#bookbinding how to

[celestial-sphere-press]

Book Decoration: AKA All The Ways I Don't Use a Cricut

(this post is for people who don't want to buy an expensive cutting tool, or for those that do have an expensive cutting tool that would like to mix things up a little)

1. Print That Shit

If you're already printing your own textblocks, an easy step for titles is to print them. Above is a title printed onto an "obi" of decorative paper. I measured out where I wanted things on the finished book and laid it out in Affinity, then printed it on a full sheet & trimmed it down to wrap around the book. A more simple method is to print & glue on the label into a slight indent in the cover (to protect it). A third option is to do the spine in bookcloth, while you print on paper for the cover and then glue that paper onto the boards (this usually looks even better when it is a three-piece bradel bind).

2. Foil Quill / Heat Pens

The heat pen is one of my go-to tools, but it can be a bit touchy about materials. The most popular version is the We R Memory Keepers' Foil Quill (which is one of the most ergonomic), but other pens exist that can get you to a higher heat temp, finer lines, or more consistent foil. For example, I have a pen created by a local Japanese bookbinding studio that fares way better on leathers than the WRMK quill & with a finer tip, but it's hell to control. Best results in general are on paper or smooth bookcloth (starched linen, arrestox, colibri - even duo will work but its less solid). The fuzzier a bookcloth is, the less your foil quill wants to deal with it. This means the heat n bond method of making bookcloth does not play nice with a heat pen usually, but there are two solutions: 1) use this tutorial on paste + acrylic medium coated bookcloth instead that will get you a perfect surface for the heat pen, or 2) use the pen on paper & then glue onto the cloth. I did a video tutorial for both foil quill use and this type of homemade bookcloth for @renegadeguild Binderary in 2023.

You get the most consistent results by tracing through a printed template that is taped in place, as I do in the video above.

3. Paint That Shit

Acrylic paints will do you fine! The above is free-handed with a circle template, because I wanted that vibe. If you need straight lines that won't seep, lay them down with tape first & then paint over it first with a clear Acrylic medium, then your color. Same goes for stencils. Two more examples of painted bookcloth:

4. IT'S GOT LAYERS

By using layers of thinner boards, you can create interesting depths & contrasts on your cover. You can also make cutouts that peep through to the decorative paper behind. The most important part to this technique is the order in which each edge is wrapped. To get a good wrapped inside edge, you will split the turn in into tabs to get them to conform to a curve. You can also layer multiple colors of bookcloth without multiple layers of board, as seen below left, so long as you mind your cut edges for fraying.

5. Inlaid... anything

Mirrors! Marbled paper! I saw someone do a pretty metal bookmark once! The key is creating a little home for it to live in, which is pretty similar to the above layering method. On one layer you cut the shape, & glue that layer onto the bottom solid board before covering. You can do the top layer as an entire 1 mm board (like I did for the mirrors) or a sheet of cardstock, like I would use for inlaid paper.

6. Decorative Paper

Decorative paper is always helpful & adds to the paper hoard... & its effects can be layers with other techniques, as below. Marbles, chiyogami, momi, or prints & maps of all kinds can be great additions. Some papers may need a protective coating (such as wax or a sealer).

7. Stamps (with optional linocut)

While I've not used many more regular rubber stamps, I do know some who have, successfully! And I've used one once or twice with embossing powder (see photo 3 up, the gold anchor on the little pamphlet bind). What also works is to carve your own linocut or stamp, & then use block printing ink to ink it onto your fabric (as i did above). A bit time intensive, but it was nice how easily reproducible it was, and I liked the effect I got for this particular bind.

These methods are not exhaustive, just ones I've used, and there are of course many others. I haven't gone too into detail on any of these for the sake of length (& post photo limits) but feel free to ask about more specifics. Usually I'm using them in combination with other options.

[aethersea]

I've always wanted to learn bookbinding, ever since I was a wee little nerd, but there are a lot of things I've always wanted to learn, and this one has both a daunting upfront materials cost and a daunting upfront research cost. however, my sister is a jewel among siblings and gave me for christmas last year a handy dandy bookbinding manual, a block of good paper, and a little bag of tools.

but I still didn't have a suitable workspace, nor any of the many important tools and materials that she didn't include in her gift. so I just read the manual and pined. until maybe a month ago I got fed up with pining, flattened a cardboard box for a cutting mat, and went to town.

and I'm real proud of myself, so here's me rambling, plus photos!

I went to the thrift store and got glue + some fabric to bind the cover, went to Michaels for a paintbrush (and later went back for a metal ruler lmao it's amazing how useful it is to have a straightedge for cutting the paper), and...could not find material for the cover boards. so I went home and pined some more. but the urges were too strong, so after a couple hours of moping I got a stack of printer paper at the grocery store (I could not bring myself to use the good paper for my first, inevitably weak attempts, I just couldn't do it) and started making a little booklet. which was a great idea, it turned out, since it makes for good practice with cutting the paper, measuring things, punching holes in the signatures, etc.

I have a big box of greeting cards from Michaels, which I used for the covers. it didn't feel like I was making a Real Book, so I got some colored paper from the stationery store and used that for end papers.

so fancy~

galvanized by this success, I ordered a stack of chipboard online to use for cover boards; and once I was confident that I could cut paper without making it look too stupid (getting that straightedge ruler sure helped lol), I made signatures out of the good paper, left them under some heavy books overnight since I don't have a book press, and then punched holes in them! (huzzah for this nice video on getting the holes right)

my sister's gift included good linen thread. it's unwaxed, but after some poking around on r/bookbinding it looks like that just means I'll have to be more careful to avoid tangles and keep good tension. I am fine with this. I can be extra attentive. (I considered just running it over a beeswax candle, but one commenter said if your wax has paraffin in it, it could melt in a hot car, ruining the spine. I can't guarantee my candle is 100% beeswax, I didn't make it, so maybe we just move on.)

I don't have good linen fabric to use for the tapes, but the important part there is that the fabric be thin, sturdy, and not stretchy. the probably-cotton I got from the thrift store fits the bill, so it'll do!

this is a french link stitch, which I got from this exceedingly good tutorial. apparently it's strong enough on its own that for a book of this size, I don't actually need tapes, but I'd already cut the things so eh here we are. and tapes plus french link will make it a stronger binding still (according to a friendly redditor on r/bookbinding), so we carry on.

specifically we carry on to the gluing step. now as I mentioned, I do not have a book press, and you....kinda need one for this step. you need to hold the book block in place with the signatures facing upwards, pressed together hard enough that the glue won't run down between them and stick the pages together (though you do want the glue to get between them just a little, just for like a 16th of an inch). you at least need some clamps and a couple boards to sandwich the book block with.

but you know what? I'm not a professional, this is my first ever book, if it's a little bit off it'll be fine. so we grab all the heaviest books off the bookshelf and improvise.

it's fine! I'm sure it's fine! and just in case it's not, I've tucked a bit of cardboard underneath to catch any glue that drips down so it won't land on the floor. see? I'm prepared! I'm acing this.

and actually, it really was fine. I used clear elmer's glue, applied with a flat paintbrush from the art supplies aisle at Michael's, and frankly I liked the way the flat paintbrush let me slip glue in between the signatures. I did poke around on a couple bookbinding sites to see what kind of glue I should use, and the gist is that although there are better options than this, elmer's glue is perfectly serviceable, and the main downside is it's not archival grade. but I don't need my first bookbinding attempts to last 200 years, that's fine.

the next step is to add the mull. mull is a specific type of fabric – extremely loose-weave linen – and the idea is to paste it down over the spine to essentially hold the tapes and signatures all in place in relation to each other.

but I don't have mull! so I'm using more of the thrift store probably-cotton, because it's thin enough and not really stretchy at all. I'm sure this will be fine too. I painted a layer of glue onto the spine, then left it to dry a bit while I measured and cut the fabric, then painted a generous stripe of glue down the center, where it'll affix onto the spine. then I added a bit more glue to the spine, just to be sure, and pressed the mull into place, rubbing it thoroughly to make sure it's firmly affixed to every signature, with no creases in the fabric or air bubbles beneath it.

honestly I might have overdone it on the glue. I've never done this before, I don't know! I think it's okay, though – I tried not to ever let it become a thick layer, just a slight coating, since the danger of too much glue is that it might crack once dry and weaken the spine.

and now we leave it in the press overnight to dry, and pick up the next step in the morning!

[mythrilthread]

I rebound This Is How You Lose the Time War because I wanted MORE COLORS.

(And also maybe the idea of using that tweet by Bigolas Dickolas as a blurb tickled me greatly. Because that whole situation was a highlight of my month.)

❤️ Did the cover with the same birds but added plot relevant double exposure effect I’ve loved since my True Detective days.

💜 Used purple fabric for the spine, painted the edges in a fun gradient, sewn the endbands;

💙 and used lovely fluid art by Marek Okon for endpapers.

Now no one in my household stands a chance of avoiding exposure to this gorgeous story ❤️💜💙

[owlwinter8]

I made a fanbind of the incredible Anastasis by @chthonion!! This fic series is truly something special, and even on my first read I knew that I wanted to bind it. This was also my first bookbind where I fully felt like I knew what I was doing, and I'm incredibly proud of how it came out!!

Art inspo: Stellar Corona by eradelphic and Through Window Up by Ninhol Cover/back/spine art has been uploaded here! <3 EDIT: Typeset has been added to the google drive with author permission as well!

[zhalfirin]

Clamshell box for my binding of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Materials used

boxes - grey board (1,5mm and 1mm) case - grey board (1,5mm, cardboard, 2,4mm) covering material - iris bookcloth (commercial) decorative paper - handmade paste paper

[that-butch-archivist]

"The New York Femmes, 1991" by Morgan Gwenwald

source: The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, edited by Joan Nestle

[arkfeather]

i found this weird book in my room this morning….i dont remember buying it…..every time i try to read it i get distracted and forget i have it…can someone help me identify this book?

happy halloween!! i wasnt actually planning on posting this today but i managed to finish it just before the hallows eve struck!

for anyone still wondering this is a handmade bookbind of There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm! this is just a hardcover rebind made from a paperback i bought online so no fancy typesetting here unfortunately. BUT i am happy with the cover design at least

closeup pics and thoughts abt my process below!

i wanted to keep the covers pretty minimalistic to make the book seem more mysterious and to draw more attention to the square window i cut out of the cover boards. fun fact, that square is supposed to represent SCP-055! theres only so much i can do to represent something indescribable, but its not round, so at least i have that

originally i was planning on making the text along the spine white so it would have a sort of disappearing effect against the white fabric, but it didnt really work out so i printed just the shadow of the text instead for a there-not-there look

something i really wanted to try while making this was to paint the edges of the textblock black. i think it came out nicely! it looks neat contrasted to the white cover :p

now the ENDPAPERS!! i had actually imagined the design for these way before anything else. i tried to go for a sort of fractal pattern of fingers like the monster from Fresh Hell. i quite like it in combination with the window on the front cover :3

okay thats all thx for coming with me on my journey ^_^

[crowgore-throwaway]

Good evening, Disco Elysium fandom,

GUESS WHAT I DID, BITCH??!

You have no clue how happy I am with myself for finishing this project. I've been working on it since August, so after about 4-5ish months of formatting, printing, binding, and gluing, I'm finally done making my copy of Sacred and Terrible Air. Now I can finally properly read it!

Tbh, it wasn't 5 months of straight work. I formatted the pdf in August, which was around a week, but I didn't have access to a printer until October, so I ordered my paper and waited. I only had enough for the first five signatures, so I ordered more paper and printed the rest in November. It took an afternoon to fold and bind all the signatures, and I spent the past week finishing the text block and making the cover. I did the lettering on the spine today (which isn't the straightest, but I'm impressed with myself for painting so intricately on less than smoothe fabric. I actually considered gilding it, but I thought it'd be a step too far, so I went with gold paint.

All in all, I didn't expect myself to be able to do it since I tell myself I'm gonna do things, then get depressed and don't do them. But this project turned out amazing, and I'm glad to have this piece of writing on my shelf, crafted by me. (I will admit, I gave myself a credit on the second page, but who cares?).

All that aside, I've only skimmed S&TA when I was formatting, so I only have a loose understanding of the plot, characters, and events, but since I have a physical copy and some free time later this month, I'll finally get the chance to experience the work of Kurvitz himself, and the people who put so much effort into translating it for the English-speaking fans.

Alright, that's all.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. :D

[spockandawe]

And finally, the big conclusion! When I was planning to not really binderary, getting copies of these books was my big goal. And then when I did binderary after all, I, uh, ended up with two sets of two books. And let's not even talk about how late these are in the grand scheme of things, these have been in my plans for literal years, and I originally intended to get them done well before official translations started releasing (I'm doing great!!). But here they are! Thousand Autumns and Peerless! TWICE!!!!

Okay. Okay. So here's the thing. These books are long. Thousand Autumns is something like 450k, and Peerless is closer to 550k. I hate splitting cnovels. I didn't want to sand instead of trimming. I wanted to keep these books as pairs (because Peerless has my favorite danmei ship of all time, but doesn't hit as hard without the Thousand Autumns context, and EVERYTHING hits less hard without knowing that yan wushi is out there. existing.)

These goals are not terribly well aligned with the facts! The facts are that those are awfully big books to fit into a single volume, if I want to use my guillotine! This is another driving force behind my small text theme of the month. It made the typesets a goddamn nightmare, and my initial copies of the books were done on half-legal paper, which I've never done before and may never do again. I finished those, and those are... big, heavy books. Not super portable. Time to see if my eyes are good for four point georgia, and spoilers, they ARE.

Set one, the large set, I wanted to use more of my snake leather. I had this GORGEOUS purple and green and black iridescent hide that i was determined to use, and fortunately I had just enough of the perfect fabric to pair with it.

But.... meanwhile, I've been buying peacock fabrics since 2021 for the sake of Feng Xiao. I had to use at least ONE of them! Fortunately, I've hoarded enough fabric that I was able to find a nice harmonious floral fabric to cover thousand autumns, and then had a nice duo bookcloth to make spines for them both! These books are quarter-legal, and the font is genuinely SO small, but still, pleasantly readable for me, my favorite customer 😂

These books were SO MUCH work to typeset snd bind, but I'm still so excited about how both sets came out! Because of my own impatience with repeating myself like, literally two days later, i redid a number of decorative elements in the typeset as well as the binding. Different chapter headers, different dividers, totally different vibes for the endpapers! This was a big project to ask from myself in such short order, especially when I was starting to flirt with burnout, but I genuinely couldn't be happier with the results :D

[sideofsheep]

Did I impulsively learn how to book bind so I could turn tma episode 1 into a book? yes, yes I did.

Did my dyslexic ass think it was a good idea to write the whole thing down for around 6 hours, instead of just printing it out? Yes, yes It did...

(also changed my mind on the pen almost halfway through)

[yuesya]

Second volume of zenith of stars bookbinding, made by the talented @collectivetrash! The final results here look absolutely amazing, and the red binding on the spine is also really cool. :DD Love how this turned out!

[edda-grenade]

sketches for illustrations for a matter of love

aka the moment where solas drops an even worse bombshell on saar than he does in canon trespasser

[fictionadventurer]

I keep thinking about Lewis' review of The Hobbit, because he claimed that the main thing contemporary reviewers compared it to was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Was fantasy in that poor of a state that Alice was the closest thing they could think of? Comparing that chaotic fever dream to Tolkien's intricately crafted world? Lewis does specify that the comparison is that both books are by an "Oxford professor at play", but they're otherwise so different that putting the two in the same category baffles me.

[szynkaaa]

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Another paperback-to-hardcover rebind

First time layering HTV vinyl, I think it turned out pretty well! The spine title and author names are done with reflective vinyl, which means if you turn on flashlight and look through the camera, the names will be more visible (see second video). I thought it was a nice touch to the book.

Book cover and dust jacket illustration are upside down on purpose, so you can decide which side you'd want to have on display

[wrongfulruffian]

Finished binding Ice Cream Before Dinner by cloudydaisies on AO3. I loved this story, in my opinion it is how season 8 should go haha.

I agonized over the color and vinyl choices, but I'm really happy how it came out. I looked at pictures of cotton candy ice cream and old-fashioned ice cream shop signs as inspiration haha! This is one of my favorite binds that I've done so far.

[swaps55]

2024 Year In Review-ish

It's funny, I started to ruminate on how 2024 was kind of brutal on a few different fronts - lots of professional stress that sapped up my creative energy and exacerbated the burnout I've been running into after 5 straight years of nonstop writing.

But when I think about it...there's was still a lot of good, exciting things that happened this year. No, I didn't finish Mezzo - not even close - but I did write a scene that goes high on the list of things I am most proud of. Everything I did accomplish for that story landed right where I wanted it.

And while I didn't write as much as I wanted, I was creative in totally new ways. I picked up bookbinding and ran with it, which required getting some foundational skills in about a dozen different hobbies. I went from not even having a needle and thread in my house to being able to sew a textblock that only occasionally gets accidentally sewn into my chair. I learned how to design and cut vinyl. I developed an unhealthy addiction to metallic paper. I learned how to round and back (with loooooots of room for improvement, but I can do it). I've gotten comfortable with cutting and measuring, and even more important - I've gotten comfortable with fucking up.

I still can't use a foil pen with any success, but that's for 2025.

I can make things for my friends now, which is something I've wanted to be able to do for years. For Christmas, I typeset and bound a Stephen King book that exists only as a PDF - one of the first "ebooks" that my dad proudly paid for, downloaded, and printed out two copies - one for him and one for me.

For 20+ years my printed copy has lived in a box that has moved from Virginia to Kentucky to Texas to California. His printed copy has lived in a 3 ring binder with the rest of his Stephen King collection. Now he has a bound copy.

That's a big win. That feels really, really good.

Mezzo is going to get written, and I'm going to be proud of it. But I really have needed the time to rotate my crops and redirect my creative efforts into something new.

It's also important for me to remember that ten years ago I had the worst year of my life, even if it ended on a hopeful note on New Year's Eve. This year was rough, but I got to spend it with the person I love most in the world, and my goofy ass dog who is currently dying to steal the rest of my lunch.

It's been a challenging year, but still a good one.

Hoping all of you have some joy and comfort on the eve of this new year. 2025 might be scary, but I'll hold your hand if you hold mine, and we'll figure it all out.