Hi! I loved your new bind, the anthology with leather cover. What kind of pencil do you use to paint the cover? I've been finding it so difficult to paint thin lines on book covers, unsure if it's a technique issue or bad brushes. Thanks! āØ
Aw, thank you for the compliment!!! ā¤ļø
And ah yes, the tricky fine lines... for the thin lines, I've got a set of paint brushes that are for painting miniatures, and that's what I use to paint the small letters, but any small paintbrush, and even some larger paintbrushes if they have a good thin top would work; the miniatures paintbrushes are nothing particularly special. Sometimes I find that the smallest paintbrushes aren't actually as good, if they're got a thicker tip then a larger paintbrush, funnily enough. What I find is that it unfortunately really rests on technique.
Technique wise, usually I want the paint to be a little more fluid then thicker, so I usually have my paintbrush be wet with water and even mix a tiny bit of water into a little of the paint, to get the thinner lines; but you don't want it too watery so it doesn't stay where you've applied it- it's unfortunately v finicky, but if you're using the Angelicus leather paints, I find using the paint from within the jar (not the cap, cause it'll be a bit more congealed) should be fine. I also redip the paintbrush VERY frequently (like I'll do one stroke/detail, then refresh) so I'm only ever using the very tip of the paintbrush for delicate work; the rest of the paint further up doesn't really get used on the brush for this work, cause that part of the brush isn't touching the material, because it'll leave larger marks. You'll also want to be very light with the strokes, as you want essentially as little fanning of the brush as possible. It's a very slow process I find. I also will utilize the background colour; that is, usually I don't mind a bit of wonkyness, cause I'll go back over it with the background colour to cover up the mistakes and help keep it thin as well when I can (sometimes your background doesn't allow this however).
Here's an example below when I was working on some mini's; you see I was using the very tip cause further up the brush it would be too wide for the lettering. I believe I used for the lettering on the anthology itself my #1, because it had a better tip then the 0 or 00 (visible in the second photo). You also with such miniscule work want to pay attention to which way the tip curves, as it'll cause the brush strokes to be thicker/fight you on certain things (curve visible in the third photo). When you wet the paintbrushes, you can see what type of tip they've got too, and in the third photo I've with the red, marked what I probably actually use of the paintbrush for delicate work (probably even less than that actually) and in which direction the paint is coming off the paint brush.
Overall, I'd recommend just practising making thin lines and observing what works (keeping in mind my tips if any of that makes sense to you) so you can get a feel for it, and be able to start doing fine lines! I hope this in some way helps, and best of luck with the fine lines- you've got this!
Hey š I'm very interested in getting into fan binding, and I love your work! I wonder, how much does it normally cost you to bind a book? I see you made quite a few in 2022 and I would love to hear about the average amount you normally spend :) best of luck on your future projects!
Aww thank you for the compliment! ā¤ļø I'm also really terribly sorry for how long it took for me to write out this response--I've been really busy lately, and properly calculating what actually goes into my books is something I haven't really done previously, as I typically engage in fanbinding as a hobby, and I don't usually keep track of how much is going into my books. It's also a bit difficult to exactly calculate materials wise as often things I buy end up going a long way... so breaking down the prices can be difficult as you'll see below.
Anyhow! Fanbinding is a really lovely hobby, and highly encourage you to get into it when you have the time and energy! If you are interested and haven't yet joined the Renegade bindery discord (18+ however!) with all the lovely fanbinding/bookbinding enthusiasts, I'd highly recommend you do as they have a bunch of resources for beginners and are an absolutely lovely community.
To properly answer your question, what one spends on making books can really depend on the materials you use. Hell, there was a document from Renegade on how to make really low cost book out of materials you just have lying around at home, which I unfortunately can't find right now. Personally the cost has also varied depending on where I'm getting my resources, and as you become familiar with whats in you area, you can also minimize cost for certain resources. Below the read more I'll actually give a break down of what generally goes into a 100 page (about 100k) A6 book. Everything will be given in CAD as I live in Canada.
Basic A6 100 pg Book:
Paper: 1.7$ as 100 pages would be 50 sheets of paper. It's 17$ for a ream (500 pages) of cream paper. I'm not sure the exact price for the printer, as that I own my own printer. I know that for just plain bright white and black and white text you are charged .20 per page at Staples, which for a 100 page book would be 20$.
Bookboard: .80-3$ I've had quite a variety of bookboard I've bought; currently am getting 9$ for a pack of 6 chipboard which makes about 12 a6 books; so about .79$, but I've previously bought chip board that is much more expensive (15$ a pack for about 4 books, which would be 3.75$ per book). I've also used the back of old sketch books, stiff and flat shipping envelopes for prints,and I've recently seen that someone recycles old books from library sales where the books are just going to go to the landfill.
Endpaper: I like coloured end and cover papers; per one sheet, it is usually about $5-10. Depending on my use of the paper, usually I can get about two A6 book worths out of the paper, which means about per 1 a6 its 2.5-5$ for the end paper.
Cover paper: For cover paper I often use a mix of paper. I also usually use the same type of fancy papers as the end papers, so thats an extra 5-10$, which can be halved. However, I often mix this with simple single coloured cardstock paper for scrapbooks. Normally, since I'm cheap, I buy the dollar store paper which is about .75$ per sheet. So about cover paper goes from 3.5-6$.
Ribbon: I like to make my books with ribbons so they are not just supported by sewing. Again, I'm not fancy so I use micheals/dollarstore polyester ribbons; a roll costs about 1.5-3$. For spine ribbons, getting a white or neutral colour is best as that in-between the signatures the colour isn't obvious. However, for adding ribbon bookmarks, it's nice to have a colour that matches the colour scheme of the book. The rolls obviously end up being used for more than one book project, so it's somewhere in the cents for the ribbons per book. I like silky polyester for ribbons as for those used as a bookmark, you can easily ensure the end doesn't fray by using a lighter to melt the very edge.
Thread: I just use sewing thread that I double when sewing the signatures together. It's about 3$ for a roll of white, and will last a very long time. I do like to add beeswax to the thread, which is somewhat optional. You could probably also use other soft waxes such as those used in candles if you don't specifically have beeswax. That cost will be under beeswax though.
Backing cloth - I purchase micheals squares of linen fabric, which you can buy for $2-3 for the cloth backing of the spine. Again, you can get quite a few cloth backing out of one square of fabric. You can also choose to use cloth instead of paper for a book cover, which then you would swap the coverpaper to the price of the cloth. Again, purchasing a neutral cream-white for the cloth is the best for the backing for the cracks between the signatures. I also know people will use misprint paper for backing, which would be even cheaper.
Paste: Personally as I'm cheap, so I like to make bookbinders paste at home; this is made by boiling a flour-water mixture. However, bookbinders paste takes long to dry, and for the first time or two might be more damp then you want and can leave your pages a bit wrinkly; as well, I'm not sure how acid free it would be considered in the long run, and its not a strong bond if it's not a large surface area that's paper-paper. Lots of people like to use ph-neutral PVC glue instead, which an art store near me sells around 10$ for 8oz, which is definitely pricier in comparison, but you'll end up using it for many books, so it can pay off. I've also however used simple Elmer's glue a couple of years ago in my first bookbinding forays, which is also cheap.
Head bands
Twine: lots of people use different types of cores for their headbands, but something that can remain an even width is good. I use this type of twine, which costs about 12$ per roll. The one I use is one I already had at home. Obviously you can get a quite a few headbands out of a ball of twine.
Embroidery floss: about 1.5$ for two different colours. Again, you'll only be using part of the whole embroidery floss for the endbands.
Beeswax proofing
Beeswax: 7 oz for 7$. Again, a fraction of one of these bars is used per book.
Mineral Spirits: also a fraction required for the a single book. A bottle however is about 11$ for 4.2 oz.
So if you are going by the bulk items, without anything at home including everything and going middle of the road for prices, that would be about $84... however, most of these costs are negligible in the long run per an individual book, plus often you may have some of these lying around already, which can significantly cut into these costs. As a result a more accurate cost of materials per a single individual book would be about maybe $30.50 on average, and going by middle of the road for some prices, and utilizing the 20$ for the text block via staples. The heaviest cost will always be printing out your textblock, which can be minimized if you have your own printer at home (but then you need to invest in one...).
However, cost again can really quite vary, depending on what materials you are using! Starting off with things you already have at home significantly cuts into material costs, and starting on smaller projects will make the material cost cheaper. Plus, some fancy paper can be bought in packs for cheaper then they type of paper I tend to purchase. I hope this was at least somewhat informative, even if it took forever for me to write this up for you, apologies again about that!
I love your book bindings so much! Years ago I wrote a frerard fanfic, and itās almost to 700k on wattpad now. Iād love to get it binded as like a little treat, do you do commissions? If not, thatās fine! Your bindings are still gorgeous!!
Thank you so much for the compliment!!! ā¤ļø And wow, that's very impressive to have written that much!
Regarding commissions, unfortunately I rarely do commission work for a few reasons. One of the main reasons (uncomfortable making money off of fan works which have been posted for free, even if it's just my work I'm being paid for) doesn't apply as you're the author requesting it, which is great! There's still a few other things tho; to be entirely transparent, if I were for a commission to pay myself even minimum wage, on top of materials and shipping to you, the commission price would end up being very pricey. To just give you an example, the shipping for a tracked package international where I live (so called Canada) is $60 CAD which is frankly ridiculous, or within Canada $20 (non-tracked packages would be of course much cheaper, but also then not tracked or insured). Also as a heads up, the amount of time and cost will also increase with the size of the book, which at 700k would be best to be split into multiple large books, and would take a lot longer to typeset. Another thing is that bookbinding is really something I do as a hobby in my spare time to relax, and I've found in the past that commercializing it takes away my joy and relaxation which I get out of this hobby. As a result, part of choosing to take on a commission comes down to how busy my schedule is on top of my regular work, and if I have the time and energy to take on a commission. HOWEVER, all that said, if you are still interested, please feel free to reach out to me in my DM's to talk more details, or ask more questions here as well; and thank you so much for being willing to trust me to bind your hard work!
If you don't think that would work for you, I would highly encourage you to get into bookbinding yourself! Renegade guild had tonnes of guides to help you through learning how to bookbind (from typesetting to finishing) and the community is also very supportive; you also don't need a lot of specialized tools to start either. If you're interested, I'm happy to pull some links for you as well! There really is nothing like being able to hold a physical copy of fics you love; or in your case, fics you've written :)
hiya!!! i was wonderin abt your experience tanning with oak galls! i made salmon leather with staghorn sumac recently and im curious how they compare.
i had heard that galls made a brittle leather but the pieces for your binding look very flexible
Hello! Thanks for the question, absolutely happy to gab about fish skin tanning! I found that the salmon skins weren't overly stiff at all actually; they were pretty much on par with tea tanning, if maybe a tiny bit stiffer, if you've ever done that type of tannin tanning. The leather used is also (probably fairly obviously) after stretching and oiling them, to make sure they aren't stiff for the bookbinding as well.
Do note though that I generally haven't dabbled in wild gathering my tannin materials, as I know some people do, so I can't really talk much about how one goes about collecting and preparing oak galls for tanning. Instead, I bought oak gall powder from a natural dye company called maiwa instead, which was recommended and I was given a recipe for in a fish leather class I took by Janey Chang, who offers various fish leather classes online. As a result, there may be different levels of tannins and other chemicals in different oak species, etc that is not represented in my experience tanning with oak gall powder... It's interesting, because I've also heard of alder being too stiff, but in a recent fish leather book I was reading, the author mentioned that they use alder, without issue. Fascinating implications of maybe environmental differences even within same species that may affect tanning outcomes.
That's also super interesting about the staghorn sumac salmon leather, how exciting! I would love to see photos of you are okay with sharing.
Also, figured you may be interested to learn that I'm actually doing an online fish skin tanning presentation for Binderary on the 10th, which is hosted by renegade bookbinding guild (and all the workshops are free)! I'll be just presenting on oil tanning and tea tanning methods really and touching more briefly on other methods/dyeing, and how they can be incorporated into bookbinding. I'm certainly not an expert in this by any means but have been doing it for a while now, and a few people seemed interested :)
