Welcome to the Loser Chronicles

I'm in multishipping hell. WARNING: Clicker beware! I bind and link to explicit fanfiction. Feel free to ask me anything! I am an adult so please, please do not interact if that makes you uncomfortable.

[ps-froggie]

Hi!! I'm Froggie!! I dabble in this and that but I'm currently really into Transformers and bookbinding.

My bindery name is silly billy binds and I don't mind sharing my more recent typesets with those that ask. Just as long as the author has a blanket permission transformative works statement or you have proof that that author gave you permission.

Bluesky

[eggfriedpenguin]

World's Okayest Slipcase Tutorial (?) Part 1 with a lot of badly taken photos and explanation

A while ago me and @edelkirschehandmade were making Project Hail Mary rebinds at the same time, and both of us went the extra mile of making slipcases for it and during the whole process I created a step-by-step tutorial how to make one for edelkirsche in the @renegadeguild satellite channel

Part 1 will be how I made the casing and put them together

Part 2 will be how to glue the cloth on

I learned how to make slipcases by following DAS video tutorial, but if you're like me and not the biggest fan of video tutorial, I will try my best to explain my steps here.

This is not a 1:1 tutorial of DAS slipcase tutorial, this is how I have been making mine. I also use various tool I purchased from Schmedt/iBookbinding that help me keeping the pieces in place when assembling. I will also link them in my posts (nothing is sponsored, needed to hit Schmedt's minimum order amount couple of times and grabbed them.)

So the very first thing you should do is measure your book and write it down on paper. Make sure you are measuring from different spots, as book binding is a manual process and sometimes the measurement can vary by 1-2mm. Write down the biggest measurement you get

I write down the measurements for the TOP/BOTTOM and SPINE piece, and add ~3-4mm. This is to account for the inside paper lining thickness and bookcloth when you fold it over the edge.

Adding too many extra mm could make the slipcase too loose and your book will slip out very easily, and making it too tight means you can't put the book in without having to use force and risk damaging the book and slipcase. My slipcases do tend to end a wee bit on the snug side, still easy to push in but need to shake a few times to get the book out, so I usually add a ribbon to the case to make it easier to remove the book.

For this book, my measurements are

SPINE: Length: 210mm+3 = 213mm Width: 32mm+3 = 35mm

TOP/BOTTOM: Length: 137mm+3 = 140mm

Width: 35mm, same as the SPINE piece

DAS measures all the pieces at once. For the FRONT and BACK pieces, you'll have to account in the board thickness into the measurement too, so the math is something like

board thickness*2 + SPINE Length

and the width is 140mm (same as TOP/BOTTOM Length)

BUT, I am bad at math. I had to redo the FRONT and BACK pieces for slipcases soooo many times now I just assemble the SPINE - TOP - BOTTOM pieces first, measure the total from there and then cut the FRONT and BACK. If you hate cutting, and you're more confident in your measurement and math you can also cut the front and back piece at this stage

Another important thing to keep in mind is the grain direction of the board, when you're cutting the pieces the grain direction should be running like this:

Once the pieces are cut, I glue them onto the inside paper lining. Make sure that here the grain direction is also running the same as the board pieces:

After that is done and I have cut the pieces from the paper, I start assembling it:

Make sure that the SPINE piece is sandwiched between the TOP/BOTTOM pieces. A cleaner visual of what I mean by that:

I use the following tools to keep boards in place while the glue is drying:

Magnetic corner clamp, 90° Corner clamp with guide grooves Corner clamp, 90°

Once that done, I note down the measurements for the FRONT/BACK pieces:

As I mentioned before, the formula for the FRONT/BACK Length is

board thickness*2 + SPINE Length

my boards are 2.5mm thick my SPINE length is 213mm so that means 2.5mm*2 + 213mm = 218mm (which is also the measurement my ruler is giving me yay me)

the width for the FRONT/BACK is 140mm (same as TOP/BOTTOM Length)

Once again, make sure the grain direction of your board is correct, glue the inside paper lining to the board

aaaand it's assmebling time!

I like to use my 3kg coin box as a weight for pressing the board pieces down lmfao

After the glue is dry, your slipcase should look like this:

aaaand that's it for part 1 :) will work on part 2 this weekend, how to apply cloth on

[ps-froggie]

Breaking out the fancy thread for these endbands

[perfectlynormalbooks]

X-Tropy by @deadcanons. X-Files, 147k, folio binding, fully illustrated. I do mean fully. All 51 chapters of this feature, uh, elaborate illustrations. And in some chapters I drew more than one. I liked X-Tropy a normal amount. Please go read X-Tropy. It's a wonder and a delight and it has a equally wonderful soundtrack too.

One copy for me, and one copy for the author (of course). I used shot cotton (red/blue) for the cover fabric to give a mostly-plain design a bit of visual interest, but to keep it from being too overwhelming. I'm a really big fan of shot cotton and it works so nicely here. I realized after the fact that I'd essentially recreated a 3-piece Bradel binding (maybe???) without actually knowing that was what I was doing. I've never made a cover like this before so it was truly a total accident, but I'm going to have to do it again. I love the way it feels. I made a slipcase too, to keep the book safe in transit... but it really isn't the feature here, I was focusing more on the interior for the majority of this project. For. Uh. Obvious reasons.

You can see the whole typeset with all of the illustrations here. You can see the poster I did with all of the various characters and details over here on my main blog! Go check them out. I spent a few months on this.

Additional design work/extras under the cut, here.

Character lineup (in color!) - most of these were very rough sketches I did just so I'd have a reference point to check back as I illustrated my way through it all. Not all of these ended up being entirely accurate - I kept messing around with Jasmine's hair in basically every illustration I did of her, and Ji-Hoon's hand injury is on the wrong hand in this reference (whoops! I remembered when I was actually illustrating, though, don't worry).

I have a document somewhere where I collected every single character description I could find in the entire fic, just for consistency. It was a long document. The things I do in the frantic quest for versimilitude.

The ID badges - I like throwing silly little extras in when I send things to my friends. The FBI badges are based on some of the props used in the show actual - the opposite sides are some more X-Tropy-relevant references. (I realized while uploading these images that there's an error on the autopsy report: the cause of death is meant to read 'foreign body airway obstruction' but the text got removed at some point. ah well, i can't get everything right)

Chapter 29 (Orpheus II) features a visit to a real-world art installation (Larassa Kabel's Visitation) - I ended up 3d-modelling it to make sure I could properly nail the perspective and shadowplay of the scene. (My take on the visuals is maybe a bit more twisty and branch-heavy than the original ever was, but being in a museum at night plays strange tricks on your brain.) It's the only actual perspective model I ended up doing for the illustrations, but I did end up referencing a lot of real-world locations mentioned in the notes and taking inspiration from photos of the places as well as street-view results. More than anything, this project turned out to be a roadtrip.

Aaaaand the first sketch I ever did for this story - a year ago, on a scrap piece of paper while bored at work, the day after reading the Crisis Apparition chapter. I had a very vivid mental image of the composition and didn't want to lose it. I think it's kind of wonderful just how little that composition changed, even when I'd totally forgotten about the doodle.

...really good project to work on. I needed something to sink my teeth into and it was perfect. Now that it's with the author I can stop having a package shipping-induced constant anxiety attack.

[uberfluss]

first 5 faceless emojis are how your summers gonna go

[thesebonesbite]

Magnus Archives fan I see

[partywithponies]

THIS IS SO FUNNY I'M SORRY

[ps-froggie]

First author copy in progress baaaaby

[lovckett]

i love you

do you understand?

[fantadym]

5 Commission Slots Available

COMMS ARE BACK AND 50% OFF!!!! DM if your interested, and share even if not please! I need to pay some bills and I wont have enough this month

[thefigeproject]

Our Farewell Zine has been published!

There’s two versions of the zine, one SFW and one NSFW. Both are available for FREE on our website!

Download now for FREE!

Thank you all for your contributions & support over the last year. Getting to make these zines with y’all has been a great experience.

I’m really proud of what we accomplished & of how much I’ve seen people grow as creatives throughout the existence of this project.

I hope y’all remember it fondly.

- Tag 💖

[starscream-is-my-wife]

Thundercracker was forced to babysit for some experiments and then decided to adopt

[barbie--art]

How are we feeling about StarOP, chat?

I think it's a fun ship! both characters are my favourites and their personalities are complete polar opposites, so their dynamic can be interesting :]

bonus sketches I drew instead of listening to my teacher:

who am I if I don't post the lineart lol

[edelkirschehandmade]

I rebound a notebook bookblock that I had lying around for a while in a cute strawberry paper that I recently purchased. It got a little messy because I was impatient, but I really love how it looks.

[ps-froggie]

the aftermath of an oration in poetry by lovckett aka @lovckett

orion sneaks into the archives to write poetry for dee. a stupid corny self indulgent habit. it's fine, though. it's not like he'd ever find out.

Fandom: Transformers One (2024)

Relationship: D-16/Orion Pax, Megatron/Optimus Prime, Homeslice/Dudebro

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Did another bind of this fic (first version here) as it was rewritten so I obviously needed the updated version on my shelf!

Another try at using Neenah Paper, this time the corvon shimmer in electric pink. Definitely much more durable compared to the last time I tried using paper on the spine of a hardcover pamphlet but still took some wear and tear just trying to get it in. Probably better used in a binding style that doesn't involve shoving the spine covering between the cover and the text block lol.

Kept it pretty simple for the typesetting this time, using Volkhov for the body text and Thinking Of Betty Light for the full title. I used a sparkle vector by nunny over on rawpixel to add some decoration to the title page.

Bonus comparison of this new binding with the old:

[the-queer-creator-lu]

I've finally completed my first bookbind! A wonderful fanfic, OSAS (of saints and sinners) by @morningstarwrite. The whole process took around 16-18 consecutive hours but it was well worth it!

[shalottpress]

Interim by starkraving (@punishandenslavesuckers)

Interim is an amazing post BotW fanfic where the cycle starts immediately over but Link and Zelda don't realised it and it is racist to accuse the hot Gerudo man they are both nursing a crush on of being the next evil king. I love this story it is so so good. This is one of the few loz fics I adore that is not purely zelink. The writing! The story!! They are all so doomed by the narrative and they are all so so hot.

The aim was to get this finished in Binderary 2026 but I ended up too busy to finish anything but a pamphlet in the end.

The typeset is spectacular and was created by @besidekick for the 2024 Renegade Exchange. I really adored design choices of the interior illustrations from c. 1640 by Bartholomeus Breenbergh, they fit the post-apocalypse theme so well. And the blue drop caps!

I love the cover I came up with in homage to the gorgeous typeset and the illustrations scattered throughout the typeset. The cover illustration is an etching entitled Classical Ruins created in 1673 by the Bohemian artist Wenceslaus Hollar in 1673. The cover was designed in Canva, printed on matte photo paper, then covered in soft touch laminate before being adhered to the book board. If I was to redo it I would forgo the blurb on the back, as I added it last minute, and I feel like it could have looked better without upon reflection.

This book went so so wrong at the end (issues with the front endpapers I’m pretending are not real until I can face trying to fix my mistake), but I’m so happy to have this story on my physical shelf.

[dadmilkman]

made great use of some leftover shimmery paper for this one! I need to figure out a few things binding re: thicker books (it doesnt open as flat as I want it to) but otherwise I'm very pleased with this one!!

[ps-froggie]

your bind of eminence is so lovely!! big fan of the blue, and shiny edges <3 can i ask what paint you used? or if you have recommendations for shiny metallic paints? thank you :)

Thank you!!

For the edges I mixed two colors of FolkArt's Perle and used that over an undercoat of cyan acrylic ink. When I was experimenting, I found that even three coats of the pearlescent paint still showed the natural color of the book edge, so the undercoat was a necessity. To bring out the full shimmer, I rubbed the edges with beeswax and burnished it with the end of my bonefolder.

I'm sure there are actually much better brands to use for this, but one, FolkArt's is super easily available where I am, and two, it labels itself as nontoxic, which I find important for something I'll be getting my hands on pretty often.