#renegade exchange

[little-cat-press]

Trying To Communicate by @copperbadge for @saltyteethbooks for the @renegadepublishing mini book bang!

@saltyteethbooks did the typeset, and I bound it, and sent it over to them.

I'm supposed to make myself a copy too, but stuff happened and I wasn't able to bookbind for like half a month, after procrastinating the first half of the month, and I finished this copy on the last day before we were supposed to get them in the mail.

So.

I'll make my copy later.

It was fun making a sextodecimal book! It's a cute little size, and I'll probably make some more after this. This one might be a little bit of an odd size, because it's typeset for A4 paper, but I shrank it a little to print on Letter instead, and then the printer shrank it a little more because it likes to add margins.

So it's got A proportions, but is a little bit smaller.

The title is done with a new gold paint I got recently! Nice and shiny, and I only had to use one coat plus a few small touchups in spots.

[zhalfirin]

Bionic Battle Granny - ozhawk

These books were part of the Renegady Publishing Tiny Books Bang 2023 event

The typeset was provided by @claudeng80 The story was written by @ozhawkauthor, check out their work!

Full leather binding with leather onlays in clamshell box. case materials binders board 1,5 (case) different leathers, goatskin, (covering material) heat reactive foil, blue (hot stamped title) blind tooled author name

inner book Munken polar 100gsm (book body) @renato-crepaldi marbled paper (endpapers) wibalin (second fly leaf, tipped on the first) button hole silk (endbands)

clamshell box binders board 1 and 1,5 (boxes and case) uncoated blue book cloth (covering material case) @renato-crepaldi marbled paper (covering material boxes) heat reactive foil, cream (hot stamped title)

[little-cat-press]

They look absolutely fabulous! Good job.

It was designed for letter, yeah, and also to be printed a size smaller... they were intended for 32-mo, or L9 as I've been calling them (roughly the same size as A9, just with half-letter proportions rather than A series)

The margins were probably also affected by the fact I made them larger to accommodate trimming xD

but honestly, wide margins on a small book absolutely don't hurt. You get extra space to touch while turning the page!

... this reminds me, I meant to make some posts about the books I received in the mini book bang, and forgot to do so. I should do that...

Empty Graves by @unpretty and Empty Spaces (waves and particles) by kathkin

I participated in @renegadepublishing’s tiny book bang last year, and as participant I got access to all the typesets from the event. I saved the ones I thought I’d want to do, and yesterday I looked through that folder, spotted two fics with the word ‘empty’ in the title and thought “oh neat, i know and like these fics, and I can make matching-but-not-same binds for them”. I was delighted to re-discover that they were typeset by the same person, @little-cat-press, so I went ahead with the matchy idea.

Empty Graves is a Superman fic from the POV of Martha Kent, and just so happens to be one of my faves in unpretty’s sprawling series. I chose the marbled cover paper because it evokes stars and galaxies and space for me. The fic is very contained, localised - the Kent farm - but high stakes; Martha will protect her son from the universe if she has to (and she does), because her family is her universe. I liked the idea of wrapping this small-but-big fic in something that resembles the vastness of space. The spine is green to match the hints of green colour on the otherwise dark marble.

Empty Spaces is a Back to the Future fic from Doc Brown’s POV, and featuring transmasc Marty McFly. The Back to the Future movies are foundational to me, and this fic is simply wonderful, highlighting the unique friendship between Marty and Doc. For this I knew I wanted something that evokes time travel, and wound up with this section of a larger marbled pattern that resembles the sci-fi woosh of time (and space) travel. This spine is blue to match the hint of blue visible alongside the green.

Both marbled papers are from Jemma Lewis Marbling & Design. The insides are printed on 90gsm Munken Pure Smooth Cream. These are self-ended, so no endpapers. The bookcloth is sourced from Ratchford but I don’t know which brand it is.

These are A8 sized (printed on A4) - I believe the typesets are intended for letter sized paper, but as I’m not in the US A-series it is. This prints fine on A4. The margins to the sides are slightly wider than originally intended, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue here.

[wild-woofs-press]

For the 2023 Renegade Bound Fic Exchange (cc: @renegadepublishing).

Fic: Play It Again by metisket Words: 63,206

fonts title: Bebas author name: Amiline body: Cochineal

bookcloth: duo flieder • endpapers • htv: siser infinite galaxy

[finalfrontierpublishing]

For Gladness of You by kariye

tis I, emerging from the depths to release a book into the wild -- ok, no i am lying i sent this book out in April (which was late, terrible of me)

In March 2024, I participated in the @renegadeguild California Mini-Exchange (CAME). as some people might know - i am one of the original interlopers in the server granted i don't actually live in california, but i was promoted to Asia Ambassador status when i visited last year in July.

For the exchange, I very gloriously got @mourningmountainsbindery as my partner for the exchange who i was excited to bind for, but I struggled a little in making this book as my house has been in a state of perpetual crisis until I officially move in November end of this year. This is sadly put my bookbinding on a backburner and I have been rather slow at it (my pace so far has been something like 3 books over 6 months, which is terrible).

Ultimately, I selected the fic because it's one of my favourites in the AOS fandom, and I love its use of non-linear storytelling.

Some stats as usual:

51055 words || 164 pages

body text: liberation serif 11 point

i had previously typeset this fic in word last year and I had really wanted to update the cover design. i've been leaning more into using paper and fabrics to tell a story, and i liked being able to use the different coloured papers to represent the coloured stones featured in the fic. I also painted the edges with liquid graphite, waxed and burnished them to make them shiny. i did a (largely failed) experiment to speckle the edges but mostly gave up as it was too messy to really do indoors. Some papers are from mamor papierie, and another is obtained from a marbler in India from etsy.

Endbands are made of silk, though i'd probably lean into thinner silk for smaller books in the future.

This book also features the second cut-out i've ever made, which i abused my cricut into doing it for me. Guess who found out that it's almost impossible to centralize the cut if you've precut the board already to size.

(Me, that's who.)

Despite the whinging, I do like how cut-outs work and will probably use them more in the future.

Anyway I CAME!!!!!

[gargoyleandgremlinpress]

Renegade 2023 Bound Exchange: i like you very much, just as you are by sweaters_in_the_summer

Ahhhh, somehow I missed posting this one back in January! My recipient for the annual @renegadepublishing bound exchange this year was @sits-bound, which gave me the chance to explore some new Schitt's Creek fic. When I realized that she had requested one of her own fic, and it was a cute Bridget Jones's Diary AU that would fit into a cute little half-sized book... well then. Choices were made.

The bookcloth is the lamented (discontinued) Colibri in Velvet Rose, endpapers are from my wife's gel plate printing art stash. I leaned into the 2000's era hearts and swoopy font look to go with the AU concept.

Title and spine are acrylic paint with a Cricut stencil, edges splattered with acrylic paint, and endbands sewn with embroidery floss and some stray bits of weaving cotton. Unlike my other bind for sits-bound, there were no dramatic disasters, and it made it safely to its new home with no major surgery required!

[little-cat-press]

it really is a gorgeous little book, and I love the netting. It ties in especially well with the fact that much of the story revolves around merman Virgil being tangled in a fishing net!

I'll add some typeset pictures in a bit

This is the first of two books I bound for @renegadeguild's Tiny Books Bang.

The story is (don't) take this the wrong way by @delimeful and was typeset by @little-cat-press for the Tiny Books Bang. It's a mermaid AU of Sanders Sides (Web Series), which I had never actually heard of before. But when I saw that it was a merperson AU, this idea popped into my head and I knew I had to try it, especially after I read the story and really enjoyed it.

The inspiration is medieval girdle books, which are books whose covering material (typically leather) extended past the book to a knot that was both used as a handle when reading the book and could be tucked into the girdle when the book was not in use, thus the name.

Where my book is much smaller (it's a sextodecimo, about 2.25" by 2.75") it isn't designed to tuck into a belt/girdle, but rather is attached to a bracelet and dangles from the wrist when not in use.

When I think of mermaids, some things that come to mind are fish, treasure, and tridents, and I wanted to incorporate all three in the design. The book is covered in blue bookcloth, and then covered again in crocheted netting that was meant to bring to mind fishnets. I crocheted the netting from cotton-poly sewing thread doubled up. I incorporated a trident into the filet crochet, which is repeated on both the front and back covers. I blocked it on a piece of blotting...board? paper? It's soft and thick and meant to absorb moisture and came with my book press that started life as a flower press.

I then sewed the netting to the bookcloth covering the boards with teeny tiny stitches. It probably took twice as long to crochet the netting as it did to the rest of the binding combined, but I really like how it turned out.

The bracelet I picked to attach the netting to is gold-colored to invoke the idea of sunken treasure. Rather than attaching the netting from one end to the other, I folded both ends to the middle and attached it like that so when you have the book open it lays more nicely.

The design of the endpapers looks like looped thread, and also reminds me of netting. I secured the bookmark to the bottom of the text block and let it hang from the top, which works better when the book is hanging from the wrist and doesn't get caught in the netting. I also sewed a little starfish charm to the end of the bookmark.

Technical details:

Sewn-on endpapers

Rounded but not backed

No headbands (I think I intended to, but forgot and then decided it didn't matter enough to try to pull the cover back off)

Things I liked about this bind:

I really like the girdle-book-on-a-bracelet design, it came out almost exactly how I had envisioned it.

Things I'd like to change/improve for next time:

I wasn't 100% pleased with how trimming went on these. It wasn't terrible, but I probably need to come up with a different solution than just a utility knife and a straight edge.

Crocheting the netting really did take so long. I'm not even done with the netting that's going on my copy yet, which is why all the pics are from the typesetter's copy. Probably would not want to do netting for anything larger than this one was.

Overall feels: Loved it! I enjoyed the story, the design came out pretty much exactly how I envisioned it, overall I'm well pleased.

[celestial-sphere-press]

Fanbinding: Royal Flush by astolat

Robb Stark had swept his entire hand of cards off the table, and Tyrion couldn’t see how to make a single play at all.

Its been a long time coming but I am very happy to show off one of the books I made for the annual Renegade Exchange! My giftee was @pleasantboatpress, and when I saw they had Royal Flush on their request list I knew *immediately* which fic I was going to bind. I had IDEAS. And then I got a little overambitious about it.

For this project, I was determined to use leather for the first time (this one uses bonded leather). I wanted full frame gold tooling. I wanted raised cords. I wanted fancy dropcaps. I sewed endbands myself for the first time. and I had a VERY SPECIFIC in my head that then demanded I draw my own art for the cover.

Truly, I love this story lots and I know manda does too! I was so excited to make a book from a story we both went crazy over.

@astolat if you would like a copy, let me know! I would be happy to make one. Thank you so much for the wonderful story!

[cmdonovann]

more books from the renegade exchange! this one was actually meant to just be for the typesetting exchange, but i wanted to make myself a copy too, and ended up doing an extra just in case the author wanted one as well >w< it's something smart to do, on ao3 here

this was actually the first typeset i started working on for the exchange, so it's a little rougher formatting-wise than the others, but i learned a TON from it!! so its fine lol

[teaauntybinding]

The bonus book I made my giftee. Thank you Speranza for letting me bind your amazing story.

[imaginariumpress]

Finally uploading pictures of the books I made for the Fourth Annual Renegade Bindery Exchange! I'm really happy with how they turned out, and my giftee @robins-egg-bindery loved them!

The first is a compilation of the Teen Wolf fanfic series where thou art, that is home by @shanastoryteller. It's done in black goat leather from Siegel, and I used Cricut foil HTV on the cover. The title page was made in Canva because I have zero actual art skills.

The second was another fanfic series compilation, The Unicorn Frappuccino AU by @theplatinthehat, a Doctor Who/Good Omens crossover. The bookcloth is homemade using batik fabric from Joann, and the stickers and author name on the spine were once again done using Cricut, as was the wavy edge of the blue cloth. I forgot to take pictures of the inside before sending it off, but @quandtuniverse was kind enough to give me permission to use their artwork for the second fic:

This whole event was super fun, and I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it! I can't wait to do more events this year!

[little-cat-press]

Ta-da! The set is complete!

Three copies of @nightmares06 and @neonthewrite's Bigfoot's a Hoax! One for me, and one each for the authors.

For the moment, they're all tucked into my bookcase, but soon they shall be on their way to their authors' bookshelves!

Neon will also be receiving the original painting from which the covers were made. I figured that since it's mostly a painting of her character Jacob, I'd give her first dibs if she'd like to have it, and she said she would.

As I mentioned in my post about the first copy, the typeset for this book was done by a fellow Renegade member, for the 2022 typeset exchange. Ruby did a fabulous job with the typesetting, and I particularly love the accent font she picked for the dropcaps.

[underlined-fires]

This is My Beloved Monster, the first book I made for the 2022 @renegadepublishing exchange, for Bladespark, who's also the author! It's a Hades (the game) Ares/Thanathos fanfic. It's so good, so please check it out!

I had so much fun with the typesetting and the case building! I just love doing cutouts. (layers! textures! it's fun) The title and cover ornaments are painted on, because I don't own a cutting machine and I was afraid foil wouldn't look good on a larger surface. (I usually get little blank spots when using foil)

[epitomereally]

Renegade Winter Exchange 2022, part 2/2: You Open Always (Petal by Petal) by birdsofshore

Harry’s not the kind of person who pays for sex. He really isn’t. Until he is.

Thoughts, details, and description behind the cut. The other book I bound for the exchange is here.

For the first book I bound @queercore-curriculum, I wanted to make a book that fit well on their shelf. For this one, I instead went full maximalism & made something totally different than what they make themselves—that’s part of the thrill of an exchange, I think (though it was a risk & I hope you like it!!!)

You Open Always (Petal by Petal) features an extremely hot sex worker Draco, an extremely thirsty Harry, the hottest sex you’ll ever read probably, one of my favorite depictions of a sly Kreacher, and a Grimmauld Place that really, really wants Harry and Draco to get together. It’s one of my favorite fics of all time & I’m so happy to have a copy on my bookshelf too now. In the design, I wanted to mimic Grimmauld Place throwing courting & marriage, etc items at Harry & Draco, so every chapter header has a different illustration of something I could imagine Grimmauld giving them: two birds, figs, strawberries, grapes, etc & led to me asking my partner things like: do you think of pomegranates as a sexual fruit? (The answer is yes). 

For the bind, I made a flat-back oxford hollow. Also inspired by @queercore-curriculum I hand-dyed linen & painted a pair of thrushes on the front and back cover, as well as painting the title on the spine (note: this is the single thing I am most proud of for this bind—I was so nervous the entire time painting). The headband is a front-bead double-color headband with peach and chartreuse. Hope you like both binds, @queercore-curriculum; it was so fun making them for you! Birds, if you’d ever like an author copy of this bind, let me know & I am happy to make and send one to you :) thank you for sharing this lovely fic with our fandom!

Title font: Sabbath Black

Body text: Monarcha

Ornaments: Penmanship Birds

Half-title & chapter numbers: Foglihten

Interior illustration: Heritage Type Co free illustrations

Some notes on process: I always make a ‘test book’ that I keep before sending out a copy to someone else—this is to make sure everything works well & looks good together (which you can see in the photos). The original dye of the linen for the bookcloth turned out a much hotter pink than I intended, so the copy I sent went back in the dying bucket for a more raspberry finish. I also changed endpapers between the test copy & the sent copy. I originally wanted a solid color endpaper because the rest of the book was so maximalist, but didn’t love any of the colors at my local paper store. I do really like the marbled endpaper I chose instead, but it was too thin for a good endpaper & I didn’t want to faff about with creating made endpapers, so I found a solid color I liked at a different art store :)

[three--rings]

The second project I did for the Renegade Bindery Holiday Exchange is Against Expectations by @summerofspock​  illustrations by Blue Sparkle aka @asparklethatisblue​

This is a Regency era human AU Good Omens fic in which Aziraphale is female and Crowley is genderqueer and they enter an arranged marriage.  It’s really delightful and so is the EXTENSIVE (multiple per chapter) art that accompanies it.

I wanted to keep the look of this one classic and pseudo-period looking.

 As gardening and flowers are a big theme in the fic I used floral flourishes in the text and the binding itself.  The covers are Italian print with a classic looking plants and birds design, while the endpages are Italian print of horticultural illustration. 

 Originally I intended to use faux leather bookcloth for the spine, but then realized I had JUST enough real leather left from my previous leather bound project to use it.  Which means I only had one shot at doing the title with my heat foil quill pen and thank god ended up happy with it.  I didn’t leave quite enough gap between spine and boards so it’s a little stiff but couldn’t redo it.

 In fact, this whole project was a one shot deal because I had to print the color pages at a copy shop so any flaws in the textblock I just had to live with. (and there are definitely flaws!)

Overall, despite a few flaws (moisture! woes) I’m fairly happy with it. 

[wild-woofs-press]

For the 2023 Renegade Bound Fic Exchange (cc: @renegadepublishing).

Fic: My Heart Will Be Your Home by dr_girlfriend (cc: @drgrlfriend) Words: 49,220

fonts title/chapter titles: 56th Street author name: Arkipelago body: Petrona

bookcloth: arrestox eggplant • endpapers