#sammialex

[sleepyfoxbindery]

The Long Way Home by itsnatalie

The author (@the-stars-will-do-the-telling) received their copy so I can post! A fanbind of The Long Way Home by itsnatalie, using the typeset by @sammialex (Fingerpaint the Dawn Bindery).

I asked my friend @jerslix for their favorite fic to bind and they chose this one, so of course I had to read it before I bound it and it is a lovely, haunting, forge-a-friendship-in-adversity Tim Drake & Jason Todd fic. It is centered around a labyrinth, which became a big element of the design as you can tell. I was especially proud of how I fit the little Red Hood and Red Robin symbols into the Os on the spine. :-) The pullquote on the back winds a path through the labyrinth.

Black bookcloth from Amazon I think, metallic foils, endpapers from Sustain and Heal on etsy I believe, and bookmark charms from Michael's.

[cover-story-bindery]

This is not the first fic I bound - I definitely bound one of my own fics first, accidentally glued the spine to the case, and then hid it in the back of my craft desk never to be seen again

But I’m posting these binds first because, to be quite frank, they’re curséd.

I have redone the covers FIVE times. Unclear how much of the endpaper I have gone through. I have printed both text blocks AT LEAST three times. Volume II doesn’t have tapes, because I forgot them.

I don’t know what kind of blood sacrifice I was supposed to make for this to go smoothly but I obviously didn’t get it right.

Anyway, these are for @sammialex. We first collaborated on these binds way back last summer, when she was looking for an artist to do cover art and I poked at @maevemauvaise because she’s super talented and it seemed like her sort of thing. The end result is stunning!

The printed hardback from [redacted company] was (in my opinion!) NOT PRETTY ENOUGH

So when I decided, sure yeah, bookbinding, 1000 hobbies in a trench coat, sounds like fun, I knew I wanted to make Sammi a more beautiful copy of her work because I know how much love and attention went into the story.

I learned, at minimum, five specialty skills just to make these.

The bookcloths are Hollander’s Verona line in Merlot and Forest, the cover design was created by @maevemauvaise and hot foiled directly onto the book cloth using a foil quill and my cricut, the endpapers are Hollander’s Thai marble in “Firestorm” and “Forest”, and the paper is Neenah classic linen 8 1/2 x 11, in natural white, which has a really nice heft and texture and feels sort of old-fashioned in a way that vibes with the setting. The ribbon is black velvet which is probably impractical but I’m in charge here.

I designed the typeset using Affinity Publisher and I definitely went ham with green vines and blood drops, but I don’t regret it. It looked like A Lot on the screen but in person I think it’s exactly the right amount.

These babies are going in the mail next week, as soon as I get back from my trip, where I hope the curse won’t follow! @sammialex thanks for letting me play with your work, for your patient guidance with Affinity, and for giving me the opportunity to make every common mistake and several uncommon ones trying to bring these fics to life 💜

Upon What Soil series, by SammiAlex (mind the tags)

Volume I: Vessel at the Launch

Volume II: Last Restraint