#the covers are glued down construction paper

[necrobividity]

made myself a new artbook out of old aldi bags. hoping to make some art that's as fun and experimental as the book itself

[space-station-nursery]

◜ 👻 𓂃 Cottonball Ghosts! ‧ 🏚️◞

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

Hello Space Cadets! Todays text post is being replaced by a craft!! im gonna teach you silly guys how to make Cottonball Ghosts !

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

Materials you'll need:

A ghost cutout! [you can either print one and cut it out, or just draw your ghost on your paper!]

Elmer's liquid school glue

Cotton balls

Any color construction paper

Safety Scissors! [make sure you are being careful if doing this alone with big kid scissors, don't want any accidental cuts to little fingers!]

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

Step by step, what to do next:

⧼ 1 ⧽ Cut out and glue or draw your ghost on your page [remember, it doesn't need to be perfect!]

⧼ 2 ⧽ Take your cotton balls and begin to glue these over the outline of your ghost, leaving a little bit of space between the cotton balls to give it a fluffy look!

⧼ 3 ⧽ Keep gluing cottonballs until your ghost is completely covered!

⧼ 4 ⧽ After all cotton balls have been glued down, take some construction paper, and cut out a few shapes for your eyes and mouth

⧼ 5 ⧽ Take Your brand new mouth and eyes, and glue them on onto your ghost to make a face!

⁺　　◍ 　 . 　 ⁺　　☆　　⁺ 　 . 　 ◍　　⁺

And you're done!

Congrats little one, you have a cute little ghost decoration you can hang up on the wall! You can even take some string and punch a few holes on your paper to hang them up from the celling or from doorknobs!

18+ blogs // DD!LG, AB!DL and variants [even "SFW"] // 27 and older // DNI

[crazyunsexycool]

My Little Love

Chapter 27

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x enhanced!Reader

Word count: 3.1k

Warnings: Fluff, angst, explosion, implied character deaths

A/N: So here we go!!!

Series Masterlist

With a deep breath and a small stretch you begin to wake up. You smile when you realize that Bucky is still laying next to you. It’s a small comfort knowing he’s getting his much deserved rest since he tends to be awake earlier than you. Turning your head you take in his muscular back. It’s riddled with scars, scars that you’ve kissed many times already and will again. You shift slowly so as to not wake him and drape your arm around his midsection. Many nights it was Bucky pulling you into his chest and making you feel safe, at this moment you get to do the same. It makes you smile and you can’t help but lean forward and kiss his left shoulder blade. One kiss turned into two and then three and so on. By now you knew Bucky was awake but he stayed still as he accepted your affection.

“Good morning, baby.” You whisper into his ear. 

Bucky turns his head to look at you with a lazy smile and sleepy eyes. He was beautiful and all yours. 

“It’s a great morning, Sugar.” 

Bucky turns in bed and lays on his back. You take the opportunity to straddle him and lean down to give him a quick kiss. 

“I have a date planned for us today.” Bucky says when you pull back. 

“Really?”

“Yup. Just the two of us.” 

“Have you informed our daughter? You know she’ll want to go with us.” 

“I did talk to her about it. She did pout but she knows it’s a surprise so she’s ok.” Bucky chuckles as his hands slip under your sleep shirt. 

“Let’s get up, old man, before those two can wreak havoc on the compound.” 

“Give me five more minutes with you just like this.” 

“Just five?”

“Fine,” Bucky rolled his eyes. “Ten.” 

“Happily.” 

****

“Uppies.” Lottie says with a yawn, it’s still early and you’re surprised to see her awake. 

With her hair sticking up in all directions and her purple princess footed-pajamas still on Lottie clings to Bucky. Hiding away from the light by sticking her face into the space between his shoulder and neck she holds onto her pink teddy bear. You wave Bucky over to the couch since he won’t be able to do much now that Lottie has decided to fall back asleep. You smile as you watch Bucky smooth out her hair as he sits down and gets comfortable. 

“Morning mama.” Henry walks into the kitchen. He’s still sleepy too but he smiles in your direction as he holds up a hair tie. “Can you help me?”

You grab it and pull his hair up into a manbun. 

“Have you thought about getting a haircut?” 

“No, I don’t want it short.” Henry covers his head with his arms. 

“It was just a suggestion, sweet boy. I won’t make you do something you don’t want.” You kiss the top of his head. “You know your dad had long hair too and he looked very handsome with it.” 

“Do I look handsome with it?”

“So handsome. Now why don’t you go cuddle up with dad and Lottie on the couch.” 

“Ok.” Henry smiles and gives you a hug before he walks away while you work on breakfast.

“Hi Buce.” 

“Hello Charlotte, how are you today?” Bruce asked as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. 

“Am good. Can habe uppies?” 

Charlotte stopped right in front of Bruce, her hands busy with a paper plate while you trailed behind her. He picks her up and sets her down on one of the free spaces of his table. 

“Habe pwesent Buce.” 

“You do? Who’s it for?” 

“Fo’ you.” She holds up the paper plate full of glued down dried macaroni pieces and painted cotton balls all laid down to look like him. You even helped her make the frame for his glasses out of construction paper.

“Is this me?” 

“Yup.” 

You chuckle as Bruce holds it up beside his face and asks if he and the macaroni art look alike. Charlotte giggles and nods happily.

“We’ve been playing around with different arts and crafts.” 

“Habe this too.” Lottie holds up a bracelet made of green beads. 

“Well this is so nice of you Charlotte. Thank you.” 

“Now that we are done with the gift giving, here are my files that you needed.” 

“Thanks. I’ll get them back to you as soon as I can. I also have those reports on those people that received the same shot you did. If you can look at them and give me your opinion, that would be great.” You nod while he pulls out two lollipops from his lab coat pocket. Something you realize he started doing recently. “And this is for you and your brother, Charlotte.” 

“Wook mama.”  Lottie holds up both lollipops. 

“I see that. It was very nice of uncle Bruce, can you say thank you?”

“Oh, Tank you Buce.”  

“You are very welcome.” 

“I’ll see you later Bruce.”

“Bye-bye Buce.” 

“Bye, Charlotte.” Bruce says as he sets her back on the floor.

****

“Here are the reports you needed.” Bucky holds up a stack of files and places them on Steve’s desk. 

“Thanks. Is everything ok?” 

“Yeah.” Bucky nods but then sits down on one of the chairs across from Steve’s desk. Henry takes the other one but is distracted playing with Alpine. “I’m taking Y/N out on a date tonight.” 

“Nice, want me to watch the kids?”

“Nat volunteered, said something about you hogging up their time.” Bucky shrugs. “But I’m kind of nervous.”

“Nervous about what?”

“Steve, it's the date.”

“Oh. Wow ok so it’s happening tonight. When you come back you’ll be an engaged man.” Steve says with a grin. “This is great.”

“You don’t know that. Y/N could say no.”

Henry scoffs. “Please, mama would never say no to you.” 

“I second that. I know she won’t say no, she loves you way too much.” 

“Mama talks about how much she loves you all the time.”

Bucky nods slowly and takes a deep breath. It’ll be easy. All he has to do is ask a simple question. Although the thought of being rejected is really making him have second thoughts. It’s not about the rejection but the person doing it. He really can’t see his life without you now and he wants to give you the perfect evening and end it with the perfect proposal. Something small and intimate, just the two of you.

You were standing in the living room waiting for Bucky and saying your goodnights to the kids. Charlotte was giggling as she clung to you like a koala.

“Are you going to be good for auntie Nat?” You ask while smoothing out her hair. 

“Am good mama.” 

“What about you mister?” 

“Yup.”  Henry said between taking sips of his juice box. “You look pretty in your dress mama.” 

“Thank you sweet boy. I just had to wear the dress you got me.” 

“Yeah, so pwetty mama. Wike a pwincess.” 

“Do you think daddy will think I look pretty?” 

“Stunning, beautiful, gorgeous, bewitching. Should I go on?” Bucky says from the door with a fond smile. He closes the distance and wraps his arms around you and Charlotte, who is now sandwiched between you.

She giggles as she looks up at both of you. 

“Dada am here.” 

“I didn’t see you there, doll.” 

Charlotte giggles some more before Bucky scoops her up. He peppers her cheeks with kisses and sets her down on the couch next to Henry and then places a kiss on Henry’s head. 

“We have to go or we’ll be late to our reservations.” 

“Ok well, have fun kids.” You wave at them as Nat walks in. “Thanks for watching them.”

“You’re welcome. Now go and have your own fun.” 

Bucky drove you into the heart of the city. He was nervous, you could tell but you didn’t know why. Still he’d look over at you every few minutes and flash you his most charming smile. It wasn’t until you got to your destination that you knew something was up. Getting reservations at one of the most exclusive restaurants in the most exclusive hotel in New York City was no easy feat. 

Bucky parks at the entrance and jumps out of the car to open your door. You admired how handsome he looked in his all black suit and t-shirt combo. He holds his hand out to help you up and out of the car and then offers you his arm. 

“How did you manage reservations here?” 

“Had a little help.” He winks as you walk toward the elevator to the top floor. 

****

The view of the city was spectacular from the top floor where the restaurant was. The hostess led you from the entrance off to the left and onto a private balcony. There was only one table at the center and a bar at the end. Bucky pulls a chair out for you and a server is there in an instant to take your drink order. 

“This is beautiful.” You murmur as you look out over the city.

“You’re beautiful.” 

Bucky takes one of your hands over the table. His cheeks are tinted pink as he looks at you. You squeeze his hand to reassure him everything was ok even though you were trying to figure out why he was acting the way he was. 

“Y/N, I-“ Bucky’s cut off by the ringing of both of your phones. 

“Maybe it’s the kids.” You say as you fish yours out of your purse. 

Bucky mutters a curse in Russian and grabs his phone. He stands and walks away to a corner so you won’t hear his conversation.

“Hey Nat, is everything ok?” You answer your phone.

“So sorry to ruin the date but we need you both back here immediately.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s a mission, can’t say more.”

“Fine, we'll be there as soon as possible.” You look up at Bucky just as he turns to look at you. He frowns and hangs up the call.

“Sorry Sugar, guess we’ll have to reschedule the date.” 

“It’s ok.” You say as you take his hand and start walking back toward the elevator. You wrap your arms around Bucky’s midsection and rest your head against his chest. “Don’t be upset.” 

“I just wanted tonight to be special. I even had a room reserved for us.” 

You pull back to look at him. 

“Oh really?” You give him a mischievous smirk. 

“Mmhmm. I wanted you all to myself tonight.”

“We will definitely reschedule then.”

Bucky smiles and kisses you. He feels like the ring is burning a hole in his pocket. Maybe he should have asked you right before leaving the restaurant anyway. 

Everyone was already in the conference room when you walked in. Lottie and Henry were in a corner with noise canceling headphones and tablets unaware of what was going on. 

“Sorry for ruining your date guys.” Steve gives you an apologetic smile. “But trust me you’ll want to be here for this.” 

“What’s going on?” 

“As you know since the moment we found Charlotte and then Henry, Hydra has been trying to get them back. That included the trap they set up for Y/N, Sam, Clint and Nat and the one they set up for me and Steve.” Tony says as he pulls up some images on the large screen at the front of the room. “These people were responsible for developing the future winter soldier program. While most of them have died or retired, the program is still going strong. Right now their focus is getting the kids back.”

“They’ve mostly stayed underground.” Steve adds. “It’s been hard to track them but finally after all these months we have intel that they will be meeting tomorrow so we have to leave tonight if we want to get all of them.” 

“If we do that, that means it’s over?”

“No one will be after the kids anymore?” You ask hopefully as you reach for Bucky’s hand. 

“Exactly, we can get rid of this part of hydra for good.” 

“I’ll call my dad and we can go.” 

“I’m sorry but you won’t be able to go with us, Y/N.” Steve says. 

“Why not?” 

“Because Hydra has a hit out on you.” Tony presses a button on the remote in his hand and up pops up multiple communications from hydra officials wanting you to be dealt with. “Since you were the one to carry the kids out and the one to kill one of the highest ranking members in hydra you’ve painted a big old bullseye on your back. If you went with us well…” 

You sit back and nod as you realize that they’re right. If you go on this mission it will just make it easier for hydra to try and kill you. 

“Ok. I’ll stay.”

“Everyone suit up. The faster we get there the faster we can end this.”

****

“Good wuck.” Charlotte tells everyone on the team as they walk into the jet. Henry stands beside her and offers everyone high fives. 

You stood not too far away from the kids and watched as everyone got on. Steve walked up and stopped next to you. 

“I’ll keep an eye on him, don’t worry.” Steve places a hand on your shoulder. 

“I know you will, just don’t get too reckless because I’m not there to keep my eye on you.”

Steve chuckles before giving you a quick hug and walking over to the kids. Bucky’s hands wrap around your waist as he pulls you into his chest. He presses a kiss to your shoulder as you both watch Steve hugging Lottie and Henry. 

“Once this is over we can actually do things with them outside of the compound.” Bucky says.

“I’ll be making a list. They’ll be so excited when we take them out.” 

“Not too excited when they start school though.”

You turn in his arms and perch your hands on his shoulders. Bucky rests his forehead against yours.

“It’s almost over.” 

“Be careful out there.”

“I will. I love you.”

“I love you too.” You tell him before giving him a kiss. 

Henry and Charlotte run towards you and Bucky. He pulls away from you and grabs Henry before the latter can run into him. There are hugs and kisses for both kids before Bucky finally and reluctantly pulls away from you. With one final wave goodbye Bucky gets on the jet and you watch as it takes off. 

“Alright kiddos, let's go inside.”

“Mama can habe mobie night?” Lottie asks as she takes your hand.

“That sounds like a fun idea, sweet angel. We can get in our pajamas and get our favorite snacks and watch as many movies as we can. We can even make a pillow fort in the living room. What do you say Henry?”

Henry nods. “ Can we watch Cars?”

“Of course we can.” 

“Tonight is going to be awesome.”

“Yeah it is.”

 After an almost 10 hour flight the team had finally made it to the facility where hydra was meeting. Bucky was anxious to get this over with and go home. Home to his family to finally start a new chapter in his life. One that would begin when you said yes to his question. He couldn’t wait for that moment. 

“Gear up team, it’s time. Don’t forget the plan.” Steve says.

Everyone double checks their gear before finally starting the mission. Tony, Sam and Vision head out first as they do a fly over and lay down cover fire. The rest of the team drops down soon after while Bruce stays on the jet as back up. A small group of hydra agents fight to protect the building but it’s no use and it doesn’t take too long for the team to regroup in front of the main doors.

“Does anyone else think that was too easy?” Nat speaks up as she looks around the area. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they have all of the other agents protecting these sick sons of bitches.” 

“Just be prepared and stay focused, there’s no turning back if we lose these people now we might never find them again.” Steve says. He takes his shield and hits the lock on the door handle to break it open. As soon as it’s open everyone runs in to complete their objective.

****

Every level of the building is checked and nothing. The building is practically empty with the exception of a few agents that were taken care of easily. 

“What the hell is going on?” Sam says as he and Bucky walk into the control room to meet up with everyone else. 

All of the monitors in the room lit up at the same time. A video of you and the kids walking through the compound halls starts playing. 

“Where the hell is everyone?” Bucky asks as he looks around. 

Tony and Nat begin to type furiously on some of the computers as they try to figure it out.

“Has anyone heard from command central? I’m getting radio silence.”

“It’s not radio silence.” Steve answers Nat as he realizes what’s going on. “It’s a trap, like your first mission after we found Charlotte.” 

“Soldat.”

 “What the fuck?”

“You should have given our assets back when you had the chance.” The voice said. “I hope you had fun playing house.” 

There are several pictures of the kids playing outside from days and months prior. Bucky pulls out his phone to try and call you but there’s no connection. 

“Tony please tell me you got something.” 

Steve and Sam head for the doors but when they try to open them they can’t. 

“We’re locked in.” 

“Tony!”

“I’m trying here.” He shouts back. 

“Say goodbye to your family, Soldat.” The voice says. 

A missile hits the living quarters. It’s as if the air had been sucked out of the room as the team watches the compound get hit. 

“No, no, no, no,no. Please tell me this isn’t real.” Bucky cries out. “It can’t be real. They’re in there.”

“We’ll figure it out, Buck, but right now we have to get out of here.” 

“What if they’re gone?” Bucky watches as the footage of the explosion replays over and over again. 

“Bruce, we need your help getting out of here.”  

A few minutes later the building is practically destroyed as the Hulk smashes his way through. Everyone rushes to the jet. The whole flight Bucky can’t stop pacing. Steve and Sam try to calm him down but nothing works. He’s a mess and rightfully so. It takes halfway through the flight for them to finally have some type of connection to the outside world again. Bucky immediately starts to call your phone but it goes to voicemail. 

By the time they finally get to the compound Bucky’s worst fears are realized when the jet lands and he sees that the compound is completely destroyed. Bucky felt his chest seize as he took in the damage. Any hope he had that you and the kids were ok is gone. 

Ch. 28

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[radishhqueen]

so my project over the summer was making a hard copy of my rottmnt april-centric fic, how to get very good at juggling! shameless plug, it occupies a very special place in my heart.

and a video flip through <3 yes it's a bad video but this has been rotting in my drafts I need it out

step by step-ish process pics under the cut! + a link to the tutorial i used.

I largely used this tutorial by Sea Lemon for the actual construction of the book. For the text block, I just copied it into a word document, formatted it to my liking, and printed it out in 24 page signatures. (This makes it sound easier than it was. I trial and error-ed this step so hard, since all the tutorials I saw were for blank notebooks, and not text. If there's demand for a step-by-step on how to do this process with god's jankiest printer, lmk and i'll write it out)

In the end, I had a bunch of signatures that looked similar to this image below. i actually reprinted them (for the third time) after i took this picture bc some pages disappeared and i took the opportunity to center the page numbers. someday i'll learn how to get them on alternating corners.

...that i then sewed and glued into a text block! (ft. my cat)

because i was using a public printer, and also because i couldn't figure out how to adjust the margins, i had to do some trimming to make the margins more normal. you can kinda see in the image above that the top margin is like. two inches. (i'm currently in the process on typesetting another fic, i'm gonna figure out the margins this time i swear)

once i trimmed it (very slowly, with an exacto blade) (god i wish i had a paper guillotine), i sewed on some paper headbands and an extra piece of support cardstock (not pictured, whoops), and then it was finally time to start the cover!

okay, admission. when i started this project, my intention was to do a vinyl cover, do the title in stickers, and be done with it. unfortunately the sticky backing of vinyl? very sticky. not easy to adjust things when you have shaky hands and can't get the cover pieces immediately lined up. so i quickly burned through the whole roll of vinyl i had, which meant it was time for plan B, fabric.

also unfortunately, my local chain craft store never fails to let me down, and the only green fabric they had was god's brightest shade of green. regardless, we persevere.

because of who i am as a person, i know how to embroider! more or less! so that meant instead of futzing around with fabric markers and attempting to make a passable cover that way, i just decided to embroider a cover.

first came the mock up

and then i got started with the embroidery! i measured out the dimensions of the cover on the back of the fabric, and made a grid for where i wanted all my pieces to go

once the cover was finally done, i glued and assembled it a la Sea Lemon's tutorial. and!! now i have a book!!

[no-name-publishing]

Tiny Book? Tiny Book. Pt3.

Previously we covered everything from typesetting and printing, to rounding and backing. Let's continue on with step 4, endbands!

Tiny books part 1; Tiny books part 2

Just like with regular ficbinding, there are layers, and they are:

1 - Typesetting and Imposing 2 - Printing 3 - Cutting, Folding, and Sewing 4 - Gluing, Rounding/Backing, Endbands 5 - Building the Case and Casing In 6 - BOOK

In this part we will be focusing on the rest of step 4, and we'll see how far we get before I run out of photo space tbqh. Please feel free to skip to the area you're interested in most.

4, pt2 - Endbands

Endbands--there isn't anything overly exciting to say here, except that sewn endbands on tiny books isn't impossible, just ridiculously fiddly. For a core I recommend going with embroidery floss, stiffened with PVA. It's a nice relatable scale to the tiny book and will be perfectly firm-yet-flexible with the PVA coating. Because of the thickness I do not recommend using more than one strand of embroidery floss, if that's what you are using right now for your regular books. For all of the examples I include below, they've been sewn in a double core french style with a single strand of satin-finish sewing cotton sewing thread. Here are some examples of ones I've done:

Doable, but at what cost? My sanity. If you've got some to spare though, it will be very impressive to other bookbinders lol.

Don't be fooled into thinking tiny sewn endbands will be quicker or easier than their regular sized counterparts. And as a treat, here is how the tiny endband looked in my press while I sewed:

It's just 🧍‍♂️

In a sewn endband's stead I can recommend using prefab endbands, which will just be snipped to size and glued to the spine. Might be hard to do on tiny books with fewer signatures but not impossible, and it will look... as fine as a prefab endband can. Otherwise what I've really liked doing are paper endbands. I make these a bit wider than my textblock, so that I can trim them down later after they've been glued.

These are made from taking a strip of paper, applying glue around 15mm down the length, and laying down a piece of the PVA-coated embroidery floss. After a moment, to let the paper soften from the moisture and the core material stick a bit, you just roll it up a few times. Go slowly, as it can be finicky. Set aside to let it dry completely, then glue to your spine, as with the prefab ones. Let that dry, and trim to size carefully with your scissors.

(Imagine the pad of sticky notes is our tiny book lol, it's what I had on hand) Anywho it's that easy! I find these so preferable in part because the rolled up core sits forward and covers the folds of my signatures, where prefab endbands usually don't. A tip--while you're coating your floss in PVA, you can take advantage of any remaining glueyness to roll it between your fingers, to remove any hard edges or unevenness from the thread before it's totally dry, and won't transfer any lumps or bumps to your finished paper endband. Once you've glued and trimmed the paper endband to size, you can reshape it with your fingers to remove the pinched ends from the scissors. @simply-sithel got me onto this process and it changed the game for me. She's been my tiny-book mentor 🙏

Referencing this image again, the book on the right has the paper endband, compared to the left, which has a sewn endband. On a regular book endbands are protective, decorative, and offer some support; on a tiny book they are purely decorative. I like to use the accent paper of my case as the paper for the endband, to bring everything together.

5 - Building the case and casing in

SO! We've made it this far, to what I believe are the easiest steps of this whole thing, building the case and casing in. As with my regular sized books I do these tiny ones in a square back bradel binding method. This construction uses a piece of connecting paper across the spine stiffener and allows you to tailor the case to your textblock's unique shape, rather than fiddling with it's exact measurements.

Instead of making this a square back bradel binding tutorial, I will refer you to DAS's video where I learned it myself. The case construction begins around the 13 minute mark. There are no notable different between using this method between regular sized books and tiny books.

The first things to note in this step are your hinge measurements. Whereas on regular books they may be 9-12mm, depending, on tiny books anything much wider than 8mm is noticeable and not strictly necessary. The full range of motion gained from the hinge measurement isn't as important with tiny books, so I recommend staying within the 6-7-8mm range for the aesthetics.

My other note is that the 2mm overhang measurement surrounding the textblock is still preferable, even on this tiny size. Something in your heart will try to make it nearer to scale, like .5mm or less, but this will result in a tiny book that looks badly made. My recommendation is not to go any narrower than 1mm in your overhang measurement. But also this is purely for appearances' sake and I'm not your mom, and even if I was you're (hopefully) an adult. Go nuts and find out what works best for your tastes!

In my experience you also have a slight bit more freedom selecting your cover materials. I've never gotten full-paper cases to work where regular sized books are concerned, but it's been my preference for tiny books. I have so much decorative scraps of paper that otherwise wouldn't have a home with regular books. This is also a great place to use offcuts of bookcloth as well. No gods so rules!!

Here are some photos of the process of building my tiny case on a tiny textblock following the square back bradel method:

Now comes casing in. This part also couldn't be easier imo. I almost feel like I don't need to even say anything. I've found straight PVA, while having too short a worktime for full sized books, is perfect for casing in tiny books. You're brushing over like 2 square inches of paper?? You're using virtually no glue AND it takes 15 seconds?? I can only get so hard. As standard you should use some kind of moisture barrier between your endpages and your textblock while it dries in whatever your press situation looks like. For me these are sheets of plastic stolen from some plastic envelopes you use for archival work. These stop the moisture from going into your textblock and warping it. Some people have luck with parchment paper, but I am not one of them.

If you're using plain PVA, these babies will totally dry in maybe like, 3 or 4 hours. Take them out after an initial nipping time of like 20 minutes and let them dry open.

6 - BOOK

You've got a tiny book!!!

If you have any questions on something I've covered or didn't cover, please don't hesitate to ask!

[hexagonspress]

you are (not) becket by @gyzym

Here, it's simple: you and me and your dead brother are all swimming in the sick stillness of the water after the storm.

Titles: Mrs. Eaves Body text: Garamond Case title: OCR A Extended

3,079 words | 108 pages

Binderary book 2 (these are absolutely not in order of when I finished them. This was a frantic ten-minute case-in on the morning of the 27th before being three minutes late to work because I was washing my glue brush.): Pacific Rim is a story that went inside my ribcage and my brainstem and won't ever leave. It was my first exposure to a character who's dead from the beginning and who haunts the story for the rest of it and I think about Yancy Becket every two days and I will for the rest of my life. And thus, from there, I get here, where "my name is Becket and I didn't ask to be your gravestone. Like I wanted this, Becket, I swear to fucking god" is just a line that is tattooed on my brain. I've cried over this fic a bunch of times. It makes me feel ice-cream-scooped out in the middle of my chest. I love it and it needed to be in printed form.

More pictures/design/process under the cut.

Design and Construction Case and covers: Flat-back case binding with bradel board covers and spine. This was my first time experimenting with layered materials for the case, because I wanted to mirror the missing pieces that are such a prominent part of the vibes of the fic to me, and oh boy. Layer 1 was on the front board, Hollander's Mango Leaf tissue in blue. Layer 2 was a full-cloth binding with Hollander's pearl linen cloth in charcoal grey, with the upper left half of the title text cut out using a Cricut. Layer 3 was again on the front board, Hollander's Lokta paper in natural. All of the title text was cut out with a Cricut and then I ripped the paper in half (an ordeal) and glued it down with a glue stick. I chose to tear the front because there's a lot of imagery of being torn free versus letting go in Pacific Rim in general, and this fic specifically, and yknow, it felt right.

Insides: No endbands; the book was too small for the pre-sewn ones to work. Endpapers are black cardstock and torn Lokta paper. The casing in was done with PVA, gluing a small tongue of the black cardstock to the case, and then I glued the torn Lokta paper over the rest of the bare board to create a faux endpaper. The torn papers are the same idea that I mentioned with the cover. The front paper is a torn piece of a whole - Raleigh, after Yancy. Mako, after her parents, after Stacker. Yancy. The back is a set of torn pieces pasted back together - Raleigh-and-Mako, without the people they've lost. Yancy, after. I don't know. I think about this a lot. (Also, I'll come clean. The black ink on the back endpaper is eyeliner. My deepest most sincere apologies to any archivists. I don't own black ink and it was three in the morning.)

Typesetting Typeset was done in InDesign. It's nothing fancy. Grief, in real life, and in the way that it is in Pacific Rim too, is a stark thing, and I wanted to reflect that. So, no headers, no page numbers even, and just plain black page breaks for each of the numbered sections. Garamond, my beloved.

We All Do It, or, the Mistakes Section Honestly, this was one enormous oops after another. Since the book's so small each page had to be cut out individually and I won't even get started on the number of mistakes I made doing that. Then I utility knife trimmed and sanded down the edges maybe six times because I couldn't achieve a straight line (I had to change my knife blade. This did not occur to me). The top margin is like 1.3 times bigger than the bottom margin. The Lokta paper faux endpapers were because I cut the original cardstock papers an inch too short and didn't feel like cutting them again. And then the big one...I measured for the case and then didn't write down which measurement was width and which was height. The case is literally the wrong orientation and I didn't realize until I put the block in and the top/bottom margins were wrong. I'm so fucking lucky that the margins were already so small that the block covered all the exposed board so I just cased in anyway but I did have to sit on my floor in despair for a good ten minutes.

Here's the French link in progress because I didn't want to end on my series of fuck-ups. This was incredibly fun but I never want to make a book this small again. That's a lie. It's going to happen again but better. <3

[zhalfirin-binds]

Double fan or perfect binding

Also called ‘lumbecken’ after Emil Lumbeck who’d invented this particular kind of binding, is a single sheet binding. No imposing for signatures, no sewing, just printed pages straight from the document and glued together to make a book. (Of course mass market perfect bindings are still imposed simply for the fact of using larger sheets of paper and printing more than one sheet at a time, but it is a neat and very quick way to make a home printed book.)

The idea is very simple, instead of just applying glue to a stack of paper, said stack is fanned and glue is applied on both sides so there’s not only the glue sitting on top of the very narrow edge of the paper sheets to connect them but als on a tiny strip between the sheets. 

Gluing just the edge is fine for simple tear-off note pads, but it’s not durable enough to make a book. There are constructions made of metal for an easy and quick double fan binding. But actually all that’s needed for a straight backed perfect binding is something to clamp down the fore edge securely so the spine can be fanned to both sides without twisting. 

I prepared some inner books for the covers with exchangeable inner books I made a while back. The inner books are going to be straight backed and about 1cm thick. so I decided to bind the all at once with waste papers to make partitions.

I saw to it that the spine side of the paper is flush (the fore edge is not that important just now, because I’m going to trim any unevenness away later) I know those books will be heavily used, so I decided to increase the surface  to which the glue can hold on to, even more and roughened up the edge by cutting into it with a knife.

Then I fan to one side and add glue, 

Fan to the other side and add more glue. It’s perfectly normal that the sheets already start sticking together.

Straighten back up so the spine is straight again and add some mull to give it more support.

This is one of the few moments I use something against it’s grain/ stretch direction. I don’t want that mull to stretch, I want it to hold firm and support the binding. so the singe thread goes with parallel to the spine and the three threads help to support it. 

The last thing to do is getting the paper out of it’s clamp and setting on between silicon paper (or whatever else that won’t stick to the paper) and let it dry out. It’s a bit tricky to keep that spine at a 90° angle I usually check that a few times and also, the mull tends to bulge as soon as the paper is weighed down, so that needs to be worked in again.

[spockandawe]

Hello! I really love your work— it was a huge inspiration for me to get started on my own bookbinding journey :)

I just have one little question: When attaching the endpapers to the case, how do you make sure that the mull + tapes don’t leave an unsightly bulge in the glued-down endpaper? I’ve made a few books now, and have been continually frustrated by this.

Awww, thank you!!! I'm always delighted to know more people are getting into this hobby, I really think it's so fantastic and rewarding.

And ahh, this is a tricky question! So, part of my answer is that this is a part of the construction I am still FREQUENTLY lazy with. I often just... experience lumps and try to photograph from flattering angles.

Now, some endpapers will be more forgiving than others. If I'm working with something as thick as, say, scrapbook paper, I rarely see any bumps at all, even with something as thick as linen tapes. A lot of heavier cotton papers are also very generous. The hard thing is the thin papers, like a lot of the hand-marbled types, or the pretty prints. This is the stuff that feels sturdier than printer paper in your hand, but when it gets wet, it molds to the edges of your turn-ins and your tapes and shows ALL your sins.

The answer to this is a process called 'infill.' The idea is that before you case in, you go along the front and back cover of your case, and you add paper (like cardstock or printer paper) to bring everything up to the same level. Usually this means it'll be tucked within the edges of your turn-ins, and (the tricky part), you'll want to feel out where your tapes and mull will fall, and *also* remove paper from those areas. This can be tricky to tell without actually casing in your text block, and I usually get SUPER reluctant to slow down and do something that annoying at that stage, and skip it. So I can't give much advice on the how, but that's the general process!! The easiest solution is to choose thick endpapers that will hide your book crimes, but there are better ways if you're picky about materials or want to add that really special extra degree of polish. Best of luck to you!

[crush-zombie-drawan-sfw]

ITEMS PART FIVE! Including maybe the most labor-intensive part of this project-- the lantern!

I know I have better pictures of this somewhere, but the lantern I wanted to try to make. Well, not try-- I would do it because I'm bad at giving up.

Two challenges I encountered were 1- how to hide the wires going from under the light to the batteries, and 2- where to store the batteries. The batteries are pretty big, and they wouldn't just fit in the bottom or the top of the lantern. The whole thing, finished, is about 1.5 inches high.

I got a bulb and wiring from my older sister (2, actually, not pictured is the one I absolutely destroyed) with the plan that I'd have the wires go down through the bottom of the lantern, then up into the top through the supporting pieces.

Two of the bordering pieces would have to be hollowed to fit the wires and then covered up. I dunno how many times I super glued this thing back together, drilled holes, cut up new pieces because I drilled too many holes in them, etc.

To hang it from something poking out of the rafter(s) I needed something hollow that also could support the weight of the lantern, so I ended up cutting up a plastic lollipop stick, which worked!

The wires were hidden, and then I had to figure out how to hide the battery casing, so I made a little box to sit on the rafter above the lantern pole, and drilled a hole through it to feed the wires through.

Like so. And with everything in place I covered the lantern in the usual stuff; black construction paper, black wash, Mod Podge, and then painted highlights:

I put a little clay around the light to vaguely look like a candle? Ehgh lol

Then I secured the rafters to the roof of the workshop by drilling holes in the walls and the wood itself, shoving in thick wire and then dumping super glue in there, and then filling cracks with epoxy putty.

(Gen-chan judging me while I work on the battery case box)

Here's how the batteries fit inside. It's another shred up tealight, and I decided to give it a false lid to make it look like it's full of stuff

Little chunks of painted wood, wrapped up fabric and embroidery thread, some dyed moss and a piece of blue glass I picked up on the side of the road while I was hobbling home with my groceries on my back.

Complete wiring, which involved a little cutting and soldering of the copper wires.

Rafters and lantern complete ✨ And it lights up nicely:

Other items that hang out up there are some of the books I made, an unfinished hilt, wood, a tiny barrel and a black bone (prefab), because CURSES (blackened bones are common loot in FFXII)

My shitty attempt at an animal pelt (cream felt and paint)...

And this empty burlap sack that's just fabric and twine sewed together and then dunked in watered down paint.

Not much left to go now!

[jonathanstims]

here she is!! very long progress description under the cut

So I started with the drawing, which is already posted separately on this blog. I cut it out with an x-acto knife and the extra paper I glued to the back in three areas to make it pop out a bit.

Then I worked on the leaves -- I've never liked cut-out leaves I've made, but I came up with a way to make them work!! I drew the outline and cut out as usual (I used origami paper) and then drew the major veins on the back. I folded the paper along the veins I drew and then darkened the folds on the front with pencil. It gave them texture and they actually look like leaves now!!

For the Big Flower I took red origami paper, drew and cut it, and then added the hard shadows (like the difference between petals) in thin and thick sharpie. I cut out pink origami paper and pasted it on to make the lighter inside. then I found a piece of cardstock that was too light but worked the right-ish shade with a few layers of red marker, and cut out little shadows to paste onto the flower. then I cut out some small almond-shapes from the white paper I drew vash on, and pasted that on as the stamens.

I arranged the flower and leaves and lightly glued them together, then taped them to the paper (double sided tape my beloved).

Then I bemoaned how much work I put into all that and decided not to have vash just cover it all up, so I put velcro on him and now he's removable!!

I decided I hated the white background, so I found some black construction paper and kinda forced it around the Big Flower by eyeballing it and marking it with folds so I could cut it to make it look like one solid background instead of little chopped up pieces.

For the little flowers, I took what was left of the red origami paper and a whole puncher. I rubbed circles of glue on the background and forced the punched circles into flower shapes. I took what was left of Vash's white paper and used my leather punch to make tiny circles that I used to be the stamen/lighter inside of the flower. then I found purple construction paper and did the same thing but with extra black construction paper for the stamen. You can't see it too well but there's a transition period between the red and purple flowers where two petals are purple, three petals are red, and the centre is black.

I tried to use as few materials as possible but I still am down quite a lot of stuff lol. I was pretty proud of this one.

[good-beans]

how did you make the milgram phone covers?

Woo craft time! My original inspiration for the style was from searihart, and she wrote up a lovely reference post on doing the scrapbooking here! It definitely helped me a lot when planning and putting together these two

So, I started with the clear phone case and some scrap paper. I traced the inside as best I could and cut the little rectangle out. I stuck it inside, tested it on my phone, made some adjustments, and cut another one out. I did this a few times until I was satisfied with how it sat inside the case. (You can draw the middle hole to make sure it lines up, but you don't need to worry about cutting it out for all these test-shapes). Once I had one that fit well, I used it as a template to cut out my main piece of construction paper.

I had a fair amount of craft supplies already (the lace, sequins, little strawberries and stickers from Rokkucha), but other than that everything was printed out/drawn myself! I didn't have a ton of patterns for the bigger shapes, so I tried to print some from the mvs as well as finding the individual images. I glued everything down, purposefully dipping into the center holes.

Then I cut out those holes. If you have an exacto knife I would recommend that. If not, uhhh, a pocket knife and kitchen cutting board work just fine 😅 You may want to add some clear nail polish/modpodge right around it, since it'll be exposed to the elements more than the other parts. I still need to do that for mine, it sits juuust off enough that if I were to spill something it could get onto the edges...

I attached the paper with a single loop of tape onto the back of my phone while I put the clear case over it. This helps 1. if you have a textured design that's hard to attach right to the case, 2. if you plan on swapping out multiple designs like I am, and 3. makes it so there's no risk of glue or tape showing.

Now, the little strawberry at the bottom of Mappi's actually pushed the case up a bit, and made it impossible for my charging plug to connect all the way 😅 I was able to fiddle around with it so that it works fine -- it's still pretty thin, but if you've got thicker materials just be wary of that.

Good luck with yours, I hope it goes well :D

[honeybadger-the-pop-witch]

The Chronicles of Narnia Rebinding Pt 2

Well, here is part two of the rebinding! I learned that dividing papers between text blocks to separate the two separate books is usually better as one dividing paper over the folded two you make for end papers. Thus I needed a little more glue for the text block than I originally wanted.

From there I went on to work on making the actual cover and for this I have two pieces of advice:

Keep the original paper back cover for measuring (it makes making the measurements so much easier).

Sit down when you do this. Standing up might be great for the body but trying to use a ruler is a pain.

I noticed that my cardstock was slightly bent which makes it harder to adhere to the cork fabric, so I’m testing a theory. I put my heaviest book down on top of my cover drying cover then placed the text block on top, followed by my other books that I use for pressing to see if that will flatten the stock out and help it stick to the fabric.

I also suggest making templates from the covers out of construction paper. This can be multi-use as it makes it easier to take measurements as well as help with keeping the fabric glued down to the cardstock if you’re using cork fabric.

[its-short-for-jackalope]

greetings! i have made a thing! ✨️two✨️ things!

✨️ sketchboooooooooooks! ✨️

it took longer than anticipated (I've been trying to get this done since the end of last year, oops) but I finally finished putting these together today. all that's left to do is decorate the covers and start drawing in 'em!

they are slightly–moderately wonky and pretty clearly handmade, but I love them. gives em charm. these are only the second and third books I've made myself so I'm still learning.

if you're interested I'll drop a few more photos and babble a little about the process under the cut! (definitely not a tutorial if that's what you're hoping for lol i was winging it the whole time)

okay so we'll start with the little guy. this is meant to be more of a travel sketchbook.

I wanted something fairly small that I could take on the go without it being too much of a hassle, because I'm also hoping to get out more and like... go for walks to the park or the cemetery or w/e and try doing some studies and life drawing and such. or just get some fresh air and doodle while I make a valiant attempt to get some vitamin D.

THE PROCESS

both sketchbooks are made out of materials I just had lying around, but this one is even more "recycled" lmao

i took the inside pages from an old sketchbook, and about half of them had previously been used, so I went and erased my old sketches as much as I could (they were bad and low effort, so it's no loss I assure you) and that was a boring and frustrating endeavor but it was worth it because, well, I get to use the paper again! I did a very poor job the first time around, I almost never drew on both sides of the page and so many pages were just one shitty sketch and nothing else 🙈

i sorted the pages into signatures (tried to mix up the used and new paper because it'd annoy me if I had just like one big chunk of ghost drawings and then the rest of the book was good and clean lol) and stitched those together and then put just a couple layers of glue on the spine to hold it together.

I made the cover by gluing two pieces of thin cardboard together for each part (front cover, back cover, spine) to make em sturdier, and then I trimmed them down to size and glued the pieces to a paper shopping bag. I didn't have the patience to try flattening the cover under a heavy book or anything, so it's a little warped and will kind of open up on its own so I'm just using the binder clip to hold it closed. plus idk it looks cool!

once the cover was done and dry I just... glued it all together! added the end pages i cut out of construction paper to the.. chunk of book? the book brick? (is there a technical word for it when the signatures are all together....?) and then glued the other sides of the end pages to the inside covers.

now for the second book! the big boy!

this fella was intended to be the grand, improved follow-up to the first sketchbook I put together, and I started working on it right when said first book started running out of paper.

this one is the wonkier of the two but I think it's definitely a few steps up from the original, and I'm pleased with it. this is gonna be my everyday sketchbook, so I wanted it to have a ton of pages so I can use it for a good long while. I think it's at least twice as thick as my first sketchbook. 😂

THE PROCESS

...basically the same as the travel sketchbook, just bigger! the pages are sourced from a different sketchbook, one I started using in high school and promptly forgot about upon graduation.

fun fact: the end pages are covered in countless tiny little hatch lines that i drew by hand while I watched/listened to something on my computer. I don't quite remember what I was watching at this point, but it was almost certainly something from Starkid... probably VHSCC on repeat, since I did this part back in november/december. it might sound tedious but I shit you not I was thrilled to do this part and it was just a blissful neurodivergent turn the brain off and vibe kind of time.

the biggest difference in this process was doing the cover; it's not cardboard, it's some kind of particle board.. thing that was salvaged from the back of a busted picture frame. it is VERY stiff and sturdy and I did not cut the pieces out so much as score the board with my box cutter as deeply as I could, bend it back and forth, and pray it didn't break. 😅 the cover-cover is from the same bag I used on the smaller book!

most of the wonkiness comes from the fact that the cover is sliiiiiiiightly too small for the book brick inside. I had limited material for the cover so I couldn't stretch that at all, I made the cover as big as I possibly could, but I also did not feel like trimming the inside pages so that they would fit better because that would have taken FOREVER and also probably killed me. 😫 soooo the pages stick out a little bit, but that's fine and it doesn't bother me much. 🤷🏻‍♂️

and that's my two sketchbooks! finished em both up over 3 days after procrastinating for at least a month. and now that they exist I can finally draw again!!! been wanting to do that for WEEKS.

if you read all of this I hope you got something out of it, lol. whether you did or didnt, here's a skull for your troubles.

😊🤲🏻💀

enjoy!! <3

[brella-boi]

This will be the last update on the project before I share the final getup.

It is 5 days before the deadline. I should be packing shit up really before I travel 7000km across the atlantic ocean.

Yet here we are. At last. The last few things.

Last time we left off we were gassing our family with spray paint fumes. It is -checks watch- 6 days later and the room still smells like fumes.

But lets not despair. I had both sides spray painted black and i didbt even have to go in to touch up the edges since it absorbed a fair amount of paint there! Gnarly.

It was time to paint. I got the most expensive tub of paint ive ever purchased in my life but its SO vibrant and so glittery you know what i dont even regret it considering im a cheapskate. I planned to do it in 4 different coats.

Coat one: a darker shiny as the base.

Looking pretty good. A nice dark fading into light.

Second coat: brighter blue

Third coat: bright green is spots only

Fourth coat: black along the stem and some pure unmixed metallic blue very sparingly around the shiniest areas

And voila!

Crow feathers are only shiny on one side. So I didnt have to worry about doing this for both sides thankfully. I did do a deep dark blue on the underside of some larger feathers for texture though.

Now to make the tail.

It was pretty straightforward. Nothing special was done with it. I measured an elastic band around my waist and sewed it up. Then stuck the feathers how I wanted.

Using some left over foam I constructed the base of the tail the feathers will stick only. Now even though the feathers ARE quite light, i wanted to make sure i can pose the base up or down just in case the tail went flat against my ass and id be kicking it with my feet. So this called for another wire action.

The foam has a back and top glued together so the wire cant escape. After that it was a matter of sewing the foam to the elastic, then gluing on the fur and sewing the top to the elastic again, and the sides so the foam doesnt peek out.

Look at that pretty tail wont ya

Onto the wings!!!

If you saw my previous post you probably already know i wasnt doing this part with hot glue. Its easy to tear off hot glue from fabric if you pull hard enough. Whats NOT easy to tear off is superglue though. So i wrapped my arm around in kitchen papertowels and some masking tape (for extra defense points) and honestly that was probably too much. But it worked!

Layer 1 (Primaries) ^

The first layer is glued only to the fabric . This ensures that the big feathers can move around with my wrist and hand naturally without catching to the other feathers. Layer 2 (primary/secondary coverts) is stuck to their respective feathers only. For further movement. They do overlap the primaries though. Because theyre stuck onto the primaries, the above view is not pretty. This is where layer 3 (alula+median coverts) come in to play. These are stuck to both fabric, the edge of primaries, and the tops of coverts. This completely blends the feathers into the fabric as natural.

The we just put the claws on and voila!! (My fingertips were covered in masking tape dw)

Pretty straight forward just time consuming in between waits for the glue to bond.

I DID however, forget to put on my paper guard on when i put on the second glove. It did not hurt. Then i did again after putting an extra feather onto the first glove. That one hurt.

But!!! Theyre done!!

This concludes every single part of the costume FINISHED. 5 days before the deadline.

This has been a fucking JOURNEY and yall are insane for listening to me ramble.

Ill post some pictures in the full get up soon!

[owchie-wowchie]

What do you think a simple beach day date of Made Inevitable would be like?

The sun burned bright far above, making the pale sand in between Paul and Wilbur's toes almost glow. Fluffy white clouds dotted the wide expanse of blue, reminiscent of cotton glued to construction paper. The couple wore matching sunglasses with blue and green frames respectively. Heat filled the choking air, though notably, neither person's cheeks were flushed. Waves lapped against the shore, pushing sand to and fro. They were rhythmic, constant, calming; a contrast to the rocks not far away where they instead crashed loudly, spewing salt into the air.

Wilbur held a waffle cone in their hand, fingers rubbing against the semi-soft grooves and licking up the melting cream. Mint chocolate chip ice cream filled the cone; its chill was so stark against the warmth of the sun that they could see a billow of frosty fog in the air around it. Instead of their typical thick layers of jeaned jacket, shirt, and pants, they wore a tank top black as night and baggy dark blue shorts.

Paul wore something similar, though his was much more azure in hue and his shirt's straps were a little thicker. Clearly drawn lines adorned the veins on his arms and necks, identical in color to the veins though notably lacking any purple. His hands absentmindedly picked up fistfuls of sand, letting it fall through his fingers over and over again as he studied Wilbur's bare, pale limbs.

There were a dozen or so scars drawn up and down them, vivid and impossible to not notice. They came in nearly every shape in size; some thick, some thin, some long, some short, some a deeper tan than Wilbur's natural skin tone and some paler than snow. He could never help but ponder what caused them, curious to each and every story they held within. There was a particular one that always caught Paul's attention; the lightning-esque scar covering their right thigh.

Wilbur paused their eating for a moment. "Enjoyin' what ya see?" they asked.

Paul shrugged playfully. "A little." He motioned at them. "You should take off your jacket more often."

He could see them raise an eyebrow around the glasses. "My pants too?"

A bright cerulean blush bloomed on Paul's cheeks "N-no," he stammered, caught off guard yet again by Wilbur's bluntness.

"I ain't blind," they stated, taking another casual lick of their ice cream. "I can see where your eyes wander."

Paul shook his head, letting Wilbur's words fall off his back like water off a duck. He pointed at the mark on Wilbur's leg, deciding to give Wilbur's way of conversation a shot.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Oh," Wilbur muttered. "That." They ate some more ice cream, stuffing their mouth as if in an attempt to excuse themself from talking. Paul simply waited, knowing that eventually they'd give up their dedication to secrecy.

They swallowed a few more mouthfuls before answering. "The same place you got yours, sweetheart."

"Huh," Paul hummed, looking down at his arms, glancing at the way the lines cracked apart just like Wilbur's injury, the only difference in that Wilbur's were hued a bit more normally. "Thought that was just my veins."

"Nope," Wilbur said before letting out a small scoff. "We got matchin' scars, ain't that cute?"

Paul burst out in a wide smile. "That is cute," he agreed. Paul scooched closer to Wilbur, throwing up a slight bit of sand and rested his head on Wilbur's shoulder.

[no-name-publishing]

Manacled by SenLinYu

My 8-month marathon on this project has finally come to a close, and I have a ton of pictures to share!

We’ve got a split-board binding with made-endpapers and a built-in tab for extra support. Hand-sewn endbands with silk-finish cotton sewing thread. Done in a millimeter binding style with black leather, and a hand-drawn and -painted floral motif across the middle. Final page count is just under 1.4k. I figure altogether this was around ~50 hours worth of work for the whole binding, from beginning to the typeset to pulling the final book out of the press.

More pictures of the binding and typeset under the cut! If you have any questions or want more info about the process don’t hesitate to ask!

In truth I over measured/estimated the needed length of my leather; this and my poor pare job is definitely visible through the cloth lol, but I’m still jazzed with the result since I’d never touched leather before this. I designed the spread digitally in Procreate, printed it, transferred it to my cloth using carbon transfer paper, then painted using Jacquard Lumiere Metallic gold paint and a refillable .75mm paint pen.

Printed:

Transferred:

Mid-painting:

From starting the drawing to finishing the painting I’d say this part took ~15 hours. Close up of the spine:

Each endband measures around 3 3/4″ (9.5cm) in length and took around 5 hours to complete. The core is 4-ply hemp cord that I coated with PVA glue. Wrapped with a single strand of red silk-finish cotton thread, and one strand of polyester yellow thread, since it’s kinda shiny. Last I counted it was something like 300+ wraps of thread for each band. The uh, cat hair here is just an added bonus I suppose. Like when you buy a new pair of jeans and get that free sticker.

Some progress shots:

The tie downs. I usually will try to tie down every other signature. With 68 signatures you can understand this ate up a metric shitton of thread.

Different angle. Also a good few of the top of the textblock, which was trimmed painstakingly by hand with a wood chisel.

Smooth as a shark etc.

And some shots of the innards!

Each chapter page when through four rounds of printing: 1st through an inkjet, for the floral; 2nd through a laser printer for the number; 3rd through a laminator for the gold toner-reactive foil; and 4thly for the rest of the text.

Half-title page:

One of the attempts to foil a crane. The toner may have been too thin a line for it to work, or perhaps not dense enough tonerly. I don’t have control over that setting on our Xerox unfortunately.

A second shot of a golden crane. This was slightly more successful but lord knows why. Luck.

Fun fact is that this Daily Prophet page ALONE was about 8 hours worth of typesetting. I do all my typesetting in Word, and this page was recreated line-by-line individually. A few of these elements I also had to redraw by hand since there were just no good alternatives online. Anywho though, good payoff.

Nextly, some in-progess shots I don’t have a good segway into lol. A detail you can’t see on the book but I know is there, is hand-dyed scarlet linen thread, drip drying on my shower curtain rod:

Freshly sewn. 68 signatures, no waiting:

Rounded and backed:

And a close up of the special tab/made-endpaper construction. Stupidly I didn’t take any shots of gluing the split boards on, but I think the idea is pretty easy to imagine. Just picture this tab getting glued in between the cover boards.

You can kind of see it here:

And finally, the behemoth on the shelf. This bad boy tips the scales at just over 4 pounds (about 1.8 grams). Glad to have it; more glad to move on with my life.

Thank you for reading!!