Saint Morpheus Bookbinding, pt 1: Behind the Scenes
(This will be a very long post)
Three weeks ago, I had already had an idea of what project I wanted to torture (positive) myself with: so I giddily hopped off and asked @landwriter if I could bind her achingly good Dreamling fic Saint Morpheus. (If you haven't read it, consider this my blanket glowing recommendation).
Permission granted, I was off!
People have asked me about my work before. This post is not meant to be educational (though all I learned was through Sea Lemon on YT; don't ask me for a more in-depth explanation bc I am not equipped to give it), but I didn't want to have took all these in-progress pictures for nothing. Also I enjoy talking about my work, and maybe some of you will find this interesting.
The formatting-page process undoubtedly takes the longest. I do not use any software, so this is a lot of me using the copy-paste button and praying to any god that will listen that I don't mess it up.
(Formatting: I used 10 pt Sitka Text with no alignment. The pages themselves are a template I made in LibreOffice)
I had also decided to complete illustrations for this, which created additional pages. I had a lot of fun with those, which I'll be posting in pt 2.
Once all the pages were done, it was time for printing!
I had a bunch of fat stacks like this, which then had to be cut to size and folded into the page signatures.
(a mostly-complete text block)
I also did fancy stuff for the inside pages, the ones that go on the outside of these text blocks and which would hold the text block to the cover.
(this is one, which was completed)
(here's another one, which was in-progress)
Then came the tedious work of punching all the holes, so I could actually bind the pages together!
(I had actually bought an awl over the holiday break. Can you imagine i was going all this with a needle before?)
(lots of sewing)
YAY! Text blocks were done!
Then I could finally get to work on the covers, which had been littering my floor for weeks.
My desk was also a proper mess, but that's just what happens.
Cutting the board and arranging the covers is fun, except when I knew I was on the home stretch and ended up messing up things.
(in-progress cover. I use PVA glue)
(in-progress front cover I was doing illustrations on)
And I would be nothing without failing a few times, so I might've accidentally glued on a text block upside down on that cover. Which then I had to rip off and rebind. I had to do that twice, actually, cause I fried my brain a few times over while working on these.
There's also some things I did which I did not take pictures of but will be included in the follow-up: I gilt the page edges, which I thought was a nice touch.
