WE WASTE THE SAME DAY LIKE NOBODY DIES, BY NEWREDSHOES
we waste the same day like nobody dies by newredshoes, illustrated by @cloudy-recessesI’ve lovingly referred to this project as “We Waste the Same Day Like Nobody Dies: The Illustrated Edition” ever since its inception [mumblemumble] months ago (since, if you haven’t seen it yet, @teleportbooks also made a beautiful binding of the same series!). magpieandwhale is another friend I’ve known for TWENTY FREAKIN YEARS somehow; I knew I was going to make her a copy of this as soon as she finished it, and I had the great joy of giving it to her in person last week while in her city for a family wedding ❤️
Read moreSYMMETRY, BY BLEUETT
symmetry by bleuettMuch like when I got my first taste of drop caps, I’ve become a foil quill menace. I’ve always liked hot foiling more than HTV for preservation reasons – vinyl plasticizers and adhesives can turn pretty gross after a few decades – and this book gave me the chance to try a full design in nothing but foil. It fit perfectly with a sci-fi Wangxian AU! Circles play a big role in the story, so I included them in as many places as possible: the cover circuity, the endpapers, the scene dividers (a little mini solar system map!
Read moreTHE FIRST ONES ARE THE BEST ONES: A WANGXIAN ANTHOLOGY
the first ones are the best ones featuring works by @feyburner, @fahye, and @ariasteAt last, a new book! A while back, a friend asked me to collect some of her favorite Wangxian fics: i hope that you will come and meet me, seldom all they seem, and turn towards the sun. When I asked her what design elements she might like, she answered, “I like celestial stuff!” So – along with plastering bunnies all over it, as any good Wangxian anthology requires – I ran with a star/constellation theme.
Read moreTHESE THINGS UNSEEN, BY BONYENNE
These Things Unseen by bonyenne[Note: this project was completed in June 2022.] My first flatback! I usually round and back my spines, because… well, tbh, I need all the practice I can get, but also because it’s more aesthetically pleasing to me and helps accomodate the sewing better. But at 34k words, this textblock was too small to round – which meant playing around with a new binding method. I’ve wanted to incorporate ribbons into a MDZS/Untamed book for a while – TEXTURE, BABY – but not just as a bookmark.
Read moreTHE SIMPLEST WAY FORWARD, BY HARRIET_VANE
The Simplest Way Forward by harriet_vane[Note: this project was completed in March 2022] I had but one goal with this project: take every cheesy wedding craft cliché and cram it into one book. I swept through the wedding section of Michaels like a kid doing one of those Toys R Us runs back in the 90s. I dug up the swirliest fonts I could find. I grabbed the sparkly gold lotka that’d been idling on my shelf.
Read moreUNSTOPPABLE, BY NETRIXIE
Unstoppable by Netrixie[Note: this project was completed in November 2021.] BEHOLD: A CHONK. At 149,980 words – just 20 words shy of my maximum 150k cutoff – this is still the longest fic I’ve bound to date. I actually had to tweak my typesetting template a little to make sure I could trim the incredibly thick textblock once it was sewn! I use a (sadly now discontinued) Silhouette Curio for the cutouts on my covers, and this was the book where I decided to play around with its embossing feature, too.
Read moreAND I DOUBLE DARE ME AS WELL, BY IODHADH
and i double dare me as well by @iodhadh[Note: this project was completed in October 2021.] More gentle conspiracies ahead! iodhadh commissioned me to bind not one, but two copies of their fic: one to keep and one to gift, done up as a matched set in Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen colors. (With, of course, some extra pops of red and gold for Xue Yang.) I decided I wanted to take the cover design in a slightly different direction than usual, so no cutouts this time – just some ink, cloth, and marbled paper.
Read moreTHERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF BLOOD, BY HOWODD5EVER
there is no shortage of blood by howodd5ever(Note: this project was completed in August 2021.) Do I love using cutouts in my book designs? YOU BET I DO. And this one is a bit more complex than it looks at first glance! The red cloth is actually a full binding, minus a few sections of the turn-ins so it wouldn’t look too bulky. Once I’d gotten that settled, I cut out the swirls in a sheet of black bookcloth and laid it over top to make it look more like a traditional quarter binding.
Read moreTHE ROOTS GROW RIOTOUS, BY HANSBEKHART
The Roots Grow Riotous, by hansbekhart[Note: This project was completed in June 2021.] Do you ever read the first chapter of a WIP and just know you need to bind it once it’s finished? Roots was that fic for me. Months before it wrapped up in April 2021, I was drafting layouts in my head, researching fonts, and hoping hansbekhart would be cool with me creating a physical copy of their fic.
Read moreTEMPO RUBATO, BY SPODUMENE
Tempo Rubato, by SpodumeneI am so proud of this one. It’s another handful of firsts, both simple (designing chapter headings!) and more complex (incorporating fanart and figuring out how to juggle the print quality of text vs image!) – and the story itself is just phenomenal. An enormous thank you to Spodumene, @beccadrawing, and @lordsofthebuns for letting me bind it all ❤️ Two small easter eggs I included in the design: the music on the cover is a reproduction of Liszt’s original “Sonata in B Minor” manuscript – a piece Lan Wangji plays in a key scene – and the title page features a piano arrangement of “Wuji,” aka the theme song to The Untamed.
Read moreLINGER IN THE SUN, BY ETYMOLOGYPLAYGROUND
Linger in the Sun, by etymologyplayground It’s done! And hoo boy was this book a Learning Experience. I used a lot of new equipment (guess who’s got a bookbinding guillotine now, AW YEAH), I tried a lot of new things, and while I’m very pleased with the end result, there were also plenty of nights where I gently laid my head on my work table and prayed for something – anything!
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