I am trying my hand at different types of binding (like the screw post binds) and this week I did my first long stitch binding!
It’s for my sister, who has to have period-appropriate accessories on the weekends because she’s a stage hand type person at the local renaissance festival (her spouse is a character actor!) so I wanted her to have a notebook she could carry around!
It’s bound in leather because honestly I’m trying to get rid of the leather, leather is the devil with a beautiful dragon lining paper I got from Hollander’s. The paper is the same Neenah royal sundance I used for photo backing in the screw post albums - I’m told it’s good for sketching and watercolors though cannot confirm. I attached a cord of thin leather to tie it shut, and sewed it with gold waxed linen thread from Oregon Art Supply! I stitched it with French links because that’s the sewing I’m most familiar with, but I’d like to try something different next time - although it does look pretty!
I’m planning to make a matching one for her spouse sometime soon - turns out handmade books make great Christmas gifts!
A notebook I made a year ago and still haven't used! Long stitch binding done with embroidery floss. The video below is the best explanation of the technique I could find, and you can expand it to as many pairs of signatures as you want, and play with the placement of the holes. I hope the diagrams are vaguely helpful in showing the order to sew them in!
Since the holes have to be a little bit apart on the spine, I'd recommend using multiple signatures per hole. You can double back through the signatures to sew two of them in at once but that is Super Not Worth It, so just kettle stitch the additional signatures around the attachment points of the original signatures once you're done.
Love in a Time of Hardship: An Anthology of Zolf Smith/Oscar Wilde Fanfiction
Binding, cover design, and layout by me. Bound with hand-dyed variegated linen thread using a variation on a long stitch binding I designed myself. Here’s what’s inside:
At Your Convenience by @holoxam
A really lovely, intimate post-campaign fic in which Zolf and Wilde are in a QPR and don’t need to talk about it, thank you very much. I love this fic, it’s such a wonderful little slice of life and captures their dynamic so perfectly.
Would You Cast Me to the Wayside by lily_rainn
An incredibly thoughtful and humane depiction of Zolf and Wilde negotiating the beginning of their relationship. Neither of them have the vocabulary to fully understand what’s happening, but they’re trying so hard because they care so much about each other, and it’s just great.
The most dangerous thing is to love by @makesometime
An ancient Greek gods AU that’s just unbelievably good. makesometime seamlessly weaves Greek mythology into the RQG world all while not just maintaining perfect characterization, but actually elevating these characters to match the beautiful world she created.
Wake up by @makesometime
Zolf waiting for Wilde to wake up post-ep.177. This was the first RQG fic I ever read, and it’s very, very special to me. Zolf is so painfully tender and anxious, and it makes my heart ache every time.
Inevitable by Miri1984 / @icescrabblerjerky
“Post 177 Zolf and Wilde have sex and feelings,” really the most succinct way of putting it. Such an intense distillation of all my feelings about Zoscar!
What We Worship by Miri1984 / @icescrabblerjerky
AU where Wilde dies in the airship crash and doesn’t get better. Really wonderful worldbuilding for the RQG-universe afterlife, and so beautifully written and poignant.
The Right Questions by @newsbypostcard
Just two complicated and emotionally-repressed dudes negotiating their relationship after one of them rescues the other from death. Fuck, the characterization in this fic is so good. A prime example of why fic is so often better than canon.
Small Intimacies by @newsbypostcard
Zolf and Wilde go to bed and have a conversation. That’s it, that’s the fic, and it’s the single greatest “mortifying ordeal of being known” fic I have ever read. It's the kind of story I dream about finding, one that teaches me more about characters I love and illustrates exactly why they mean so much to me. A perfect fic, easily one of my favorite fics of all time.
Until We Meet Again by @queercore-curriculum
Zolf and Wilde cross paths after Zolf leaves Prague and while Wilde is still on the run from La Gourmand. Eh, I feel weird reccing my own fic, but I’m pretty proud of this one, actually.
Warm and Dry by @queercore-curriculum
Café AU where baker!Zolf teaches writer!Wilde how to bake bread. I had a lot of fun writing this, and if I can get my shit together I’ll finish writing the extended version, Coriander.
find your feet by @starstrung
Zolf and Wilde hide their relationship from Earhart aboard the Vengeance. I. LOVE. THIS. FIC. starstrung writes one of my all-time favorite Wildes, and this is an absolute delight to read. Zolf and Wilde often live in dark, angsty places, but this is just so joyful and fun and hot while still staying so true to character. I promise this fic will make your day brighter.
love is a sacrament by @starstrung
An 18-month time gap fic that’s just fucking perfect. Feat. an extra guarded Wilde (again, one of my all-time favorites) and an extra tender Zolf, and it’s so, so, so wonderful.
Woven Up by tuesdaycoming
A deep dive into Zolf’s backstory and his layers upon layers of grief. This fic just blew me away, brilliant worldbuilding and an absolute masterclass in showing-not-telling.
Absolutely Unlike Harrison Campbell by ZaliaChimera / @zalia
Zolf is bored and propositions Wilde to pass the time. This fic is very hot, but I also found it incredibly moving. ZaliaChimera takes a really unflinching look at these two very emotionally-repressed dudes that don’t particularly like one another and shows a different kind of intimacy than we often see in fic, one that’s a little rough around the edges and brutally honest.
Look, I may need to make a second Zoscar anthology, and another anthology of RQG mixed-bag ships--the RQG fandom is just so fucking talented. If you have any recs of your own, please send them my way!
Are you interested in learning about bookbinding? UCF Libraries' Book Conservator, Christopher Saclolo, demonstrates a fun option for getting started with the supplies you have at home.
Book Binding challenge 5th- 10th August: By hero central
A couple of weeks ago I decided to have a little book binding challenge to see how many books I could make in one week, and in one week I made seven books in total. Two long stitch books one leather bound journal, and four hard cover coptic binding books with some of my art and fan art as the cover illustrations some of my favourites.
I started fanbinding in part because I’m so in love with fic and fandom and I wanted to contribute something, but I’m not a fine artist and I thought I’d never be able to write fic myself. Then I started listening to the Rusty Quill Gaming Podcast, and oh my god oh my god oh my god Zoscar, and all the gifts that Alex bequeathed the RQG fandom at the end of season 3. An 18-month time gap? A weird disease that requires characters to quarantine and strip naked every day for seven days? Mysterious and unexplained character trauma? Yes, yes, yes please. I was obsessed, and I wrote Before a Fall because I couldn’t stop thinking about all of these unanswered questions and I had to know the answer, so I wrote a 57k word answer for myself.
Before a Fall is incredibly self-indulgent, but I’m not ashamed. It’s my love letter to the enemies-to-lovers trope (the great love of my life), the romance genre, and of course to Zoscar and RQG. If you like Pride and Prejudice, want to read passages of When Passions Collide, or ever wondered how Zolf lost his sea legs and Wilde fell in love with Harrison Campbell novels, maybe give it try!
Binding, cover design, endpapers, and layout by me. Bound with hand-dyed variegated linen thread using a variation on a long stitch binding I designed myself. The endpapers are the love letters that Zolf and Wilde write to each other in the fic, and the peacock feather print was made with a stamp I carved. I wanted the binding of my fic to be as self-indulgent as the fic itself, and I’m pretty sure I succeeded!
More pics below the cut!
Oscar’s love letter to Zolf <3
First time dyeing variegated thread!
Running out of room on my ficbinding bookshelf! Can’t wait to have enough for a Drarry shelf and a Rusty Quill shelf...
What can I say about Running on Air that hasn’t been said already? Running on Air was one of the first fics I read when I started seriously reading fanfiction about a year ago, and it profoundly shaped the way I think about fanfiction, let alone Harry/Draco. It’s remarkable on so many levels—incredible worldbuilding, really nuanced character work, and some of the most exquisite writing I’ve ever read. It goes so far above and beyond the source material and resonated so deeply with me that I’ve been chasing eleventy7’s Harry/Draco ever since. I honestly think about Running on Air at least once a week, and can only hope I did this beautiful story justice!
Cover design, layout, and binding by me. Bound in custom bookcloth and endpapers using a variation on a long stitch binding that’s inspired by the wonderful marujitobooks over on Instagram. More pics below the cut!
Fun fact—the font used for the running headers and page numbers is Ministry, which is based on the type used on British road signs from the 30s to the 60s.
