My second post for Star Wars day is the canon vampire-au fic Sanguine, typeset by @aetherseer (& it is one of the last any of us received explicit permission for). This fic is one of my most dearly beloved of glimmer's works (so hard to choose a favorite). It languished for months printed but unfinished, on my shelf, because I was constantly torn over what to do for the cover design. The final design uses handmade bookcloth from white linen, with red paint seeped into the fabric in different tones & stages to give the effect of blood leaching into cloth (we are going after both meanings of "sanguine" here).
Aether's typeset, with art by @frostbitebakery, is gorgeous & has color on every page. I had this crepaldi tiger eye paper that I thought would go great, and did true double core endbands to match.
Bonus photo: aftermath of Nimitz deciding she needed to participate in this act of creation.
bonus bonus photo from my first photoshoot of this book where the book was acting like it was a Twilight vampire instead of a normal one 🤣:
Fanbinding: The Desert Storm (series) by @blue-sunshine-mauve-morning
MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!
This is 1 of 2 posts for today, a massive project that I have hit a significant milestone for: completion of both my & the author's 15-volume set of the 1.1 million word The Desert Storm. This is the fic series that got me into Star Wars as an actual fan.
Four years after Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi Order, a grieving, struggling Ben Kenobi finds himself inexplicably taken back in time, crashing headlong into the foundations of fate. Grasping hope and vengeance with both hands, Ben rebuilds his identity and seeks to change the course of history: by saving Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi Order, the galaxy - and just maybe saving Obi-Wan Kenobi along the way.
My design for this typeset was significantly influenced by mem, who had begun a typeset before me and selected black & white images for the title pages, a trend I continued.
As this fic series has meteliculous attention to both canon & EU lore, I stuck with aurebesh characters for titles wherever appropriate, which occasionally gave me some fun opportunities for chapters & tables of contents like this:
For scene dividers, I used a image you can interpret either as twin suns, or as an eclipse.
While I committed to a more classic and less elaborate design for this series, I still rounded & backed every volume in the set. "Editioning" high numbers of similar books like this is often considered in bookbinding circles as necessary to practice skills (I am at 37/45 volumes), and I can certainly say that I have gotten much better at a number of things along the way. The largest book in this series is 616 pages; the smallest, 160 - and I needed to round & back both.
Further thoughts...
Blue_Sunshine (the author) has a fantastic skill for foreshadowing; reread of this series are a must. On top of that, character relationships are consistently and realistically fleshed out and developed. And critically for a "go back in time" story, Blue has a wonderful grasp of the dominoes - what changes trickle down and ripple out; and how that could come back to bite some people. Finally - if you live a badass Obi-Wan Kenobi, this is definitely a fic series for you. Also Blue is a lovely person & our little bits of correspondence has been such a bright spot for me.
Material notes: Duo oatmeal bookcloth, orange marbled jute from Sustain and Heal, hammermill cream paper, gold foil + paint for titles.
Fanbinding: Settle Our Bones by @motleyfam, including fics by @batmoniker & justbeyondstars
A hurt/comfort focused series where Jason never dies, but the Waynes’ weird neighbor kid gets strung along for the ride all the same. Tim joins the family early & finds a haven in Wayne Manor.
Including a cover page by @they-reap-what-we-sow
This was my bind for @after-avalon for the 2024 Renegade Exchange! I got introduced to this fic series through their fic choices, and I enjoyed it immensely. Technically, they only asked for the first fic (the 5 times & 1) but uh... I enjoyed stuff enough my completionist heart would not allow me to only do a single fic from the series. so here is the set!
Beyond the Robin color scheme, I really wanted to lean into the Wayne manor motif. During the initial design process I struck out a bit on good interior images, so I fell back on a wrought iron motif. That had also inspired me to attempt a new craft on the cover, but plan A & B both failed to hack it for my timeline, so I hand-painted the cover instead.
I made a whole bunch of different page styles for this series because it's a whole anthology.
Edges of the text were inked black, waxed, & polished. Endpapers from @renato-crepaldi, waxed & burnished. Bookcloth is cranberry colibri. Endbands sewn with Japanese size 9 silk thread.
I think the most frustrating thing about the chevron endband is that you basically uave to sew the thing twice. and then you don't see half the work.
you are never going to see this again except for a stupid tiny slip of yellow. & it took me just as long as a regular endband. now I have to sew another on top of it.
here we go again. I'll say that while I usually don't bother to stab-pin the core in place on my usual endbands, it's definitely worthwhile to do so when working with 2 cores.
here we go again. I'll say that while I usually don't bother to stab-pin the core in place on my usual endbands, it's definitely worthwhile to do so when working with 2 cores.
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.
