I made a Damen-sized and Laurent-sized bind for this Captive Prince ficbind 😌💅🏻
I will be honest, I first started typesetting this fic in 2024, right at the peak of my Captive Prince obsession. Then it laid untouched for over a year, and by the end of 2025 I finally decided to pick it back up—only to put it down again.
But I finally finished them!!
I used the illustrations of Damen and Laurent from the French limited edition of Captive Prince. The frames—as well as the starburst and lion—were vectorized in Illustrator and then foiled with toner reactive foil. The end papers are also adorned with the official map of Vere and Akielos (as seen in the books).
I only show the first endpapers here, using the opposite colors of the covers. However, each book have both Damen and Laurent endpapers—just opposite depending on if it's the first or last page.
The endbands are handsewn using Japanese silk thread, again, I used gold, blue, and gold to match the theme.
Both typesets are the same inside, just scaled to fit a folio and quarto respectively.
@haxkattpress also so kindly gifted me some PROPER bookcloth back in 2024, and I feel so bad that it took me over a year to finally use them 😭💔 It is scary when you got a limited amount and you feel like you need to save it for something really special (yes, I have commitment issues. How did you know?)
But oh my god?? Working with proper bookcloth was SOOOOO smooth and easy compared to what I’ve used before??? I was honestly in shock over how easy and comfortable it was to work with, and now I never want to use anything else. Is this what I’ve been missing out on because I can’t buy bookcloth like that here? (I am incredibly jealous.)
Not only did I love using the bookcloth, it definitely reignited my love for binding! (All according to Häxkatt’s plan it seemed…) I also have to thank her for not only gifting me the bookcloth, she also helped me figure out the foiling on my Cameo 5 after so many failed attempts AND she also gifted me a new heat quill AND foils!!! (I have been thoroughly spoiled. 🙇♀️❤️)
It was certainly TONS of trial and error, but in the end it worked out! (Need a smaller heat pen tho for these intricate designs…)
I also started working on a case for these, but as always, the process of trial and error includes error it seems.🧍♀️ I will get around to finishing that at some point, but for now I wanted to share the binds in their own!
"Edgewise" by asmallwave can be read for free on ao3
I feel like it is an iconic Captive Prince fanfic, and everyone should read it! I bet all of us have imagined what would happen if Vere and Akielos never went to war, and it is just a very sweet and nice interpretation.
During my reading slump last year I struggled with getting immersed in any fic, but then I discovered the gem of a Lamen fic that was “strike the match” by onekingdomonce on ao3 (or @laurent-ofvere on tumblr) and I DEVOURED IT!! Big shoutout to @laurent-ofvere for not only writing this amazing and fun fic, but also allowing me to bind my own personal copy of it, it's gonna look so cute on my bookshelf! 😭💖
It’s based on the plot of “The Proposal (2009)”, the rom-com, which I loved as a kid so this was exactly what I needed! It was such a fun read, and all the changes made to fit Damen and Laurent was just 👌
Since it was based on "The Proposal", I decided to run with that theme for my bind as well. If you have seen the poster for the movie, you will probably see the similarities.
I tried to continue the same style throughout the typeset as well, and I tried some new things with my typesetting, and I think I kinda like it? It definitely fit this bind at least!
I also decided to attempt drawing my own cover for the first (second?) time, and while I am not 100% happy with it, I don’t think I’ll ever be—BUT IT IS FINE ENOUGH.
Lots of issues during the binding process, like material being out of stock and never coming back, finding replacements, redoing endbands, guillotine cutting slanted, messed up prints etc, but it is finally done!!
I still got a handful of other binds in progress, other Lamen binds among them as well. (“I’ll get to those soon,” I lied to myself.)
I also want to give a shoutout to @haxkattpress for pushing me to finally finish this bind, and for constantly listening to my spamming of indeciside decision-making and if 1px to the left or right looks best. Thank you for not yet growing to tired of me. 🙇♀️
"The flame cast strange shadows on his face and made the Dark Mark dance on his pale skin. It had been ten years since he’d last seen Draco Malfoy."
It's hard to believe that I started working on the typeset for this bind in October of last year. Nearly eleven months later, I have finally managed to bring my vision to life.
This bind has a foiled cover and spine, hand sewn silk endbands, and edges that have been painted and gauffered. It also includes my first attempt at a hollow.
You can find more pictures and information about my process under the cut.
***this fic is an unfinished WIP on Ao3***
For the cover and spine, I recreated Albert Angus Turbayne's design for the Macmillan Peacock Series (1896).
Macmillan reused this cover for multiple titles over the course of several years. From what I can tell, it was initially created for the works of Thomas Love Peacock. If you look at the left corner by the edge of the peacock's tail feather, you can see Turbayne's unique signature.
Choosing this cover locked me into an 1890s Art Nouveau theme for the typeset, and I spent a considerable amount of time tracking down potential chapter headers that harmonized visually.
Peacocks are a distinctive motif in this fic, and I tried to choose images that matched the individual tones of each act. I represented Harry's presence with warm browns, yellows, and oranges, and Edwin Selwyn's with imposing blues and blacks.
A full list of the artists used in my typeset can be found at the bottom of this post.
Predictably, everything that could go wrong with this bind did go wrong. I botched the rounding and backing on my first textblock, and had to reprint it. It also took me a long time to find endpapers that could play nicely with the yellows, blues, and browns. Luckily, Jemma Lewis had exactly what I needed!
I had never sanded or painted the edges of a book before, so I spent several weeks practicing on scrap textblocks while I waited for my brass tool to arrive. None of this would have been possible without the incredible tutorials made by @copticcowgirl and @duran-binding. Their guidance (along with @pleasantboatpress!) helped me figure out a method that worked for me. Duran Binding even sent me some pages about gauffering from a book she had!
Unfortunately, I lost my goddamn mind when I started trying to figure out the gauffering.
There aren't any comprehensive gauffering tutorials online, and the information about it is scant. I had to piece together my method from stray book pages, stalked instagram comments, and weeks upon weeks of trial and error. Heating the tool correctly was far more difficult than I anticipated, and I didn't have a proper finishing stove, so I just stuck it in the flame of my gas stove (thanks to @pleasantboatpress for the heating advice!). Even more difficult was figuring out the correct amount of pressure to put down without burning my foil or edges. Pictured above is the cardstock grid I made to ensure my lines were even.
I also couldn't fit my textblock in my guillotine, so it took me roughly 5 hours of sanding per edge to get the mirror finish I needed. I didn't want to give myself carpal tunnel, so I limited myself to 1-2 hours of sanding per day. Each edge took me a full week to complete. In total, my edge decoration journey took me about three months.
So please, LOOK AT THEM! LOOK! MY BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS!
DOES MY AGONY PLEASE YOU?
I was also too chickenshit to try gauffering on my good textblock without testing, so I also finished two edges on my reject. I also tested my endbands on it. I will probably finish it when I'm feeling less raw.
Unfortunately, gauffering was only the beginning of my suffering. The file for the cover was a challenge to create and adapt. I knew that it was a bit of a pipe dream, and I knew that it would be hard on my machine. I usually do a series of cardstock tests while refining my files before I commit to bookcloth. It proved to be too much for my Cameo 4, and it started gouging my foil and paper after completing a few runs of the cover.
After two weeks of troubleshooting and emailing support, I accepted that my Cameo 4 was dead. Queue a month of depression, and some of the greatest frustration I've ever experienced with a project. I eventually sucked it up and bought a Cameo 5, and had to do extensive testing to figure out the best settings for their native heat pen system.
These are the vast majority of my cover tests (most of them are double sided). Foiling the cover took 12.5 nail biting hours, but my Cameo 5 finally pulled through! Hooray! I love you Cameo 5! Please don't die on me! There was one odd area that refused to foil, so I cracked open my old WRMK pen and filled it in by hand. Pro tip: separate every design element in as many layers as possible so you can double up on foil and redo problem areas easily.
After this, everything began to move along quite quickly.
@copticcowgirl convinced me to put a hollow on my book, and sent me some absolutely incredible notes and videos to help me along! She was also incredibly gracious when I barged into her DMs wailing about millimeter and half millimeter increments, and gently guided me towards the finish line. So much of this bind would not have been possible without her!
Mummifying the hollow was my favorite part, and I really do believe that it helps my book open beautifully. After that, it was a small matter of casing in, and I was free from my seemingly eternal torment!
I would also like to extend my thanks to @tsurashi-bindery, who has been by my side every step of the way. She is the world's best tie breaker, and she patted me on the back every time I told her that I was really, truly, totally going to quit binding for real this time. Her aesthetic sense is fantastic, and she spent hours helping me pick, edit, and arrange my photos. Thank you for being my cheerleader. <3
I also genuinely appreciate everyone that reached out to me on Insta and Discord while I was posting WIPs- your encouragement truly kept me going!
I will likely be posting a gauffering video at some point when I have the time. I don't currently have any plans to share the typeset unless the fic is completed, but you're welcome to DM me.
If you've read this far you're a superstar! This fic is incredibly close to my heart, and I'm relieved that I was able to properly express how I feel about it through this bind. Here's hoping my next project is a bit shorter!
Art credits:
Cover: Macmillan Peacock Series, Albert Angus Turbayne (1896)
Title: Untitled book plate, Alfred Petrasch (1857-1910)
Act I title: Macmillan’s Illustrated Standard Novels, Albert Turbayne (1896)
Act I chapter: Cigales et lis, paons et cytise, bordures, M. P. Verneuil (1897)
Act II title: Charles Scribner’s Sons the Modern Poster, Will H. Bradley (1895)
Act II chapter: Kunst en Samenleving, G.W. Dijsselhof (1893)
Act III title: Bradley, His Book, Will H. Bradley (1896)
Act III chapter: Poissons et algues, coq, écoinçon; paons et vigne; lièvres, chiens et ronces, bordure, M. P. Verneuil (1897)
Dinkus: Fonderie Typographique Française: Caractères et vignettes bois (1922)
Act ender: Combinaisons ornementales, M. P. Verneuil (1901)
I have not posted any of my binds here for almost a year now, and this is also the first ficbind(s) I have finished since May last year.
The project of making a quarto set with some of my favourite oneshots have been an idea since the beginning of last year, which is also when I first started this project — then I got into a huge binding slump.
I have not had the motivation to finish a single bind since, no inspiration, no energy, zero motivation and whenever I tried nothing turned out how I wanted it too, and thus sent me deeper into a spiral. I tried picking it back up multiple times, but ultimately got nowhere.
This project has been a curse and a blessing, despite hating so many parts of these binds, I actually feel content with finally being DONE with a bind after so long. I greatly have to thank Häxkatt for pushing me through and listening to every single complaint I had I had along the way, as well as pushing me to finally take some photos of these binds after letting them sit there untouched for a while after finishing them.
"Then Comes a Mist and a Weeping Rain" was actually the first Drarry fic I read back in 2014 and what got me into the ship. It held the spot of most kudos for a Harry Potter fanfic for a decade and rightfully so! (if you have not read it yet, I highly recommend, it is very sweet)
Then Comes a Mist and a Weeping Rain by Faith Wood (faithwood)
you've got the antidote for me by Kandakicksass
Dear Diary by AWickedMemory (TeddyLaCroix)
Open For Repairs by FeelsForBreakfast
The Godric's Hollow Wizarding Parents Association by AhaMarimbas
THOUGHTS ON THE BINDS:
There are of course many things I dislike about these, but I will try and keep both positive and negative thoughts here and not just pure hatred.
First of, I hate how I forgot to shift the baseline on the titles on all spines except one, meaning that the titles aren't actually center, I also dislike how I accidentally glued the Then Comes a Mist and a Weeping Rain a little crooked, it shows easily on the spine.
I am however content with the fact that I still managed to center it somewhat? Seeing as I have only ever done covers in three parts before, this was my first time measuring and printing it as one piece.
I have always loved handsewn endbands, but GOD is if a struggle to sew SUCH TINY ONES?! There are roughly only a centimeter wide, so keeping it in place was a struggle...
I also finally purchased some Japanese silk thread for my endbands, but since I bought the threads last year I did not know what my covers would look like, and thus I did not have enough colors to match each bind. I really wish I bought a purple one for the you've got the antidote for me bind, it now use the same light blue as Then Comes a Mist and a Weeping Rain.
The gold thread was the only one not silk, it was an old polyester thread I had and wow the difference with in look and working with it? I definitely prefer the silk and will be getting more colors at some point.
For the case; I actually took a slip case making class together with Des that helped me out a lot in figuring out how to put this together!
Since I only own an A4 printer, I needed to figure out how to print the design in two parts and put it together as seamlessly as possible, there are two seams I wish weren't that visible, but it is what it is.
The gold on the marbled design is foiled, and in the inside design is a marble texture I printed on blue cardstock and foiled to make it a little prettier. The ribbon is added to help me pull the books out easier!
As a last note, I definitely need to replace the blade on my guillotine (been on my list since I got it last year second hand...) It leaves "groves" on the textblocks and also cut a little crooked, sadly replacement blades are a little too expensive atm, but it will be done one day!
This was also when I got my color laser printer and I really wanted to try printing and using colors, hence why I went a little overboard with the colorful theme, but I thought it fit the "childish" theme.
I did plan on changing the charm when I got a new one, but did I ever get a new one? No. I don't think the charm fit at all, I'll probably change it one day.
I also struggled with lining up the end pages properly as you can see on the photo below, it is still something I struggle with but... Oh well
I had fun playing around with different fonts for the letters in the fic, I think it adds another fun element to it but it is hard to find a good handwritten font that is also easily readable.
I know a lot of people go by style rather than readability when it comes to handwritten fonts (especially cursive), but since it is a book after all I feel like having it easily read is an important point!
Anyway, the bind I made after this was Way Down We Go by xiaq, we'll see when I get around to posting that.
here is my very first binding project: Fire Lily, by @weirdfairytales!! this was a birthday present for my girlfriend, and even though i'd never read a bakudeku fic before, i tore through this one in a little under 5 days because of how GOOD it was LMAO
because this was my first binding experience, i made a lot of mistakes, but i'm excited to continue binding so i can learn more and get better c:
more info about this bind under the cut:
cover and chapter title fonts: EFCO Brookshire, Cerebri
body font: Gentium Book Basic
cover material: 0.5mm chipboard (spine), 2mm davey board (front/back covers), book cloth, white HTV, orange foil HTV
typeset in microsoft word, cover designs done in canva
I knew I wanted to bind this fic 1k words in. Procrastinated on the typeset for a month, then on the bind for another month, then on taking the pics for, you guessed it, a month. Yay for... Consistency? 🥲
Anyway, many thanks to @xiaq for writting this beauty and letting me bind it, it's been so much fun. Since the fic is set in Alabama, and Draco and Harry do quite a bit of "gardening", I used the cover of The farmer's Almanac and changed some bits. Many thanks to @garforprongs for letting me use their portraits of the boys ✨ each chapter starts with a flower that grows / is native of Alabama.
Way Down we Go is available for free on AO3, do yourself a favour and go read it! Link to the fic
Reminder that fanfic is only legal if it is free. Don't buy binds.
The second fic I ever bound, I read this on a whim one day and just knew I needed to bind it!
As you might be able to tell by the photos, I was still struggling a lot with my foiling, especially on the author's tag on the back 😭
I also very clearly had to work on my measurements, seeing as I did not have a printer that could print edge to edge I had to calculated how much I needed to resize it to print on a 1:1 scale.
I thankfully learned a way to add proper crop marks later on as well which has helped me immensely with placing the covers on properly!
As always, the cover is all made with Kent paper since I don't own a cutting machine or able to find any decent book cloth where I live... 🙃
This was also the first time I experimented with adding text messages in the fic, and I think it's really fun!
Sadly, this was my old printer that was only able to print black and white and the quality wasn't the best so the grey bubbles are barely visible, but at least it's still readable.
I think I might want to redo this bind later on, especially since I got a laser printer that can print in color now!
All I Want For Christmas (Is For You To Stop Talking) by Femme (femmequixotic) & noeon (noe)
This is the first fic I ever bound and also my first ever ficbind posted on tumblr! I've only bound a handful of fics and will be posting the ones I've done when I get the time.
I bound this back in November 2023 (last year), I've been wanting to get into bookbinding for yeeears, and I finally got the nudge to do it after seeing ficbinding was actually a thing!
Since this is the first bind I ever did, there are things I want to change but overall as a first ever bind, I think it's good!
I actually bought the wrong foil and had heat activated foil instead of toner reactive foil for the cover but ... somehow it worked? Kinda?
I also do not own a cricut or silhouette so all the covers were made using Kent paper, hence why you can see the pretty distinct line on the white paper (that's the edge of the black cardstock that's covering the spine)
This was also the first time in my life that I ever touched InDesign, it was thankfully not that hard to learn the basics and I now love to use it! (I do have all my typesets to download for free here if anyone wants them, I'm also able to quickly change them into letter size if you wany since I know most American binders tend to use that!)
I might've gone a little overboard with adding all the details like stars in the corners and by the page numbers and changing fonts, but I think it's a cute typeset seeing as it was my first.
I also tried making my own headbands using literal shoestring and ¥100 fabric and glue, it somehow worked and it looked cute, but this was also the only time they turned out okay I think?
The art added is by @longdaytogo with permission! (Absolutely love their art, it's stunning. Also the reason why I even got back into drarry after a decade long break lmao)
I also didn't know I should add a flyleaf at the end of my bind for this one, hence why it's right next to my endpapers, but hey, it's a first bind!
That was all for my first ever fic bind. It has actually become such a fun hobby and I really enjoy binding fics, I think I've made... 8? In total since November, a lot of the last couple of ones have been purely experimental and kind of wonky and chaotic, but that's (sadly) part of the learning process!
I was asked to made a reverse with fan draco and idol harry, sadly I'm not pleased with Harry at all but I do like the crazy and insane look Draco got lmao
