A tabletop RPG creator and artist that uses digital cronch to make horrors. Chasing the illegal colours. Pick up my games here - https://ko-fi.com/neonrot/shop
After many long months (mostly procrastinating), I have finally finished my custom binding of Dreadfarer.
Read more for photos and thoughts about the process.
I did have to change my initial vision for the book due to the way leather works and my general lack of proper leather paring tools, so instead of a cursed book, I instead tried to shoot for a book that looked like it was sewn together by a complete amateur, a madman trying to bind together their last thoughts before they are consumed by the Horrors.
It's not perfect (mostly intentional, partially not), because I myself am still very much an amateur. Most prominently, I'm mad that I used my template upside down on the front cover, making it go out of line with the rest of the book. (And it stands fine on its own, but it's not really a bookcase book. Idk what I'm going to do with it yet but that's another story.)
That being said, I think it came out really well for a first attempt at Coptic stitch. That was the intent from the start of the design, and I made most of my choices with the exposed spine in mind (ultimately the cursed book idea I initially had would have worked better with a case book design, rather than an open spine).
My endpapers didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, but that's a common problem amateur bookbinders face. I used the zigzag method, which let me sew my endpapers into the book block, rather than the more common tipped-in endpapers, where you glue it to the first page (I had many reasons for wanting to do sewn endpapers, but first and foremost is that I just fucking hate tipped in endpapers. I did it once and I have been experimenting with methods to never do it again.) In retrospect, however, this was a bad move with the tension I needed for the coptic stitch. I accidentally ripped the shit out of one of my endpaper signatures [chunk of folded paper] and had to do a quick patch job.
But after it all , I am left with a perfectly functional book. It lies completely flat, which is great because Dreadfarer is a journal/art RPG. I don't want to have to keep flipping back to the prompt while I'm trying to draw, y'know?
I'd love to do more work with leather, and I'll definitely be using coptic stitch in the future. Baumgartner Restoration often does smaller repairs with washi kozo and praises its strength and unobstructiveness. It might be worthwhile to look into that for strengthening my sewn endpapers.
It was a learning experience, as every book I've bound thus far has been. I love experimenting with techniques, and I try to do something new with each book I do. I want to revisit my cursed book idea at some point too. Maybe when I have more skill and the ability to tell when TEMPLATE TOP is written upside down.