#bookbinding adventures

[transfagholmes]

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (for @poetryqueer <3)

This one is heavy (604 pages) and was really good for Satisfying Book to Hold.

Okay and all my comments about making it under the cut <3

This was a really long typsetting project, I started it last summer and then took a long absence when uni started. For a year this has been my white whale. In all that time I still haven't read it properly (sorry Lughaidh), but I want to!

I have to thank Eadbh for bringing paper marbling things to my house <33 we had a lot of fun trying that out together and I got some beautiful endpages to make this book really special.

I hadn't done faux double core headbands before but I think it looks neater than the regular way and it allows for more colours and patterns.

I used split boards to attach the cover, which I really wasn't sure about trying but it wasn't so tricky in the end! It made the book feel very sturdy once it was fully covered, which is exactly why I chose this method for such a large book. When my sister saw me slot the boards on she said 'woah, I have no idea what just happened but that was really satisfying' 👍

One complicated bit was lining the spine and making the oxford hollow, because I didn't put shoulders on the book I wasn't sure how I was going to get a nice spine width without a bit of board in there. I was happy in the end with the light card I used for the oxford hollow but I'd use a thicker card in the future.

The cover was made from collaging wallpaper and recycling leather from an old couch (it was a nice bit of the couch, not a bit that was sat on).

Thank you to everyone who helped me make this, by giving me ideas, advice or a diy marbling workshop and listening to me ramble while I figured it out 🫶

[wizardissues]

my boss’s book turned out very nearly perfect, easily the best I have ever done on a book!!!! I have felt a little rushed bc I keep putting these books off lol but I’ve learned so much about carefully casing in and this book really demonstrates that…..

[havendance]

In honor of day seven of Cass week, I finally kicked myself into gear to finish binding together my issues of Batgirl (2024). The first volume, Batgirl: Shiva, collects issues #1-8. and Batgirl: Three Swords collected issues #9-11.

When I started the first volume, the three swords storyline was still coming out and I hadn't yet made the decision to switch to trade waiting this series. If I'd know, I probably would've combined them into a single volume instead of having the really short one, but that's just nt how it worked out. Batgirl: Shiva was my first time attempted a three-piece bradel bind which was definitely more finicky but I really like the final look of it. It's not something I'm going to do for every book but I'll definitely return it at some point. With the three swords volume, since it was only three issues, I didn't bother doing a lot of the fancier stuff like having an inner title page etc, but it still gets the job done!

[notwhelmedyet]

A Fire Shall Be Woken, by Ealcynn. A pair of bindings using the K118 structure, one as a gift for the author and one to keep.

Chapter page illustrations are by Alphonse Mucha, all other illustrations are hand-drawn.

I hope to make a long post later explaining the process in more depth & another to document all my mistakes, but here's the basics.

New techniques learned: Paper marbling, edge marbling, uncial calligraphy, making paste papers, drawing on bookcloth, making paste-filled cloth, fold-out maps

I began work on this project in early September and am completing the finishing touches this week.

Structures:

Binding: K118 tightback

Endpapers: Simple cloth-joined endpapers

Map fold: Turkish map fold

Materials:

Sewing supports: linen tapes

Thread: 30/3 linen thread

Spine lining: Medium weight kozo tissue bonded to linen fabric

Interior paper: Hammermill Ivory, 11x17, hand-cut to 8.5x11

Endpapers: Blick sulphite paper hand-marbled, with masked stenciled silhouettes created with freezer paper

Adhesives: Jade PVA, wheat starch paste, wheat flour paste

Covers: Davey board, laminated full thickness to half thickness

Cover fabric: Studio E shot cottons in Jungle and Emerald; filled with wheat starch paste

Cover decorations: Speedball india ink and Dr. Ph. Martin's calligraphy ink in Copperplate Gold

Inks for maps and illustrations: Speedball black india ink and a selection of watercolors thickened with gum arabic

Dip pens used for calligraphy: Combination of Brause calligraphy nibs and Leonardt tape nibs

Dip pens used for illustration: Nikko G pointed pen nib

Typesetting:

Typesetting program: Scribus 1.5.5

Body font: Coelacanth in 10 pt caption weight

Headings, titles, chapter titles, drop caps: Hand lettered uncial calligraphy, scanned

Illustrations and References:

Frames on colophon, copyright, author's notes and title page: Hand drawn, with inspiration taken from the vellucent bindings of Cedric Chivers

Frames that illustrate each chapter start: Alphonse Mucha from Cloches de Noël et de Pâques

Cover illustrations: Referenced from a photograph of an European beech tree found on iNaturalist.org

Maps of Imladris: Hand drafted with inspiration from the maps of Barbara Strachey, and Daniel Reeve

Map of Eriador: Traced from a map by Karen Wynn Fonstad, with edits made to coordinate with the geography of the fic

Frames on maps: Referenced from a drawing by Alphonse Mucha that @zhalfirin found for me

Special Thank Yous:

To the tightback council of problem-solvers in the Renegade server: Zhalfirin, Eka, @spockandawe who helped figure out many issues with the structure and technique

To the marbling experts in the Renegade server: Marissa, Aether, AGlance, Jenny, Catz, Badgertide, Rhi, and everyone else who helped me figure out beginnner marbling

To Spock for finding the K118 structure and introducing it to the server!

And to Bruce Levy, who discovered the method and shared his discoveries freely with the bookbinding and conservation world.

[dirtydragonthoughts]

So after thinking about fanbinding (and I'm blaming @altraviolet for getting me thinking about this) and watching waaay too many book binding videos, I decided to take a tiny step to see if I can do some fanbinding for myself.

I'm starting out small though, and hope to teach myself the basics as I go, in stages.

Stage 1: Make hardcovers for thrifted paperback books, to teach myself case binding and gluing and figuring out if I need any additional equipment/supplies before I move on.

Stage 2: Make some notebooks or sketchbooks. I'll sew some signatures together, then make a nice cover for them.

Stage 3: Try out fic binding! I'll probably bind one of my own fics first, just so that if I screw it up completely I don't feel too bad. 😅 This will involve typesetting, printing, sewing, and casing.

Stage 4: Bind a fic I really enjoy, and do two copies: one for me and one for the author (if they'd like it). I don't expect this to happen for a while.

I started on stage 1 today.

I got these two books at the thrift store last week. I've read Leviathan Wakes, but Seasons of Wonder is new to me. (Apparently it's an anthology of spec-fic holiday stories.) I decided to start with Season of Wonder, and ripped the cover off.

I glued the end papers on (I picked a generic grey-marbled paper) and then realized that the boards I was going to use as a press didn't actually exist. (Or rather they were not what I thought they were.) So I grabbed some old shelves from the basement, cleaned off the cobwebs, and tried to make a press... only to find that the boards plus the text block were too wide for the hand clamps I bought. (sigh) So I just stacked the shelves on top and left it to dry.

More to come, hopefully.

[queenofperv]

Look what I made

It’s a Jotebook (jeans+notebook)

[crossroadsfossil]

My side hobby is making bookbinding equipment and binding books (fanfic, primarily).

I'm working on a test book right now to un-rust some rusty skills since it's been over a year since I did any proper bookbinding.

This is my second version of a sewing frame, and It's much better than my first attempt (that involved a hand saw and about two hours of swearing at myself and almost cutting off my thumbnail, so definitely an improvement).

[violetcancerian]

Non-NaNo Update: My uncle and I are thinking of making a book press to help with making this journal and rebind this book he gifted me