#ficbinding recs

[danpuff-ao3]

2022 Standouts - Yet Another Rec List

Okay, LISTEN. There was lots of greatness to be had in 2022. This is not my fault. This is all of your faults. This is what you all get for having so much talent and passion for fandom!! Some of us are overly excitable and chatty and can't shut up!!

In fairness, one can never spread too much goodness and positivity. If I talk about the same fics, the same creators, and make new lists every other day, it's all born out of love and appreciation, which the world could use plenty of! And with that said, these are all my own opinions and preferences so please keep that in mind!

So...here we go?? Should I do a Top 22???? That seems fitting.

1.) Post Mortem [fic, Snarry, E, 17k] by @inarticulateimbecile. I'm still dying over how fabulous this is. The characterizations, the dynamic, the descriptions...chef's kiss, truly. This might be one of my new favorites. (Also this Snarry art they did as a runner up, though all of their art just does things to me.) (I really would have thought art would have been their mention on this list, but no, they had to go be a great writer, as well!! Rude of them, really.)

2.) Slipping [fic, Snarry, 11k] by @bluesundaycake are you kidding me???? This is fabulous. Gritty postwar story that is too real with our hero, Harry, not "living up" to his potential, and not having the happily ever after he so deserves with a bittersweet, hopeful ending. Just lovely.

3.) The Lover and the Boytoy [fic, Drucius, Snaco, Draco/Snape/Lucius, E, 10k] by @fleetingdesires. Why the heck are my friends so talented?? This is offensive. And like...I clicked it for the Malfoycest?? And I left with Snucius feels?? What the heck. Just ??? Brain melted, all I can say.

4.) Clip, Ravel, Cleave [fic, Andromeda/Bellatrix, Andromeda/Ted, E, 15k] by @vdoshu. It was hard to narrow it down to one doshu work because wow they've done the dang thing this year!!!! So much great variety, but this one really blew me away. However toxic and dark the sisters' relationship was, I was rooting for them and heartbroken for them. What a beautiful, dark, sad story.

5.) Wind and Cardamom [podfic, Angelina/Hermione, G, 5 minutes] by JocundaSykes (fic by Arsenic). All of Joc's podfics are truly so, so good. Her voice work is always amazing and I easily can (and have!) listened to her read all day. Nothing like having a good fic read to you while doing chores, let me tell you!

6.) Lover's Flight [poem, Snarry, T, 200] by PinaNaponi (@vulnerasanenturmyprince.) My dear Nina is another case of "stupidly talented friends" and "hard to narrow down", but since I've waxed poetic about some of her other works recently, and in other lists, I figured I'd shed some light on this lovely thing. It's an adaptation of Goethe's "Elf King."

7.) Compulsory Figures [fic, Snarry, 6] by @liladiurne. Listen, my lovely Lila has arguably "better" works, and more "literary" works, but...her smut speaks to me, okay? I read this and was like "Ooooh, Lila can be FILTHY." I'm obsessed with it. Even back when it was just an idea and she was brainstorming it, I was obsessed. In fact, I was grocery shopping with my partner and being useless because I couldn't stay away from our DMs talking about said idea! Then she actually wrote and posted the dang thing and !!!! Obsessed.

8.) Some morning cuddles and coffee [art, Linny] by @luendland. Lu's snarry art is great, but they also do other ships (and characters) too and equally as lovely!! This Linny one speaks to my heart. It's so warm and lovely and gives me all the feels. I do digging for it to fawn over fairly often!

9.) Alphard's Favourite [fic, Sirius/Peter, Sirius/Alphard, M, 4k] by @thistlecatfics. Another top tier fic from Blackcest Fest! Not a ship I ever had interest in but oh gosh. The complicated characterization of Peter, the screwy interactions between him and Sirius, the way Sirius acts out as a way of dealing with trauma. It's such difficult subject matter treated in such a realistic manner. Not "good", not "easy", not "romantic", just that gritty, awful realness of how trauma impacts us, and how we don't always handle it in perfect, ideal ways.

10.) Untitled Harrymort Art [art, Harrymort] by @mrviran. I have no words. This isn't even my ship. But good golly is this spicy hot!! The corset! The sweat! Voldemort's smug, amused, mischievous little grin! Those red eyes and the red string!!!! Wooooo boy.

11.) Death and the Snarry [art, Snarry] by @necromanticnoir. This is another case of "I expected one thing from this creator, but my top choice for them is another??" Great writer is Noir, but also artist???? Multi-talented folk are killing me, I stg. And like...I need more Snarry versions of Klimt works, truly. So gorgeous!

12.) even the stars admire you [art, Snarry] by @acydpop. Speaking of Snarry versions of Klimt, THIS GORGEOUS THING. I'm so obsessed. Look at those colors!! Look at that embrace!!! Oh geez, I'm having feelings.

13.) Tom Riddle: interview with @phantomato [podcast] by @fanficmaverickpodcast. ChaosBlue is a great host and listening to writer interviews is always such a treat! And hearing what Phantomato had to say here was super fascinating, and made me much more intrigued by the Tom Riddle/Voldemort character!

14.) Snape's Hungry for a Snaco...[podcast, Snaco] by @careofmagicalshippers. Every episode of this podcast is great. Megs and Nathan are charismatic, hilarious, passionate hosts and listening to them chat is always such a fun time. Even guest episodes, even when Megs or Nathan is out, they have such interesting people to talk to and such interesting ships to talk about. This Snaco episode in particular spoke to me! (Especially since they went into it intending to cover Snack, but moved onto Snaco fairly quickly...I don't blame them!)

15.) When the Rose and the Fire Are One [ficbinding, Snarry] by @witchyficbindery. The fic by perverse_idyll is just stunning, as all of her works are! I believe earlier this year I was chatting about how I'd love to have fics on my shelf and what I imagined they might look like. And I thought "this fic would have to be STUNNING, just visually stunning." And midway through this year, I saw this post about an actual ficbinding of this fic! And...I was correct. And completely blown away. This cover is more gorgeous than I could have imagined. All of witchyficbindery's bindings are so, so outstanding. I can't imagine how they do it! But this one is the clear standout to me.

16.) 22 femslash recs from 22 years [rec list] by @consistentsquash. Squash always has the best recs, I stg!! Writer crushes I've had, but reccer crushes?? Such good taste, and always such good things to say. And this list especially is great with lots of gems for wlw content!

17.) Traid/Threesome recs [rec list] by @sitp-recs. Liv is a Queen Reccer, truly! This one is especially nice with options for Drarry+ ships, and non-Drarry ships, and a few bonus moresome fics! Lots of good stuff on this list, and more for me to check out! (RIP my TBR, fr.)

18.) The Bravest Man [fan-comic, Snarry, T] by @ac1d6urn. Acid is such a very skilled creator, both as a writer and an artist! The story, the characterizations, the art...all so stunning and perfect!

19.) Snitches and Songs [fic, Snarry, E, 50k] by @lizzy0305. When I tell you how PUMPED I was to see when this story was posted. Lizzy fic? Check. Severus sings? Color me intrigued. 'Magical tattoos'? Sign me UP. Then...I spent ages waiting to read it because I'm weird and like to "save" things that I know are going to be good. And I was right to save it! (Also: I should have read it sooner!) (Please don't expect my brain to do logic, because it will not.) What a gorgeous and enjoyable love story this was! My plan is to give this one a reread soon, actually; with luck, in January! (And I'll have the time and energy to do so!)

20.) A Life Worth Remembering [Snarco, E, 22k] by @writcraft. When Writ first reached out to me, I had to be like "okay, self, be cool. Don't fangirl and scare them off, okay?" Turns out, Writ is a lovely human and hearing they were coming back to Snarry had me just plain ecstatic!! And while Snarco isn't always my jam, I did know how invested they were in writing it, and couldn't resist checking it out! And I'm so glad I did!! One, because Writ's work is always fantastic. Two, because...I was sold on Snarco???? Maybe???? Or as close as I get to being sold. Geez Louise. It's such an interesting tale of de-aged Snape, the memories he lost, the established Drarry, and how they all come together. Their dynamic as a triad, and the individual pairs that make it up (Drarry, Snarry, and Snaco), and the individual people are all so lovely and well done!!

21.) Obedience Lessons [Snarry, E, 7k] by @likelightinglass. Um, how many times have I read this story this year? Too many, probably. (Is there such a thing as too many? Who knows.) ANYWAY. A/B/O with Alpha Harry and Omega Snape???? Yes please and thank you. All the kink and spiciness that I love. 100% did it for me (multiple times.)

22.) The Afterlight [Snarry, E, WIP] by @perverse-idyll. Good golly. Can I tell you how overjoyed I was when PI first posted this???? New PI Snarry???? All of my hopes and dreams coming true, awesome. And it's only 4 chapters in (out of ????) and so far, so GREAT. Postwar, death themes, gritty realism, A+++ characterizations, dark and spicy Snarry dynamic!!!! I don't often read WIPs (my patience is nonexistent, and not knowing how things end is bad for my anxiety (let's please not talk about my undying love and need of spoilers)), but this is totally worth it. I'll wait forever and a day for this fic if I have to. PI has been among my favorite authors for YEARS and for good reason. Characterization and relationships always so on point and exactly what I want and need. Not to mention gorgeous, stunning, unforgettable prose. The words that strike right through the heart, and burrow in to live there forever. Genuinely, PI's work is always stellar, and I already feel in my bones this will be a favorite. It's already the WIP I most look forward to update emails for! (Not that I have many, in fairness.) (Again, I generally steer clear of WIPs; no offense WIP writers. It's for my own good, I swear!) Side note: PI is another excellent human who I so appreciate knowing. Thanks for always taking time to listen to my babbling, especially knowing how busy you always are!

[darkodomain]

one of the more obscure projects i’ve been working on (i think—i don’t know how well-versed the average internet user is in danny phantom fic)

PHANTOM OF TRUTH :: HAIJU

i tried a couple new techniques on this one bc it was a smaller project so i felt i had some room to play around and while it was an immensely frustrating time working on it, i’m not unhappy with the way it turned out <3

now onto shadow of a doubt, already typesetted and printed and ready to be bound!

[kulapti]

Aug 2023, bookbinding of The Silent Isle Imbowers by Tharkuun.

I’m sooo so so pleased to finally share this! I have been actively working on this for many months and waited until Tharkuun received her copy before posting so the final result would be a surprise.

-----------About this bookbinding under the cut

This binding has been one of the more elaborate pieces I have attempted so far. This has been my first binding where I (1) made three copies of a piece at once, (2) used a modified a historical illustration, (3) collaborated directly with another artist on the decorative elements, (4) finished matching art for the cover and title page, and (5) layered paint and heat-transfer vinyl for the covers. These are also (6) the first non-tiny books I have made with this style of hinge and cover attachment.

Pretty much immediately after I first read this story I felt I had to make myself a copy of this. I had a strong mental image of a vintage-looking cover for a fairy tale, with a deceptively simple design of flowers on the cover, probably with fancy metallic accents, the kind of thing you’d find in an interesting used bookstore with no summary, no text on the back, no dust jacket, just the flowers and maybe a title. I’m going to make a separate post about making this cover design a reality because oh man has it been a journey lol! I designed and drew the digital art for the cover (digital because of the cut and application method), as well as the corresponding title page illustration (pencil and dip pen, scanned, title added digitally).

When I asked Tharkuun about it she was excited to suggest I get in touch with quillingwords, who generously agreed to collaborate with me! Among her talents quilling writes calligraphy, and hand wrote both the book title and chapter headers for me to incorporate into my plans. Check OUT those chapter headers! So fancy! A font could never!! Quilling has also been very encouraging and let me yell about this project in dms for months so the final result could be a surprise for Tharkuun. Thank u so much quillingwords, your calligraphy adds invaluable amounts of swag to this project.

I was going to do some kinda neat font for the chapter headers, but quilling’s work is too cool for that and I decided to use a modified piece of a historical illustration instead. The illustration also happens to be cool as heck: I was browsing the Artstor database (an academic quality resource available for free via Jstor, my beloved) and found E. N. Neureuther's 1836 gorgeous etching for etching of the fairy tale Briar Rose, an illustration made for a printing of a Brothers Grimm recorded German fairy tale with Sleeping Beauty elements. Much to my delight this illustration not only matches the general look I wanted but is actually relevant to the story, itself a Sleeping Beauty spinoff.

Slightly less stylistically consistent are the endpapers, which are prints of two different paintings by Arnold Böcklin: Isle of the Dead (1883) in the front and Isle of Life (1888). The first painting had occurred to me as an excellent visual to go with the story, and Tharkuun and I discussed this and agreed that pairing it with the related later, more optimistic piece was too thematically appropriate to resist.

I had fun and learned a lot making these books and I am very pleased with the result!!

Materials: Archival bookboard, cardstock, cotton cheesecloth mull, archival PVA glue, linen thread coated in beeswax, paper cord, red cotton embroidery floss. Blue cotton backed with archival paper, acrylic paint, machine cut black and gold heat-transfer vinyl. Laser printed text and illustrations. Metallic scrapbooking paper.

[gargoyleandgremlinpress]

The Dragon by Mairead Triste and Aristide

My final book of Fanfic Writers' Appreciation Day! The Dragon by @the-cimmerians is a casefic horror slashfic (the m/m kind... but really, a bit of both) circa 1999, for the TV show The Sentinel, the origin of the Sentinel/Guide trope in fanfic.

In the late nineties, Sentinel was one of the ubiquitous slash fandoms, up there with due South, X-Files, and Highlander. I fully admit I have only ever seen the pilot and some fanvids, but I absorbed SO much canon and fanon from fic over the years.

At one point, I swear I had a printed, coil bound copy of The Dragon (like the one at the end of this post about Ghosts by Torch) so of course it needed to make its way onto my to-bind list. Gay pining, eventually requited! A serial killer! Folklore monsters!

This was a fun one to play around with some of the visual elements. Black and red and silver for the cover, and I am not sad that the edges got a bit drippy with the splattering. The endpapers are red lokta paper and I went through some contortions with trimming to keep the raw edges on the paper, for the VIBES. The batwing motif fits in with the folklore, and the handprints fit a very specific scene in the story. (THAT one. The under the bed one.) Plus, teeth.

I'm pretty happy overall with how it all came together, and fit with the overall mood and themes of the fic, and with being able to share some older fic and fandoms.

Happy FFWAD, Aristide!

[sits-bound]

Bound: Pucks and Recreation by @doggernaut

If you follow my main account, this might seem familiar. That’s because I released the podfic of this the other day. I felt bad for taking so long to finish it (it was for Fandom Trumps Hate) so I decided to send the author a bound copy of it as well. The USPS was uncommonly efficient and it made it to her in two days, so it’s a good thing I released the podfic when I did!

I’m really happy with how this came out. I have nothing to complain about. It definitely makes me want to stick to matte htv from now on, that’s for sure.

Body: Corundum Text

Titles: Franklin Gothic

Drop caps: Primot

Cover graphics: the Noun Project

Oh wait, I thought of one tiny thing I’d fix: when I initially printed it, I didn’t notice that the font I used for the section dividers (which were cute little hockey sticks) didn’t work for some reason, so I had to change to more generic section dividers. So if I could go back, I’d take the time to find a different hockey-related section divider instead.

So not a big deal AT ALL. Even I will concede that.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of Check Please or Parks and Rec (and especially if both!) read this delightful fic or give it a listen!

[etherati]

I'm so proud of this bind!

So this is What Light Tastes Like by AshesAndHoney, and it's just such an endearing, sincere, and sexy execution of the "they wander around the countryside dealing with ever increasing levels of sexual tension and accidental feelings, while figuring out how to put it all together" trope. Which, I gotta say, I love being in a fandom where that's a common trope because ❤️💛🩵

The cover is done entirely by sunprinting with cyanotype treated fabric-- no augmentation or editing whatsoever, entirely printed with the power of the sun. I've included some process pics for this one because I really wanted to show that off. It's also my first typeset using Affinity, which allowed me to do some really fun things with the chapter header pages.

Legal quarto with patterned endpapers from French. The titling font is Swingset BB, the window icons are from the font Nature Boho, sun dingbats from the font Cute Sun, full page spread graphic is a stock photo that was heavily edited, and headbands are sewn on.

Done in advance for Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day 2024, will be shipping second copy to the author as part of this event.

[hms-tardimpala]

Ficbinding: The Inexhaustible Silence of Houses by Askance

The fic: SPN, Castiel/Dean Winchester, T, 31.8k I've been trying to read more longfics* this year in order to get my brain used to reading again, and I've followed rec lists to do so. That means I'm only now discovering the big classics and popular authors of the fandom, and I'm having a great time. This fic is a beautifully crafted horror story that gripped me and that I didn't want to let go. I rarely read Cas POVs but this worked great on me. This story has everything that makes horror great: an unreliable narration, an oppressing atmosphere, and hints you catch too late.

*With my attention span, "longfic" starts at 25k words.

The bind: After several books that were a little complex or eccentric, I wanted to do something simple. I used my beautiful dark green cloth (my camera murdered the true color of it) because the story is set in a forested area. Dean and Cas settle in an old house, so it seemed fitting to use that magnificent magnolia endpaper that could be a wallpaper in a house like that. I used pale pink headbands and ribbon because 1) I've never used pink in a bind and 2) it's charming and I really wanted to represent that atmosphere of coziness the start of the fic has. Dean and Cas try to settle down and make a home of their own in the fic, and I thought that these colors would call to mind an old house fairly well.

I didn't use a lot of decorations this time, I kept the typesetting plain, like I imagine the books that Cas collects in the fic are. I put a house on the title page and a house in flames at the end of the book, iykyk. The only notable thing is that I used a serif font, which I wouldn't normally do for Supernatural. That's because most fics I read are in Dean's POV, and he's a sans serif guy, unlike Cas. Obviously. Anyway, I looked for the fonts that would be the easiest to read in a small book (A6 format, final size 12,6cm x 9,5cm).

Craft specifics to add?

Everything went very well this time except for the trimming of course. I think I played it too tight, I wanted to trim too little and the signatures twisted in the guillotine, so I ended up with an uneven textblock. I reprinted it all, trimmed by hand, sanded the edges (I'm still perfecting that technique) and I was good to go. There are little imperfections because I sanded before I sewed, but I like them.

I'm really proud of the spine, it ended up nice and round. I didn't let the glue dry for as long as usual before I took a hammer to the spine. Should do it again.

The corners are good and this cloth with paper backing took to the grey board like they were making love. It feels so tight and clean.

I used new tools I'm incredibly happy with: a rotary cutter and a quilting ruler.

Fonts: Optimus Princeps (title and author name), Garamond (chapter titles), Gentium Book Basic (text). All free on Dafont.

Materials: Green cloth from Schmedt, 2mm grey board, 80g/m² ivory-colored paper, synthetic bookmark and headbands. Endpaper from Schmedt.

Feel free to ask me more about materials and fonts (or whatever), it won’t bother me at all to tell you what I used, I just can't think of anything else right now.

[serpentsnestpress]

Finally remembering to share my binding of K'diwa: a Steamy Novel of Interspecies Romance by Jim Kirk, by @branwyn-says.

I'm really happy about the way this book came out; the spine rounded super nicely, and the matte gold HTV titles worked well with the Duo Polar to give it a very clean Science Division aesthetic.

I also worked really hard on an LCARS inspired typeset, making headers and footers to accommodate different sizes of text as the page and chapter numbers increased. The text is set in Liberation Serif, and titles and decorations are in Roddenberry and Swiss 911 Ultra Compressed.

I really enjoyed this fic, and I'm so glad I was able to do this and send an author copy!

[teleportbooks]

Ficbinding: Cut Him Out in Little Stars by @chaoticandrogynous

This has been possibly my favorite fic of the past year--in which Wei Wuxian is reborn as a comet. To paraphrase the comment I left when I first read it, it does such a good job conveying the enormous scale of both space and immortality. I never expected to have so many feelings about comets. And I found myself wanting to reread it almost immediately, which bumped it up in my bookbinding queue (...and then I didn't get to binding it until a year after I typeset it, but such is life).

The details: I had some beautiful galaxy paper from a scrapbook paper pack I'd been hoarding, which I knew I wanted to use for the cover. However, this particular paper pack isn't in print anymore and I needed to make two copies, so the two books ended up having slightly different designs.

The title font is "Tycho's Elegy" which is based on the handwriting of Tycho Brahe, who is not referenced given a very minor offhand mention in this fic so ... close enough? At any rate I think it's a beautiful font. I found some old astronomy drawings and modified them to use for the title page and chapter headings.

The endpapers are a really cool paper where the pattern is actually made from different colors of paper fiber, rather than being a printed pattern. And as I've been having fun with edge foiling I decided to go ahead and add a star patterned holographic edge. I did a foil title on the front cover, but my foil quill wasn't cooperating with the bookcloth I used, so the spine title is iron-on vinyl.

Usually I sew my books with white thread but this time I used purple (and in a case of 'this probably amuses me and no one else,' it appears every 24 pages, -- again, close enough? it had to be a multiple of 4 lol).

[creativelyunori]

The next binding project has begun and it’s already going wrong,,,

[wordsintimeandspace]

Two more books, this time for the Third Law Of Fluff series by The_Lonely_has_always_had_me. The first book collects the first two stories, The Morning After and The Night Before, while the second book contains the third story, The First Date. I love this series so much and I'm really happy with how this turned out!

I have a whole block of foiled paper in different patterns so I tried that for covers for the first time. It was a bit of a pain because of the thickness, but I'm very pleased with the result so I will definitely use more of it.

[ohmightydevviepuu]

fanbinding: a fate woven in thread and ink

the story: A Fate Woven in Thread and Ink by @shireness-says, written for the Captain Swan Supernatural Summer @cssns in 2021 and finished earlier this summer. AU inspired by The Night Circus.

the art: by @eirabach, a true gift and friend. two of her pieces are spotlighted on the covers and each chapter has an art piece designed for it specifically. covered in lustre 220gsm cardstock. tarot images composited by me from stock at iStock. the rings and charm are inspired by scenes from the story.

the book: sewn boards sewn with orange DMC floss in a french link. tissue endpapers crinkled to look like flames (oh, the pain i went through pasting these endpapers. do not ever ask me how many times i had to re-paste them). printed on the church paper bookbinder's special. printed and bound for Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day 2023 (lovingly)

[nocturnus33]

The meaning of dandelions, by Endrina. This is the second volume of "The Secret Language of Plants".

As with most of my bindings, this book is "not perfct" at all, yet it joins my bibliographic collection of beloved imperfections. I like how it turned out despite everything.

This tome is full of errors due to my lack of concentration. I think I should change the name of this blog to "Adventures of an ADD fic binder". As some of my worst ADD days, yesterday wasn't the best day for me to try anything! The thing is, I had a great time binding this weekend, so no amount of mistakes will take that away. I still like my little green book.

Unlike volume 1, this time I remembered to put the headbands, yet I forgot the bookmark. More importantly, I got the series name wrong on the spine!

What I like?

I like the green cover, and how it looks next to its companion, the yellow tome. Likewise, the little dandelion seed on the back cover really charms me.

What could I have done better?

Apart from placing the correct title of the series?, I could have transferred the HTV with less temperature. There are plate marks on the cover.

I should have added the endpapers - I had them ready and forgot!

Plus, add the bookmark.

For those with little experience in fandom, this fantastic fic can be read for free on AO3. Just remember to leave a constructive comment for the author.

 @llendrinall 

[kulapti]

Bookbinding of A Wizard's Devotional by @polymathema, March-July 2023.

A Wizard’s Devotional (Fantastic Beasts, Percival Graves x Credence Barebone) is about recovery from depression, some magic politics drama, and the complex experience of navigating whether and how to practice Christianity as a queer person especially if your religion was weaponized against you. Fics about Credence often touch on this, but most of the time religion is either mentioned extremely briefly or the character immediately and aggressively rejects his religious background. Those choices are good interpretive options that have their place. However, AWD leans in to a space where many queer Christians find themselves as young adults. I appreciate polymathema's compassion for this character and the many contradictions between his upbringing and experiences. I also recommend this work for gay yearning and nuanced approach to characters dealing with depression.

— About this project under the cut

I’m very excited to show off this binding now that I have mailed a copy to the author! Huge shoutout to polymathema for answering my questions, he was very nice when I (a random internet stranger) asked him stuff about a fic from years ago.

This binding one of a nearly identical pair I made, and part of my ongoing project where I plan to make four matching bindings of my favorite fics from the Fantastic Beasts fandom. My personal copy is pretty much the same except for the spine decorations. I’ll post more photos when the set of four is done! To be clear this is the copy I mailed to polymathema; whenever I make a ficbinding, I try to contact the author and offer to make them a copy as well.

Can you even imagine my delight when I found obscurus lookin fabric!! The resale store had a lot of colors but for this particular piece I wanted the codex (physical book; the actual “book” is the text) to look somewhat like a religious text considering its themes, so I went for the subtler, not quite subdued navy as opposed to a brighter blue or purple option.

Materials: Textblock is archival paper, laser printed text, scrapbooking cardstock endpapers, with linen and beeswax stitching, reinforced with cotton cheesecloth as mull. Sewn endbands are cotton embroidery floss. Covers are Italian rayon bookcloth (spine) and hand-dyed cotton batik backed with handmade wood pulp paper (ink-like cover pattern). Cover lettering is machine-cut metallic heat transfer vinyl. The case is constructed of archival bookboard, handmade wood-paper, cotton rag paper, and PVA craft glue.

[gargoyleandgremlinpress]

I'm declaring it the week of the pamphlet bind, because this is the second of three I've got in my backlogged queue of fanbinds to share.

Sometimes, a vaguely ridiculous idea gets ahold of you and won't let go.

When I discovered that there were not one, but TWO short MDZS modern AU fic with the incredibly specific meet-cute premise of "character A encounters a swarm of bees, and character B is the beekeeper who rescues them," I decided I needed to bind them. Together. And they were both short, so a quick pamphlet bind was the perfect solution.

I think I did this two summers ago, and would probably do a bit better with the text placement on the cover now, but I stand behind all the bee theming in the typeset unreservedly.

There must be something about the Twin Jades of Lan that not one, but TWO authors looked at them and said, you know what? Beekeeper.

So here we have, both with awesome titles, Save the Bees (Ride a Beekeeper) by @ariaste and Covered in Bees by @scarlettohairdye.

Public domain images, cardstock cover, sewn with some orange crochet cotton, because god knows I have enough random thread around. To make up for the disreputable cookie sheet used for an atmospheric industrial space background in my last post, this one is photographed on the orange and yellow stripes of a rainbow plain-weave tablerunner I wove out of the accumulated scrap basket at the weavers' guild.

And lovely authors, if either one of you would like a copy, I would be happy to make you one, or share the digital files with you.

[dagonetsclippedthreads]

Binding of See Me Once, See The Way I Feel by the gifted @elrhiarhodan!

A binding to fit a work about people brought together by the legacy of entomologist Adalbert Seitz. Green three quarter leather binding, marbled endpapers, and tipped in copies of Seitz' butterfly plates, all based on different editions of his books on macrolepidoptera.

I’m really enjoying binding as a method of celebrating and validating transformative works as well as a pro-community gesture. In keeping with that idea, I’m happy to make the author a copy at no cost for themselves if they’d like one. Thanks!