#and gold htv

[getfuckedblr]

this is the one. the most popular fic in the harry potter fandom. the fic that got me into fanfiction. the fic that i sobbed to for months after reading it.

i tried to bind this three separate times over the last two years and bro the first two sucked ASS. it was legit the very first fic i tried to typeset which is like, not the greatest thing to start off with LMAO. it looked funky, i hadn’t fixed any of the spacing, my footers didn’t match the text font or size. it was very much a baby binding.

the second one was my first time using a cricut and there is a very steep learning curve w the cricut, especially in creating designs that aren’t too complex or too plain. i tried to copy one of the popular printable book jackets and omg i spent weeks modifying my designs and printing and reprinting on my cricut and it looked like trash when i was done.

so finally, we have come to this.

i got really into quartos during the winter and was like omg the editing process for this would be so much more manageable if i broke it down into years! so then i did lol. it allowed me to customize each chapter into sections so i could add the chapter title to the footers, and break down graphics into separate years so i didn’t have 100 pages in one canva file. it was just a lot easier to feel accomplished having broken it down bc this fic is a MONSTER.

every chapter heading is the same - just the swirl. i gilded all the chapter titles using toner reactive foil and my laminator (she broke in the middle of this project. i ended up having to buy another laminator, and about 3 packs of foil from icraft. this is my most expensive fic binding to date🫠). i included the songs ms.kingbean put at the top of every chapter, and the bootleg tapes and christmas special.

i am seriously so proud of how this turned out, and can’t believe it’s actually done. sorry this is super long, but this really was a labor of love. they’re not perfect, i’m still really bad at measuring and cutting straight lines, but i’m satisfied. really satisfied.

[unhinged-comics-screaming]

creating some really indulgent heat transfers for this hoodie that was on sale at Michaels (I have metallic red and foil gold)

Still not totally sure what kind of left sleeve quote to print. “This is for Nova Corps” seems too redundant but “We don’t get to quit” is kinda depressing

[gia-d]

Back in October last year, I started reading This is an Adjuration by @not-freyja.

By the time I had made it to chapter 5, I had already started typesetting this story as I read because I knew this would be one of those stories that I needed to have on my shelf.

When I finally caught up to the story at chapter 31, I begged the author to let me bind this when it was finished.

Nearly a year later, and what is probably the most important bind of my life is finally finished. Check out these glamour shots, and if you want to hear more about the actual binding process and about how this fic actually changed my life, see below.

So funny story, before I get into the technical side of this bind, but this fic actually changed my life. Not as in I was greatly emotionally moved by the story, though don't get me wrong I absolutely was, but genuinely this fic introduced me to some of the best people I have ever had to privilege of knowing (Hello Class, you know who you are 🩷), and also, it introduced me to Freyja, the incredibly talented author, who, as I type this, is curled up in bed next to me fast asleep after flying half way around the world to go on a two week long date with me.

Moral of the story folks is comment on the fics you like. You might accidentally meet the love of your life on, and I can't believe I'm saying this, AO3.

Anyways, about the bind!

This bind was a challenge from day 1. I had to do the typeset for this 300k word fic 4 times, and had to split it across 2 volumes. This was the longest fic I have ever attempted to bind, and it was so thick I couldn't get it in the paper trimmer.

To make this book as durable as possible, I attempted a few techniques. I secured it with 3 tapes, I made an Oxford hollow, I rounded the spine, I made a slipcase and I used 2.3mm boards where normally I use 1.8mm.

The slipcase is covered with embossed faux leather, buckram and plain ribbon, and lined with gold satin fabric. I've never made a slipcase before so this was an experience.

The books are covered with an emerald green silk finish bookcloth which really gave the books the luxury they deserved. I foiled custom end papers as well as every chapter title page using heat reactive transfer foil on toner ink (never again I am never doing that again omg it took days). Huge thank you to @la-sera for letting me use her artwork which helped inspire this fic!

The grey flashback chapters I had to use HTV for the border decoration and I'm very happy with how that turned out because it was so easy and straight forward, unfortunately it just wasn't viable for the whole book.

It feels weird to finally have these books done. They have my blood, sweat, tears and my heart poured into them, and I've been working on them for so long that it's odd to actually have them finished. I'm so proud of this bind, and feel like I've grown so much as a fanbinder by making these.

Anyways, if anyone has any questions about the process, please don't hesitate to ask!

(and if you are an Linked Universe fan and haven't read Adjuration yet, this is your sign!)

[swordsmans]

o shit more books! this time of my own fic, poly philtatos. these copies were bound for the incredible @redbeanp13 (whose gorgeous fanart i have blown up comically large and pinned on my wall), @thychesters, @missingn000, and one other very sweet reader. there was a fifth copy in the pile who died tragically to a case-in error, so it will have to be remade.

anyway! more info and typeset photos below the cut.

these are quarto flatback case binds with a really funky layered cover made from over 26 pieces. it might not be super easy to tell in the pictures, but there is a physical ridge in the middle exposing the colored paper, with cloth on the top and bottom. i wanted to mirror the typeset, and i think i pulled it off!

the title and cover design are done in gold HTV, and the exposed colored papers are all marbled lokta. the endsheets are also printed lokta with coordinating painted edges and blue/yellow endbands. each book also has a 5mm silk bookmark topped with a gold charm that looks a little bit like one of zoro's earrings if you squint, hehe. iykyk.

now look at my typeset, boy. im 99% sure its what killed my printer (and good lord that was a whole sidequest for these binds).

anyway, thank you to the lovely readers and friends who requested this book. your patience has been invaluable and i hope u enjoy these copies <3

[sits-bound]

Bound: The Twenty-Two Cards Series (Rookie Moves + 6 more) by peu_a_peu

I am pretty insane about this fic right now. Between this bind and the podfic I'm making of it, I am happily living in the world of these two dumb cops.

I made this for the @renegadeguild's Renegade Loves Fic(writers) event for Fanfiction Writer's Appreciation Day (which is today!), and sent it to the author earlier this month.

This bind has a couple of firsts:

First hand-sewn endbands

I am very very proud of the endbands - it has taken me many, many, many attempts to get them right. Huge props to maleeka_mols for this fantastic tutorial!

First dust jacket

I made a dust jacket because I felt like the design of the case didn't do this series justice. It just needed MORE.

Making it was fun but also very stressful. I had one chance to get the printing right (since I don't have a large format printer and so I had to get it printed as a poster, which is pricey) and thank god it all worked out perfectly.

So let's talk about the details…(other than the end bands and dust jacket.)

The 22 cards of the title reference the 22 cards of the major arcana. I am not familiar with the tarot, so I hope I didn't do anything "wrong" by choosing cards to use based on aesthetics. But it is such a fun aesthetic to use!

Weeding the HTV on the front was a lot. And then the gold of the title got a little wonky (another reason for the dust jacket, if I'm being honest) but I love the way it looks.

There's a lot of gold foiling on the inside. Each story has its own tarot card (again, chosen based on looks because I am shallow). I also made a table of contents! Just a lot of stuff. The typeset itself is fairly simple. (Would I love to have made a maximalist version like the one @slbindery made for me? Yes, but I have to accept that that is not the style I excel at.)

HAPPY (FAN) FIC WRITERS APPRECIATION DAY!

[justheblueberry]

handbinding of A Study in Scarlette by kittebasu

There are people who want to live forever, and then there is Shinichi, who just wants to live a little longer than this.

this bind has been in my head since i first read the fic like, three years ago. i dreamed up so many ideas for it, for so long, and now it's finally done! the typeset was actually done in early 2022, back when i was still using google docs, but it went through a few iterations because i was just. so. fiddly. with every aspect of this book. it needed to be perfect (as close to perfect as i, an amateur bookbinder out of my depth, can get) and it had to be absolutely over the top, to reflect the insane amount of love and care that the author put into the fic itself.

the first time i read this fic, i barely knew what detective conan was, much less all of the intricate plot details; i was just along for the ride, but by the end i was completely invested. i went back and watched through the anime as well as a few movies (it took me six months) and then read the fic again. and then a few more times. kaishin and the world of dcmk has utterly gripped me. it's 100% this fic's fault and i love it so, so, much.

i went through a few iterations of visual designs and i'm really happy with the little details i managed to squeeze in.

the entire color scheme is based around red, because 1) it's a murder mystery, 2) for scarlette shinamoto (and the title of the fic as well as the original holmes novel it references), and 3) the irony of "lady red" actually being red. the secret fourth reason is that i think red/gold is a super sexy color combo.

i sewed the textblock with red thread to reference holmes' "scarlet thread of murder".

another detail i love is the five yen coin bookmark, it was one of my first ideas and it turned out even better than i thought.

i wanted the endpapers to evoke a sense of the white marbled floor of the ballroom, with the glow-in-the-dark kaitou kid caricature being the luminol on the floor, and the little pops of red looks like blood that's been mixed in. i lucked out in that the other side of the endpaper was like a lavender-purpley color, i like to think of it as a little wink wink nudge to the color of the actual Lady Red.

the chapter pages got a few reworkings, but i'm happy with the illustrations i ended up doing for each of them. the chapter titles are one of my favorite things about the fic, each one has so much meaning packed into it and flows so beautifully, and i wanted to put as much care into making them pop as possible.

the cover was a linocut carving i designed and carved, which i then printed onto the bookcloth, and ironed on htv on top.

i also threw in a couple of my drawings of my favorite scenes.

this is getting way too long, so i'll end it here. i'll have a separate post detailing the process every step of the way, if anyone wants to take a closer look. this fic is kind of directly responsible for getting me into fanbinding, so it's safe to say it altered the course of my life. i now spend way too much time (and money) looking at book stuff.

kittebasu, if, somehow, you see this and would like an author copy, i would be honored to make one and ship it to you; i would be overjoyed to gift you with any art i have the ability to make, because the fics you wrote have irreversibly altered my brain chemistry, and being able to give back in any capacity would be a dream. (thank you.)

a few postscripts:

i am not selling any copies of this fic. partially because i believe in the gift economy of fandom as well as firmly keeping fanbinding a hobby that will stay unmonetized, but also because it took me months (years, if we are counting when i first finished the typeset) to finish this and i do not have the strength.

however, if you are also a fan of this fic and would like a copy, i honestly, fervently, encourage you to give fanbinding a try! renegade publishing and its discord server are an absolutely wonderful and free resource. i knew nothing about bookbinding and had zero materials when i first started, but i've learned so much thanks to the lovely people there. if you're still apprehensive about getting started, i'd be willing to share my typeset of this fic as well as answer any questions about the making of this book if you DM me.

[piscesmoonpress]

Draco Malfoy, It’s Your Lucky Day by Faith Wood

Even though he's unarmed, injured, lost in the Forbidden Forest, and facing a possible murder charge, Draco Malfoy gets lucky.

Pairing: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy Fandom: Harry Potter

One of the first fics I ever read on ao3 (yes, I went through my history to check), and still one of my favorites. I’m not sure why this fic in particular stood out to me, but it’s so well done—definitely a unique concept for an Eighth Year fic.

Quarter-Letter | 37,382 words | 228 pages

Drop Cap: Ardenwood Body: EB Garamond

Typset and bound by me in InDesign. Cover designed in Illustrator.

The most time-consuming part of this bind was definitely the cover design—I spent way too long messing around on illustrator to create the design on the cover (which I wish I had added into the original typset before I printed, but own well). Then, when I went to cut it out with HTV, a lot of the smaller details ended up getting lost anyway.

It was my first time doing sprinkled edges on a book, which I chose to do for the deckled edge, and I have mixed feelings on how it turned out.

Cover Bookcloth: Verona in Espresso Spine Bookcloth: Hamartan Goat Leather in Black HTV: Siser Brand in Gold Metal Endbands: Mettler Silk Finish Thread

Draco Malfoy, It's Your Lucky Day is free to read on ao3 here.

My mess of an illustrator cover file.

Another small detail, but I’ve finally made a mock-copyright page design that I like. It’s going in all my InDesign typesets.

[szynkaaa]

My other rebind book trade has reached its destination, this time to @octobindery (instagram)

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones! This book has been on my want-to-rebind list since I first picked it up, so I'm really really really happy that I'm able to rebind this for Lisa! Thank you so so so so much for doing this trade with me, and I cannot wait to do more with you in the future

About the bind: ✦ Duo bookcloth and frog vinyl htv gold metallic ✦ struggled with the htv gold at first, it did not want to stick but turns out I was impatient and did not wait for it to cool down ✦ Dust jacket illustration is drawn by me on Clip Studio Paint, I think this is also my first Howl's Moving Castle fanart ever ✦ endpapers are redraws of two scenes from the movie, foiled on silver ✦ Howl's heart on the cover glows on flash photos!

[snek-panini]

This is the final book from the batch I started in April, and look how cute it is! This is London Calling by forthegreatergood, a Good Omens fic set around the end of the cold war. It's definitely a TV!verse fic, not a book fic, but it does a quite good job capturing the feel of the time when the book first came out. It's got pining, and spies, and politics, and actual real grown-up conversations about feelings, and an optimistic ending even if it isn't a happily-ever-after.

The cover up there is a printed lokta paper that I got from...probably Hollander's but it's been a while. It was a total impulse buy and for a long time I kept trying to find stories that would fit it but I kept failing until I settled on this one. The print is metallic, but it phases between gold and silver and copper, so I chose a subdues rose gold metallic htv on the spine, over green book cloth for reinforcement.

More photos under the cut!

I've only just noticed that the photo of the endpaper is blurry, but since it's a simple unadorned green I'm not too fussed about it. I love fancy endpapers but was afraid that whatever I chose would fight with the cover, and I really wanted the cover to be the star here. Machine-made black and white endbands, and a plain black ribbon for the bookmark. In this top view photo you can see one of the most annoying things I've dealt with in all the 50-ish books I've made. One of the center pages in this book wouldn't print correctly no matter what I did. I kept getting one sheet with a single printed half-side (one book page) and one sheet with one fully printed and one half printed side (three book pages), instead of the thing I was supposed to get, which is two fully printed sides (for book pages). I tried every formatting trick I could find and got the same result every time, and I still don't know why. Eventually I just cut off the single page and pasted it in place on the blank part of the three-page sheet, but it didn't turn out too well and the paper is wiggly. I cannot fix this. It is unfixable. So I've just rolled with it and accepted that things that are handmade are going to have quirks. This one's just got a more obvious quirk than most.

Title page and first page of the fic. I wanted to keep it fairly simple and un-ornamented because I don't think opulence suits this fic. So it's not exactly austere, but it shouldn't be ornate either. Some fics are ornate, some just aren't. The feather thing on the title page was originally a scene break divider for another fic I bound, and it was put together with free vectors from I think vecteezy. Like many Good Omens fics, there's a wing grooming scene in this one, so it felt appropriate. The graphic didn't get to shine too well last time I used it because scene break images have to be pretty small, and I think the larger size I was able to use here suits it better.

Overall, in spite of its challenges, I think this book came together really well and I'm proud of it. It's sweet and interesting and I think it suits the fic, and I couldn't really ask for better than that.

[dashka12]

An Iron Blood Tale: Iron and Gold

An Iron Blood Tale: Iron and Gold by @experi-sketches

My second bind for (Fan) Fic Writer Appreciation Day.

This fic is ridiculously good and my favorite story that i found last year.

The whole inspiration for this book was inspired by one particular scene from the fic.

For the custom endpapers, i foiled on the tagline(theme?) of the fic, onto some art that matched the overall design elements.

I had a lot of fun working on the typeset for this - though it took me way to long to sit down and complete. I had a pretty clear vision for it, until i completely did a 180 and changed my mind lol. Which I'm glad i did as this typeset came out so well.

The story title pages and map - I LOVE when books have maps in the beginning so i was super excited to format the map.

Each chapter had a title, but I decided to keep the chapter images the same and to go with the cover design.

Threads, connectivity, and intertwining play a big role in this fic and I tried to incorporate the idea as much as possible.

I'm very happy with how this book turned out, especially the htv layering. Quite surprised on how smoothly it went on the first time tbh.

This bind was done as part of @renegadeguild Renegade Loves Fic(Writers), as a way to show appreciation to all the fic writers out there that share your amazing stories with us, by sending out a copy to them.

Thank you @experi-sketches for this lovely fic <3

HAPPY (FAN) FIC WRITERS APPRECIATION DAY

[getfuckedblr]

fic: blackpool by TheDivineComedian

ok so like i tried a bradel bind on accident. i was trying to use laminated paper to make a case and couldn’t get the spine right so i just slashed right through the middle after glueing the paper to the boards, so this isn’t the most stable connection from the spine to the boards :( but i think it’s a pretty good first attempt:)))

and then omg my sister is home on break🥺💓 and she’s a production major so she can like take real photos!! which is what ur seeing here LMAO bc i have many talents, but photography is sadly not one of them:(

and i am also trying out a new printer so there’s a fuck ton of misprints as the background.

so yeah! this fic is such a creepy crawly little ghost story that has absolutely no right being so emotionally devastating! i don’t normally take tiktok recs but this creator convinced me like 3 years ago, and it’s been sitting in my fic drive for like a year just waiting for me to finish it. and finish it i have!!!

bound in laminated paper, with gold htv words. the spine is bookcloth (i also don’t think the spine color looks great with my covers but not mad enough to trash it either). no bookmark on this one bc i got lazy😔

if i had set out to do a bradel bind instead of accidentally stumbling into it, i would have glued the spine to the covers, then folded the cover over the connection. but alas, i will keep it in mind for next time instead:)

(((i’m so sorry my sister took marvelous photos but also completely disregarded the things i asked her to shoot lmao. love her but she missed all of the htv details so plz check out my shittier photos below for those deets🥲)))

[ohmightydevviepuu]

fanbinding: let's sail away (an anthology)

a flatback casebinding! WOOT!!

(this is, to date, my first and most successful flatback after the demo i made in bookbinding class)

the binding flatback casebinding as demonstrated in introduction to bookbinding and custom cases by tom and cindy hollander. glued headbands. duo bookcloth in oatmeal.

did the cutout on my silhouette portrait. covered the cutout with the bookcloth, cut and cleaned up the fabric, and laminated the davey board to that layer before gluing the text block.

cutout design is a converted embroidery pattern from UrbanThreads traced with a foil quill using the silhouette portrait.

HTV is siser twinkle for the stars / metallic gold for the titles.

the story an anthology of short Captain Swan fics from sambethe, including two no longer online from my personal archive.

[plor-bindery]

Bound: Under Giant Mountains by wolfpants

The delightful, evocative, and thoughtful Under Giant Mountains by @wolfpants is up next in my tour of wolf’s fic I bound. This landscape of this fic is soaring: mountains and dragons and wilderness. But at the same time, its subject matter is as small and carefully contained as Harry's postwar pain. This is a Harry who is struggling, and struggling to even admit he's struggling. At the risk of spoiling anything, the way wolf writes Harry's breakdown and surrender is so, so soft and sweet and real. I love a Harry who confronts any danger head-on except the danger of what's going on inside him.

(Fun fact: this fic was posted while I was in the midst of writing Polar Night/Midnight Sun and I was like OH GOOD WOLF HAS DONE THE DRACO IN NORWAY THING AND DONE IT BETTER THAN I COULD, I CAN STOP WRITING NOW but of course, I didn't stop; I let wolf's words inspire me onwards, and this is another reason why I love fandom: the overlapping of writerly worlds, the echoes and resonances we experience as creators and fans.)

For this bind, I chose a relatively simple aesthetic, but couldn't resist inserting little tiny dragons as scene breaks.

More process and materials talk under the cut.

Materials: This was my first go at making bookcloth! I had purchased a little remainder scrap of forest green cotton at the fabric store and only noticed after ironing it out and laminating it to the tissue that there were stripes of sun damage on the creases of the cloth, sigh. I had to start over. I used mulberry tissue but some of the fibres are palpable through the cloth, which I am not wild about. Still -- homemade bookcloth! Fun!

Text block is printed on 24 lb cream letter cut down to a quarto bind, and is actually the first bind I did where my grain direction was correct. (I know, I know...) Sewn on two linen tapes with waxed linen thread.

Endbands (which I neglected to photograph, apparently) are machine made.

End papers are just scrapbook paper, nothing special.

The decoration is gold HTV. Hoo boy. More on that shortly.

Process: My first quarto bind! First bookcloth making! First bind with the grain direction correct! So many firsts!

That being said, there was nothing particularly special about this bind's process. My biggest struggle (which is visible) was the gold HTV. I think I've since cracked the code more on how to apply larger bits of HTV without making marks in it (short version: higher heat, less pressure, more patience) but I was still struggling here, as you can see. That being said, I do love the sort of hobbity vibe of the rune-ish font and the dragon/mountain.

I made myself a copy of this as a test first, and the HTV is even more messed up on that. :| Also, I realized when reading it afterwards, I fucked up the page order in one signature. This is fixed (god, I hope it's fixed) in wolf's copy.

Signature length is a tricky thing with case binding/sewn binding in general. I wound up needing a bunch of blank pages at the back of the typeset so I did something I have since done in other binds: added a "selected praise for" section where I copy/pasted AO3 comments into the text block like literary reviews. I love this so much: the juxtaposition of the formal literary trope with the squee and all-caps and hype of fandom commenters. I am not the first to do this, of course, but you'll see it appear again in future binds from me for sure. (And of course I put my own comment first. OF COURSE I did. Binder's privilege!)

[demodoggonetired]

After a few months of off and on again work, @cuips-not-cute 's Cyclical is now bound!!! 489 pages, 21 signatures, and about 1.25 inches thick!

And you should read their fic here!!

{Breakdown under cut!} - Contains Spoilers!

Uhh where to start with this. My first attempt at: a more standard book size (fun), a full cloth book (no problem here), full page illustrations (okay results), and chisel trimming (uh oh!).

(Suffice to say I need more practice with that last one, the foredge could have been worse, but it coulda been better - a little wonky but we'll just say it's got character).

I think what I'm most proud of is the color cordination of it all (and the end papers, oh my what a fitting find).

Materials: Made with Cialux bookcloth in night blue and Spanish MM marbled paper for the endpapers. The cover graphics are yellow Siser HTV, a black HTV, and Cricut metallic gold HTV (not near as shiny as one might like). Bound using linen thread and archival pva glue, endbands sewn using single strand embroidery thread in a double core style. Printed on Hammermill 20lb cream paper.

Cover: Cuips mentions Slaughterhouse Five at the start of the fic with a quote, so I used that as a bit of a jumping point for the cover design. Specifically this edition. Only instead changing the red for the blues of the upside down and a somewhat orange-ish yellow (both colors of which we see a lot in the fic). The skull and crossbones is similarly swapped with the hourglass on its pedstal in the UD woods with a flower and petals around it. The back cover showcases a sheep dog's wolf collar hehe. My biggest grief with this cover is that for some reason, one of the HTVs leaked glue when pressed. It doesn't look bad, just adds an odd shinyness but thankfully isn't sticky. Weird!

Title Page: A negative space hourglass with UD vines outlining the shape (perhaps a XII hidden in there too...). In the middle is a repeatedly circled sphere with sand pouring out and the title flipped to be reflected below.

Other tidbits that I think are neat:

All timeloops in the fic end with things dissolving into sand, so I tried to add a little falling sand graphic at those sentences.

The chapter end notes are titled "notes for past self" and the next chapters summary and beginning notes are "notes for future self" because it felt like it fit the timeloop theme

"say it out loud, it'll be okay" (with the Steve and Robin sheepdog and cat) and "enter sandman" have my favorite chapter title illustrations (oh man the feelings I have for the cassette tape..)

the book notes page has the same vine graphic as the title page but this time with flowers on it!

Overall I'm really pleased with how this bind turned out! It was a lot of fun and a bit of a journey to make!

+Bonus timelapse of sewing some of the signatures 'cause I find it fun to watch:

[swordsmans]

Behold! My longest bind yet! Which is saying something, really. I began typesetting an anthology of @thychesters incredible zolu fics sometime last fall, printed the textblock in February, and finished the case... well, that's between me and god. Life happens! This was an unexpectedly tricky bind and I hope I did the gorgeous fics inside (and @loopeyfluff / @fluffyartbl0g's lovely fanart) justice!!

The cover is made of nine pieces, not including bookboard. I wanted VERY badly for the case to be entirely flush while still having an old-school layered appearance, so what you're actually looking at is filled blue fabric, a layer of white printed + foiled cardstock cut to lay against the corners, and then a layer of extremely thin translucent marbled paper with both the corners and negative space for the "labels" carefully cut out.

In order to gild the manga panel edit (taken from Sunny's introduction, btw) I printed and cut the cardstock, but before i glued it onto the bookboard i used washi tape, heat-reactive foil, and an iron (i'm cheap!) to carefully foil the parts that I wanted. This was my first time using proper toner-adhering heat reactive foil, and it was definitely a learning curve. I did lots of tests (sooo many foiled stickers. so many) and had a fun time. I'll definitely be using it in the future!!

After the layers of paper and fabric were pressed, I used metallic HTV to hide the seams and title the spine. It's a very neat effect, I think.

The edges of the textblock are also layered, with two coats of matte acrylic (pastel blue and green respectively) and one coat of green shimmer. The shimmer coat acts like a kind of sealant for the matte paints, so I didn't need to break out the beeswax this time. This was also one of the first sets I did with my guillotine (I cut it with Conquering and Spill Your Wine), which was an experience in and of itself.

I used white endbands and a 5mm white silk ribbon (looped this time; learned my lesson), then topped the bookmark off with a gold anchor charm. The textblocks are sewn with teal and green thread. And oh! And the endsheets are a teal, blue, green, and gold marble that's absolutely to die for—and kept staining everything blue the minute it touched moisture! Totally worth it though.

The typeset is my most colorful, I think. I went pretty heavy on the ocean themes because Kate has a really distinct pattern for her titles, and I wanted the book to follow!! I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and also endlessly delighted that Kate proofread her own typeset. That was very fun, hehe.

All in all, I think this was a very successful project despite the endless delays, and the final books look exactly like I pictured. I happy to send them to their new homes!! <3

[perfectlynormalbooks]

pull the rider down, a 19k Bernice Summerfield fic I wrote as an exchange gift for a friend some time ago. Bound as a request for that same friend! Done in quarto - I went with a green-gold combination because I liked the look of it, and I always love working with this particular gold HTV.