til solen står op is a 141,4k long carlxassad fic I wrote in 2024 and finished in spring 2025, probably mostly through white-knuckling through burnout (and jobhunting, and quitting my job without having another one lined up, an international move, and more jobhunting, and then starting the new job while recovering from burnout). this fic kept me sane but probably also made me insane.
and then late last year I decided to bind it in a style similar to the other Afdeling Q bindings I've done, both my fic and other's. (can you believe it's been 2 years since I last bound an Afdeling Q fic?? time sure does pass.) so I started typesetting and realised that binding this fic would mean splitting it into two volumes since a single volume A6 would've been too unwieldy and would probably also give me a TBI if I dropped it on my face in bed. it splits after chapter 26 since chapter 26 is the one where they kiss, so a natural breaking point. as it so happens that resulted in two almost equal length volumes - vol 2 is 26 pages and one signature shorter than vol 1.
dustjackets: recycled packing paper of unknown origin salvaged from the recycling bin at my old job
case: bound in duo eruption over 2mm boards. vol 2 has an additional stripe of 116gsm takeo tant select N-57 (yellow) on the front cover, which is a double sided embossed slightly translucent paper consisting of 100% virgin ECF fibre (whatever that means), which I rediscovered in my stash and which is there not as a design choice or to distinguish vol 2 from vol 1, but as a cover up for printer crimes
insides: endpapers are 150gsm daler-rowney canford tangerine and the text is printed on 90gsm munken pure smooth cream
with its brethren. look at it. that's insane.
a few process photos under the cut:
so thicc. I can't believe I managed to get these square. I was worried I'd have to round them, which I didn't want to do because it broke with the squareback hardback aesthetic I had for the other books.
I had to leave my printer behind in London and buy a new one in Copenhagen and the new printer does Not like to print on bookcloth. it kept jamming and ruined the vol 2 cloth by tracking ink all over the jammed part, and while I did manage to put vol 1 through, it wound up so wrinkled I wasn't sure I would be able to smooth that out again. (I did, PVA moisture to the rescue once again. all hail PVA moisture and its ability to erase sins.) jesus fucking christ. also it's hard to tell but just above my bindery logo it does actually say 'del 1' and 'del 2' respectively lmao I was not thinking straight when I decided to print the title in red on red bookcloth. (in my defense it worked really well on dubletta!!)
headbands are from dubletta bookcloth edge cutoffs - when you buy bookcloth like you do fabric i.e. not in precut smaller sheets, it usually comes with a raw fabric edge. I trim it off and then salvage it, and often use it in place of mull on tiny books (like this one). I thought my dubletta yellow orange offcut would be a nice complement to the duo eruption especially because it had that small orange stripe at the edge and so I turned it into fake headbands with a core of glued up macramé - I couldn't be arsed sewing headbands and while my textblocks were very tidy and could've borne being naked, I just thought this would be, well, neat.
as mentioned, the printer fucked up, so I had to do something about vol 2. duo bookcloth has famously been discontinued so I didn't want to scrap it unless I absolutely had to (I only have the one sheet of this colour!!) so I mulled over options (paper inlay? maybe a rising sun with rays?) and discarded them all until I rediscovered the aforementioned takeo tant select paper in my stash. it's slightly translucent so I cut away the janky bit from the front of vol 2, laid down a 20mm strip of 160gsm canaletto cream which seemed to match the thickness of the duo bookcloth and then covered it with a 22mm strip of the yellow takeo tant select. no fancy inlays or whatever, just an off centre stripe down the front cover.
the dustjackets I made for the other volumes, which were normal, slim, volumes, were printed on this recycled paper cut to A4 size to go through the printer, which also left a decent enough amount of flaps for it to work for A6 dustjackets. these chonky bois.... I did consider not doing dustjackets (I mean, why hide away these bright af books??) but I decided I did want to protect them a little, and after poking about a bit I realised my printer supports printing on american paper sizes INCLUDING LEGAL (A4 is 210x297mm whereas legal is 216x356mm), SO:
CHECK IT OUT!!! and yes the creases are intentional - this paper was wrapped around a delivery so that's where the creases are from, and the idea behind these dustjackets for this fandom is to evoke a sense of old and dusty case files. so brown paper, creases, coffee stains.
I trimmed the jackets to be 155mm in height - the board height was 154 but with the bookcloth wrapping around the edges that means a final height of 155m - and wrapped them around the books and LO
I grossly miscalculated the placement of the back cover copy on both jackets LMAO and the neat trick of having a continuous perfect round coffee stain on the lined up spines also didn't quite work out but FUCK IT, I am DONE, I will not bind another book for probably 3 months.
Kill your darlings by MesserMoon, a fantastic fic you could read at AO3 for free.
I love this story, and am happy to have it in my collection. That said, I can tell you that this binding was very eventful.
I think I will change my name to Not Perfct bindery. The two volumes of this book took me a long time, because I was buried in workload. It seems that every day I picked up this binding project, I made some mistake. The worst one was sewing the signatures too tightly so it was impossible to round the spine. Another mistake I made while cutting the fabric, as can be seen, the covers were in different proportions.
This is my 60th binding; and I must learn that in excess of confidence lies the danger.
Nick Wolfwood is the new director of Conrad-Chapel Funeral Home in May City, located across the street from Saverem Greenhouse & Landscaping. Over time, the owner, Vash, gets to know Nick and introduces him to the rest of the neighborhood, including local busybodies and married feminist bookshop owners Meryl and Milly. Vash and Nick are inexorably drawn to each other until they have to start admitting their feelings.
But Vash's brother, co-owner of the garden center, hasn't left his past as far behind as the twins had hoped when they started their lives over in May.
I love this fic, and I love this book even if it endeavoured to kick my ass the entirety of its binding!!! From realising I had run out of board, to consistent laptop and printer issues and going back and forth on the paper and color choices…..but I loved how it ended up! I also ended up watching the entirety of the Trigun dub again while binding this, as well as all of the dub Stampede episodes lol.
Also!!! Check out the most perfect font I found for the headers!!! All the text conversations have also been transcribed into actual text as well - even if I wasn’t able to print them in color🥲
I have plans further down the line to bind the rest of this series, hence the ‘1’ on the spine, but I have a few other fics on the list above it, including but not limited to a bunch of DE fics and possibly some Yakuza stuff? Also Demon Slayer, and BrownieFox’s Detours, which is shaping up to be a monster of a binding.
And of course as usual, the best quote of all time for the wonderful Vashwood pairing, hidden on the book cover💜
did you know that there is Star Trek fic written in Old English? now you do!
I, of course, had to bind it.
so. wē spacemen in geārdagum by indigostohelit
I knew that I wanted to typeset it so that it had the Old English and the Modern English translation side by side - I did it so that each paragraph started on the same line, so that occasionally there were gaps after one paragraph but not the other, as the text isn't equally long in both languages. it worked out beautifully though. and then of course the author's translation notes following the text, because this is exactly the kind of nerdery I'm here for.
I had initially planned to transcribe the fic into futhorc as well, and include this at the back, but I ran out of steam after one paragraph - and to be fair, futhorc and Old English aren't my strength. I know Old Norse and the futhark, and as alike as they are, they are not the same.
the spine is covered in Duo Skarabaus bookcloth. the cover papers are from Jemma Lewis Marbling & Design, this paper specifically chosen because it looks like galaxies and space. the endpapers are Notpla seaweed, which I chose because I love it and because I always thought spacetravel and exploration had a lot in common with seafarers and voyages (romanticised as both may be). the text is printed on 100gsm 100% recycled eco-craft oatfleck paper.
two sextodecimos (A8), both God’s Own Country fics. Hills of the North Rejoice by feroxargentea and Nice and Quiet by Deepdarkwaters.
These are the very first fics I read for this fandom, way back, so they hold a special place in my heart. I wanted them to look homey and cosy and bright, the matchy vibes came about when I was looking at my stash and picking out papers and cloths.
The bookcloths are Dubletta Yellow Orange and Duck Egg Blue, the cover papers are Søstrene Grene design papers 120gsm and the endpapers are Søstrene Grene double sided origami papers 70gsm. The text is printed on Munken Pure Smooth Cream 90gsm (long grain).
Memories of Unreal Things by 7iris is a fic where Laurence’s stint with amnesia in Blood of Tyrants goes a little differently. ;)
I had a strip of Japanese chiyogami paper left over from when I’d used it as endpaper for another binding. I wasn’t sure what to do with it but kept it, it seemed a shame to throw away and yet it was too narrow to do anything with. turns out it’s just the right size for an A8-sized half binding with a bookcloth fore edge as well as spine.
the endpapers are double sided origami paper from Søstrene Grene 70gsm, and the text is printed on Munken Pure Smooth Cream 90gsm.
A6 quarto hardback with homemade bookcloth - first time making it myself! and the title stamped on the front cover with fabric paint. I have never watched a single Far til fire film (not even the modern remakes) but when I stumbled across this on ao3 I couldn’t pass it by. this fic touches on Danish queer history with such heart and warmth and wonderful characters (I should probably watch the films) that it became an instant favourite.
for ikke at tale om at når man har tilbragt tyve plus år i fandom på engelsk og med engelske canons så er det at læse fic på dansk, der har udgangspunkt i dansk kultur og historie, som regn for sjælens ødemarker.
craft talk under the cut.
this is my first time making bookcloth so I want about it the cheapest possible way - fabric square from Søstrene Grene’s craft section backed with tissue paper which was a) the only paper I had that was big enough for the fabric square and b) salvaged from a past gifty delivery. it went ok but after drying some of the tissue separated from the fabric. hashtag yolo etc. I decided to use it anyway, and I think the moisture in the PVA was just enough to reactivate the paste on the paper backing, because the finished case came out beautifully smooth - and soft. I opted not to infill the cloth so it’s open weave cotton and feels as soft as a pillow to the touch.
the endpapers are also from Søstrene Grene, decorative paper 120gsm. The textblock is printed on 90gsm Munken Lynx Smooth Natural White, I wanted a whiter paper than usual as the chapter end notes have colour photos that I wanted to preserve. headbands are sewn on, the core is leather cord and the thread is embroidery thread.
the title is stamped on using rubber stamps from, you guessed it - Søstrene Grene. (they actually have letter stamps with the Scandinavian alphabet characters but the London store only has that particular set in all caps and the lower case set only had the English alphabet. luckily an æ is easily improvised and I have both a steady hand and a fine tip paintbrush for the circle over the å.) the paint is shimmery metallic fabric paint from Lumiere.
