging puzzle game where you have to meet password requirements (by neal)

Universal Paperclips - incremental paperclip making game.

Half-Earth - planetary disaster planning game where you try to save the world using socialism.

ChooseYourStory - community-driven website centered on CYOA style story games.

PhD Simulator - random event based text game. make your choice each month and see if you can graduate on time.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - open source roguelike.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - turn-based survival roguelike set in the modern day.

Nethack - open source roguelike originally released in 1987.

FarmRPG - simple, mobile-friendly, text-based farming RPG.

Kingdom of Loathing - browser-based community MMORPG.

PokeRogue - browser-based Pokemon roguelike

Tools

Text Game Builder - works in your browser, with just a little bit of Python (by @grumpygandalf)

Twine - great (free!) tool for making text-based games quickly.

Ink - scripting language for interactive fiction (also free)

Flashpoint Archive - a community effort to preserve games and animations from the web.

PICO-8 - fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs.

Non-Games

Library of Babel - interactive illustration which attempts to simulate what it might be like to browse The Library of Babel.

Superbad - technically not a game, sprawling website full of secrets.

17776 - serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative about football in the far-future. beautiful, creative, legendary. created by Jon Bois, a legend and one of my favorite writers of all time.

Choice of Games - text-based, choose-your-own-adventure games (interactive fiction). some free-to-play, others can be bought like an ebook.

The Deep Sea - scroll to the bottom of the ocean. encounter the humble squid and his friends (by neal)

Space Elevator - like The Deep Sea, but up instead of down. you can equip your avatar with a scarf (by neal)

Internet Artifacts - an interactive history of the early internet (by neal)

If The Moon Were Only One Pixel - scroll through an accurately scaled model of the universe.

r/incremental_games - reddit community for incremental games.

r/WebGames - reddit community for web games in general.

thank you to everyone who contributed and the creators. please be sure to show them some love where possible.

[monchursouls]

Reblogging the update too

[zhalfirin]

Notebook Bradel binding, full cloth binding with paper onlays

Material used

covers - grey board 1mm spine stiffener - cardstock cover material - coated cloth onlayed paper - decorative paper endpapers - decorative paper endband - commercial woven endbands

size: ~A6

[unusualmuffinart]

[roseserpentpress]

Extremely excited to have finished this bind for the incredible funpoison/frerard Danger Days fic Don't Need The System by @liberxi . Seriously during the process I kept getting distracted and rereading parts of the fic, it just sucks you back in...

I had a lot of fun designing the book; the cover inspired from the promotional posters of the spray painted spider over the BL/ind, which have a white, black and pink colour combo to represent the BL/ind (black and white) and pink (colour!) as a breaking away from the system to become Killjoys; something certainly applicable as the whole fic is on leaving the system. For the title I used a font very similar to the actual killjoys font (the true font you have to pay to use) while I also the secondary fonts where the BL/ind font throughout the book. I also thought it would be fun to switch out the chapter heading designs as the story progresses, and in the end choose a strawberry endpaper, also thematic to the fic.

Video of me handling the book and fic description below;

Don't Need The System by @liberxi (E, 145k)

Captured by BL/ind and forced to reintegrate into a system built on lies, Fun Ghoul has to navigate his new life in Battery City. If he wants to survive, he knows that he can't trust anyone, and that he definitely can't fall for a pretty smile - especially not when it belongs to a Scarecrow.

---

Party Poison origin story, let's gooo!

[tropicalua]

"star echoes" a experimental zine of a failed stamp

"star echoes. for (brazilian) zine club, "stamp" (theme), 2026"

"i tried to stamp stars in the sky"

"shining forms and blue shadows"

"i didn't really know how to explore this text and am still getting used to writing things not so directly. it was interesting to explore, maybe i'll make other stars too"

back cover

"this zine was made for clube de zines, april 2026, of biblioteca de zines" - Luana Góes

hi! it's been quite a bit since i shared any new work here. not because i'm not making it, but i've been working a lot and not so much time to spend here. i like sharing these on tumblr because i get to practice english and translating it, which is interesting in how people interact with. this was a zine made with pen, red paint, pastel pencil and also a failed attempt at making a homemade stamp, which i tried with "carving" a sponge and it did not work. but! the textures of the paint were cool, so i just folded the paper into a mini zine and tried different things for each spread.

with love,

luana

ps: connect with me on instagram at @luana.g.m and let's be friends :)

[ps-froggie]

Eminence by SporeFrog aka @sporefroggy

Prowl was the second born creation of the King. He had always known that he was going to bond to secure an alliance for Praxus. It was a role that was easier to accept before he had fallen in love with his best friend, a mech he never should have met in the first place.

Fandom: Transformers

Relationship: Jazz/Prowl

Rating: Explicit

Bodice ripper JazzProwl!! Very spicy with a large focus on non-penetrative interface with a plot that snuck in and made me want to kick Sentinel's ass. Need I say anything else to get some more love and attention onto this fic?

Usual spiel about construction and typesetting below with more pics.

I decided to go with a very simple white and blue color scheme, one, because it just felt very classy, and two, because it felt very bride-ish, which is Prowl's role in the story.

Tried out a new material for this bind: Neenah Paper's kivar 7 in the kidskin texture. It's very... interesting to work with? It's almost like a slightly more supple cardstock and fought me while gluing it down. It's definitely very durable though! I was able to wipe off some glue I accidentally got off the cover very easily which give me confidence it should stay that unblemished white for a while to come.

For the endpapers I made paste paper using the pearlescent paint I used for the edges.

There was a bit of a learning curve to using pearlescent paint on the edges of the book. I think maybe the pigment just isn't as fine as it is with my metallic paints because the shimmer would just hop right off if I waited after painting for the edges to completely dry before opening. Instead I had to paint, wait a minute for it to not be completely wet, and then fan the pages open. Worth it though for how pretty the edges look in the light!

The headbands were made by wrapping the cover material around hemp cord.

For typesetting, I used three fonts: Rosarivo for the body, WeddingDay Personal Use for the title page and dropcaps, and Wingdings for the little diamond used for line breaks.

For the chapter openings, I really loved how the fic opened up in Prowl's crystal garden and so I wanted to have some sort of gem/mineral for each opening based off of either it being mentioned in that chapter, vibes, or what the gem allegedly means. I actually made a little list while I was working, but ya know, past Froggie is not always the most coherent so it may not make the most sense. I'll just copy and paste it below. As a bonus it also acts as image credits!

Ch1: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bi_Bismuth_20140412184205.jpg&oldid=1086077854

Ch2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prehnite_-Southbury,_Connecticut,_USA.jpg Ch3: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IMGP2025491(51584551142).jpg (love, trust)

Ch4: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/53708946224/in/photolist-2pQ5owd-QHaPjz-RUwDb4/ (stamina)

Ch5: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hematite_(Cavradi_Gorge,Switzerland)_4.jpg (grounding, protection, stability which prowl needs)

Ch6: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tourmaline%26_aquamarine_J1.jpg (tourmaline found in garden; aqua allegedly calm, centered, relaxed but alert state with balanced energy.

Ch7: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pearl-freshwater_hg.jpg (not a gem, but first chapter with Prowl in Pearlex finish)

Ch8: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jaspe_Orbiculaire_de_Madagascar_1.jpg (joy, lightheartedness. positivity. Dance scene)

Ch9: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dumortierite-quartz_(Brazil)4.jpg (gain insight, jazz gives prowl info on suitors)

Ch10: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jaspe_Orbiculaire_de_Madagascar_1.jpg (malachite can be very toxic if not handled with care. Prime is toxic af here, plus kind of meaty texture is offputting like the end of chapter)

Ch11: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scol%C3%A9cite.jpg (peace and harmony, which prowl needs, but also spiky and a little imposing, like the situation they're in)

Ch12: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Labrador(spektrolit)-_Ylamaa,_Finlandia..jpg (lazutherite not a real crystal, so chose a gem with a similar name)

Ch13: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spodumene_34.jpg#metadata (Spodumene/kunzite unconditional love)

Ch14: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aragonite-_Pantoja,_Toledo,_Castile-La_Mancha,_Spain.jpg (came up when I looked up stones for new beginnings)

[chubsonthemoon]

hiiiiii! zay has his copy now so I can post pics!! :D

I don't normally bind my own work, but after zay did an incredible podfic of one of my jayvik fics, I decided to give a go! (and so I could make him a copy too hehe). this is a bind of the podfic of my little seaside post-canon, when it comes my turn to lose you. gorgeous artwork on the CDs is by @moonartjb and @wr0wn. (full pieces, which have and deserve their own posts, are here and here!)

as always, more crafty chatter under the cut! <3

This was such a fun challenge! I knew going in that I wanted a format that would showcase the podfic in a physical way, but I went back and forth on how best to do that. While I was puzzling out possible dimensions, I came across the digibook and went !!!:

From there, it was just a matter of sizing the textblock and case around the CDs, then making paper pockets for each board to house them. For the textblock, I measured the dimensions of a CD and a standard jewel case as a starting point, then found a size I thought would work best. I printed on my usual short-grain letter paper and trimmed twice--once after sewing the signatures, then again after gluing the spine. The finished size of the book is the same height as a jewel case, and a little shorter length-wise:

(comparison photo with another bound podfic by zay hehe)

For the CD pockets, I used cream printer paper and folded them using this tutorial (...don't ask me how many times I had to refold them to get the dimensions exactly right ajsdlfkjs).

All in all, I'm quite happy with this size! I think it strikes a nice balance between book and CD case, and it feels nice and sturdy in the hand, especially with both CDs in there (Disc 1 is chapters 1-4, and Disc 2 is chapters 5-7!)

Another one of my favorite bits of this bind is the window inset! Original photo is by Daniel Gorostieta, which I edited in Affinity Publisher and printed on Epson photo paper. I then layered a sheet of acetate between the boards to give it that reflective window quality, and also to protect the photo paper, which can be vulnerable to scratching and fading if left exposed.

But by far the COOLEST part of this bind was getting to hand it to zay in person!! I've only ever mailed author copies before, so it was amazing getting to meet up and hand him something we'd both worked on together 🥹

And finally, one last credit--the beautiful metal spiral bookmark (which I just had to include in the pics) was a gift to me, literally forged by dear @zillac. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever received, and I can't believe it's mine!! I will treasure it forever <3

Between the artwork, the podfic, meeting zay, and zil's gift (which arrived around the time I was finishing this bind)--gosh! All my books are a mosaic of people and stories I care about, but this one felt extra special 💌

And that's all for today! Once more for the road: you can listen to zay's podfic on ao3, here <3

[owenhcrper]

I'm not an astronaut. I put the "not" in astronaut. Project Hail Mary

[heliotropepajamas-books]

Fanbinding: etothepii Sherlock trio

Projects 46-48, Binds 64-67, and Binderary Books #s 5,6,&7 Asteroidea (Series) by etothepii Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc (Series)  by etothepii Things you don’t tell me (Series) by etothepii Completed: February 14&15, 2026 Size:  Quarto.  (16,253 words, 136 pages) (20,213 words, 163 pages) (23,174 words, 186 pages)

A trilogy of Sherlock quartos with three stories each.  I distinctly remember reading these fics back on LiveJournal and was bracing myself to try to figure out how to harvest/format from Dreamwidth when I discovered they had been posted to AO3 as well.  Happy days.  Highly recommend, especially if you like crossovers.  The His Dark Materials fusion is delightfully odd and the addition of the Addams family to the Sherlock universe is the perfect explanation for how even keeled Watson can be. Not too much to say about the typesets.  They are meant to look as similar as possible, all using the same fonts and formatting (Bell MT for body and Poor Richard for titles/headers if you’re interested in that minutiae).  I waffled for ages about whether to do the set as quartos or octavos.  Wordcount-wise the smaller size may have made more sense, but I wanted something a little taller, if slimmer, on my shelves.

The aesthetics of the binds themselves were determined by finds at my local creative re-use store when I stumbled upon a pack of fairly plain paper from the early 2010s and a partially used pad of decorative cardstock.  The single sheets made the perfect coordinating set of endpapers for the trio.

[marquevi]

two is enough

"Knight Skywalker, do you have a best friend?" the boy asks. Obi-Wan, he's about to say, but he stops himself in a panic. How can he call the man he's in love with his best friend, when Jedi aren't supposed to have best friends to begin with? He has to set a good example for these younglings. He has to show Obi-Wan that he's taking his duties seriously, despite his earlier reluctance, and he has to show him that he's a good Jedi. Jedi don't have best friends, so Anakin doesn't, either.

After a disastrous visit to the creche, Anakin accidentally finds himself best friends with everyone in the galaxy. Everyone, that is, but Obi-Wan.

obi-wan kenobi/anakin skywalker. 17.9k words. rated e.

a/n: this is a fic of a fic! this is heavily based on and inspired by "sure they always will be" by @thegingerwrites and was written for the @obikin-valentine-exchange

read it on ao3!