Traveling at the Speed of Light by Saerus2665

One of my more recent binds is this absolutely fantastic CodyWan fic by @anaclastic-azurite here on Tumblr. I bound two copies, one for myself and one for them. A couple things are unique about these binds for me, and they explain the small differences between the two covers.

Both have a full leather cover, and I mixed machine tooling the text (using my silhouette and foil quill) with hand tooling the sun using traditional brass hand tools. Because I was machine tooling the title, I cheated and foiled the whole thing off the book, and I was lucky there didn’t seem to be any distortion when applying the leather to the boards. But it also gave me this nice effect where the tooling goes around the edges of the book and across the hinges without interruption.

For the hand tooling, I had taken a class last summer, made some tools for myself over Christmas, and this was my first attempt at using them to apply hot stamping foil. The round tools I made myself, and I accidentally used different sizes of dots on the two covers.

The leather and endpapers both came from an auction over a year ago, leaving them a mystery as to their type or origin. I think the leather might be cow, rather than the goat I usually use. It was pretty much impossible to pare, but it was fairly thin (possibly pre-split?) and took foil so beautifully I almost didn’t care.

ficbinding: just swear you'll stay (right by my side)

the story

just swear you'll stay (right by my side) by midwestwind

"Emma Swan was a twenty-one-year-old disaster when she first met Killian Jones. Eight years later, she's hardly expecting to run into her cleaned up, put together ex-lover."

my favorite genre: second-chance romance. my favorite flavor: an excessively long one-shot.

the binding:

I was able to get at least one binderary book done!! A dear friend requested a paper copy of one of her favorite cap fan comics from 2012-2014 that has since been scrubbed from the internet. This bind was a joint effort--she kindly harvested all the images from the Wayback Machine and proofread the typeset (because translating a comic that was intended for near-infinite scrolling to print format is at best alright and at worst a typesetting nightmare LOL).

We also talked a lot about design--this is a comic diary about Steve's reintegration into the 21st century, so we envisioned this as an extension of SHIELD-mandated therapy, hence the logo on the cover! The logo itself is an older version of the SHIELD logo--the concept my friend sent me while we were texting about this was "SHIELD gave him the notebook, but to be nice Nick made sure it was an older one" LOL. In short, this is Cap's recovery notebook! We thought it fitting for the story--the comic itself is all at once moving, funny, and occasionally heartbreaking, and it put me right back in the Cap feels T_T

On a crafty note, the design is fairly simple--in keeping with the little metanarrative we'd created, we wanted to give it the feel of a blank journal. My favorite detail my friend requested is the little red ribbon, a nice pop of color--it reminded us of Bucky's red star, or Peggy's lipstick :')

You can read Steve Rogers' American Captain on the Internet Archive, here!

HELLO JAYVIK (fanbinding) NATION. I had four binderary projects planned this year. I finished one of them. This is not one of them. WHAT HAPPENED WAS I had binderary plans and then I watched the bear trap of a show that is Arcane. What happened was I tripped and fell straight into jayvik hell. Here I am now, a month later. Anyway!

This is the fantastic Talis, V. Talis, J. "Social Behaviors of Lokfar Peninsula’s Wild Mammals (Specifically Those of my Co-Author)" by @zillac! I had SO much fun reading and binding this--zillac's writing is some of my favorite ever, that perfect mix of hilarious and heartfelt, with spot-on voicing for everyone. This is a Tarzan AU and SUCH a delight--Jayce never gets rescued as a kid and instead gets raised by wolves (SEXY WOLFMAN JAYCE YEEHAW), and Viktor meets him years later on a research trip. The title is a fun spin on an academic paper, so in keeping with that theme, I went for a more simple/classical design and a stiffened board binding construction, which was new to me and SO much fun. I will definitely be using this construction again!

Some design fun facts! Blue and silver details are to match the icy climate of Lokfar (there's a line where Viktor is like "why are your [very strong, distracting, huge] arms bare when it's fucking freezing out?" and Jayce is like "Hm? Oh it's summer," which, CHILLS, no pun intended). Cover papers were hand-marbled by me at Renegade Retreat 2023 (I'm so happy I found the perfect fic to use them!). The endpapers are a bit translucent, which reminded me so much of the frozen glacier in the fic I just had to use them:

I also went for a different font for the interior--I've been using Garamond basically ever since I started fanbinding (which AH, it's my five-year anniversary this year! I should write a roundup post...), but I decided to try Alegreya this time around, and I really love how it changes the feel of the typeset.

Bonus ASMR flip-through! (I bought a ring light/phone camera stand, so now I can use both hands in my book photos lolol)

And that's all for today!! Thanks so much for sharing your work, Zil!! <333

Another addition to my "not perfct" collection. As always, I like it with all it's imperfections.

The traveller by Somigliana.

I read this story in Ashwinder eons ago and have always liked it. (If you know what Ashwinder is, you've been in this fandom a long, long time).

"Hermione has deviated from an obvious life. She has moved down a challenging and divergent, but ultimately lonely, path. She meets Severus Snape by chance one day, and she has some difficult choices to make"

Bound in the south of the world. Cardboard cover, exposed spine with French stitching.

I liked the idea of using shells and stones slowly worn by the sea. I wanted to place them as stepping stones, as a way to make reference to the time jumps Hermione makes in this fic. The photos are not very good, but they show the beautiful place where I was able to make this book. The shells and stones were collected by me in an area where pre-Hispanic people used to shellfish (obviously, I did not collect stones from that time, but newer ones).

Tap That by @tierfal

This is part of a big group of Fullmetal Alchemist fanbinds I undertook in late 2024 and finished in February 2025 to send to the author.

I simply could not resist making a cover design centered on the peach emoji. The concept was just too perfect. This is a university, non-fantasy AU, so familiarity with canon is not required to enjoy.

Find this fic on Ao3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13165143/chapters/30110436

See the rest of my Tierfal binds here.

Images of the interior below the cut.

ficbinding: the dinner 'verse

this is just about primary colors and gorgeous paper for three of my all-time favorite comfort reads, posted around 2011-2012 (except for 'dinner at last', a little outlier adn should not be counted).

the stories

the dinner 'verse by lyaka rewired my brain chemistry when i was in a deep funk and i can never thank it enough. it gave me a place to live and wallow and even got me writing--in my notebooks, on my computer, during work, when i was home--working on my own version of how these stories would fit into a wider world. they're lovely. sailor moon, senshi/shitennou, exploring a series of scenarios post-canon between the senshi and the generals and how their paths would have crossed again. questions of fate, memory, history, illusion, truth, etc. simply delightful.

the binding

these are all sewn board legal quartos, a matched set with identical typesetting details. marbled papers (from mulberry papers) in senshi-inspired colors. paper spines in glitter cardstock.

@tawnyontumblr requested Love in The Garden, which I had not read yet due to the tags. I kept faith with the happy ending, though, and it was quite nerve wracking for a bit, but it’s definitely worth it. Thank you so much for putting it out there Tawny! Difficult times should be honored. I really wanted an 80s kind of vibe, and definitely had to use the rainbow. I also did Paleomens, because I too adored Jean Auel’s books, so when Tawny mentioned it as being one she was considering, I started typesetting 😹.

Paleomens:

The World to Me E, 48,782

Hearth and Home T, 3,649

Under Canvas E, 15,819

Bound: Close Behind by @oflights

I re-read this fic recently, it's so beautiful, I needed to have it on my shelf.

There is a river that plays an important part in the story, and I've been wanting to try out some different techniques AND I had the perfect paper to use, so I went with that for the cover. I created an inlay by cutting the design out of thinner bookboard and gluing that to a normal piece, then when I covered it with bookcloth, I squished it into all of the nooks and crannies. Then I cut the decorative paper into the same shape and glued that in.

The other notable feature of this bind is the black background on the "underlude" chapters. Just for funsies. I have lots of black toner. Why not?

I also sewed endbands on one of the copies, but I ran out of steam after the first copy. (I can't remember which set I kept and which I sent to the author. It's like, do I want to send imperfectly sewn endbands to the author? Or do I send perfect glued ones?)

I also love the font I used for the cover, chapter titles, and drop caps. It's called Canto and has so many lovely variations, plus glyphs like that sexy N on the cover.

More details:

Bookcloth: Black Brillianta from Colophon Book Arts Endpapers/inset: Gold wavy marble from Paper Source Body font: Corundum Text Light

Fanbinding: Hold the Line by @dontbefanci

I've been dreaming this bind up for a good while. Hold the Line is a wonderful AU of Glee where everyone is in marching band instead of show choir. It's senior year, and Kurt is poised to be lead trumpet until new kid Blaine shows up to threaten his reign. The band plays a Queen medley in the fic, with big plot beats centered on the trumpet solo from The Show Must Go On, so of course I had to track down a pdf of the sheet music to use for endpapers!

(Passed the supurrvisor's inspection!)

Moar trumpet motifs, in case you didn't already know this is a story about trumpet fanatics xD

I had fun figuring out how to format rudimentary text message chains for my first typeset in Affinity.

Hand stitched silk endbands in red and white for the McKinley Titans.

And last but not least, colophon page for those of you who like to know about font choices:

I am so, so pleased with how this design came out. (Fanci, if you ever decide you'd like an author copy, just say the word.)

AYYY FIRST STAB BINDING

While very pretty certainly isn't therapeutic! 🤣

Will say biggest pro is omg no imposing feels like a dream and you get super pretty edge 😍 also I can see why people love Alegreya font!

Butterfly Effect - Ehyde

Super fun little fic that is one of the few Jin Ling/Lan Suzhui fics I love to bits 🥰 and the Author is an absolute legend and got to show it to soon as was finished!!

tuc week 2022 anthology by blanketed_in_stars

I remember reading this series like daily back when tuc week 2022 was ongoing. Before then, I don't think I'd ever considered the ship. Fast forward 3 years later and armed with way too much power, it easily made my to-bind list, and I also really wanted to get into the practice of making author copies. Binderery let me check both of those boxes off.

Thank you so much to @blanketed-in-stars for letting me bind her work, which you can read for yourself on a03 here! It's fantastic and I recommend it to all the hamnet/mareth fans out there. Literally rewired my entire world view of them.

Progress pics and way too long history dive/ramble below the cut:

For @andromeda4004, her very gothic Rebecca au Antoinette. Andromeda chose lavender, which fits so well with the story. I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s masterful storytelling, very atmospheric, with wonderful characterization.

T, 118,996

Quelque Chose de Nouveau by @tierfal

This is part of a big group of Fullmetal Alchemist fanbinds I undertook in late 2024 and finished in February 2025 to send to the author.

Of course the cover image is a view of Paris. How could it be anything else? Title font is Gill Sans, originally designed in 1926 and hugely popular in British print culture ever since, including on the covers of old Penguin Books, whose design I have unrepentently mimicked.

Also, for people who are happy to read a good story without knowing anything about the source material, give this one a go. Modern, non-fantasy AU with the plot of a queer romance novel.

Find this fic on Ao3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18904690

See the rest of my Tierfal binds here.

Images of the interior below the cut.

Fanbinding: National Service Series by burntcopper

National Service (Series) by burntcopper

Date Completed: 2/4/2025

Size: Half Letter Folio.  63,541 words, 227 pages.  7 works

Copies: 1

Binderary 2025: Book 1

The first book of binderary was a copy of the National Service series.  These stories ask the question “What would it be like for the Pevensies to return to England after being kings and queens of Narnia?”  There’s also a crossover with Torchwood, since Susan works for the Cardiff branch.  Peter and Edmund have the army but Susan was quite bored in her prior office job, and somehow drags Lucy along as medic.  Also, outsider POVs are some of my favorite types of scenes and this series has so many great ones.

I can’t say much about the inside of the book, as I used a typeset from Woodland Warbler Press.  I was quite taken with the lamppost they included on the title page, so I reused the motif on the cover.  Everything was gray and silver (which doesn't photograph well), in keeping with the shadow theme from Susan’s story.  I especially like the decorative papers I used inside, part of a double-sided scrapbook paper pad I found at the local creative reuse store.  They were the perfect color scheme but had a really strange coating on them, to the point that I had to lightly sand the back in order to give the glue something to grip to when I was casing in the book.

ficbinding: i'll tell you my sins (and you can sharpen your knife)

continuing my sailor moon streak with another sewn board legal quarto. had a lot of fun with the graphic elements of this--started looking through my image subscription service for images and decided to really lean into the sacred heart of it all. modified the main image to change it from a crucifix to the symbol for venus (with a heart) and went full-on bleeding heart for the cover.

the story

i'll tell you my sins (and you can sharpen your knife) by winterbones

the shitennou return to life, specifically the senshi's, and minako deals with it (poorly)

the binding: