#bookbinding adventures

This was a really long typsetting project, I started it last summer and then took a long absence when uni started. For a year this has been my white whale. In all that time I still haven't read it properly (sorry Lughaidh), but I want to!

I have to thank Eadbh for bringing paper marbling things to my house <33 we had a lot of fun trying that out together and I got some beautiful endpages to make this book really special.

I hadn't done faux double core headbands before but I think it looks neater than the regular way and it allows for more colours and patterns.

I used split boards to attach the cover, which I really wasn't sure about trying but it wasn't so tricky in the end! It made the book feel very sturdy once it was fully covered, which is exactly why I chose this method for such a large book. When my sister saw me slot the boards on she said 'woah, I have no idea what just happened but that was really satisfying' 👍

One complicated bit was lining the spine and making the oxford hollow, because I didn't put shoulders on the book I wasn't sure how I was going to get a nice spine width without a bit of board in there. I was happy in the end with the light card I used for the oxford hollow but I'd use a thicker card in the future.

The cover was made from collaging wallpaper and recycling leather from an old couch (it was a nice bit of the couch, not a bit that was sat on).

I hope to make a long post later explaining the process in more depth & another to document all my mistakes, but here's the basics.

New techniques learned: Paper marbling, edge marbling, uncial calligraphy, making paste papers, drawing on bookcloth, making paste-filled cloth, fold-out maps

I began work on this project in early September and am completing the finishing touches this week.

Structures:

Binding: K118 tightback

Endpapers: Simple cloth-joined endpapers

Map fold: Turkish map fold

Materials:

Sewing supports: linen tapes

Thread: 30/3 linen thread

Spine lining: Medium weight kozo tissue bonded to linen fabric

Interior paper: Hammermill Ivory, 11x17, hand-cut to 8.5x11

Endpapers: Blick sulphite paper hand-marbled, with masked stenciled silhouettes created with freezer paper

Adhesives: Jade PVA, wheat starch paste, wheat flour paste

Covers: Davey board, laminated full thickness to half thickness

Cover fabric: Studio E shot cottons in Jungle and Emerald; filled with wheat starch paste

Cover decorations: Speedball india ink and Dr. Ph. Martin's calligraphy ink in Copperplate Gold

Inks for maps and illustrations: Speedball black india ink and a selection of watercolors thickened with gum arabic

Dip pens used for calligraphy: Combination of Brause calligraphy nibs and Leonardt tape nibs

Dip pens used for illustration: Nikko G pointed pen nib

Typesetting:

Typesetting program: Scribus 1.5.5

Body font: Coelacanth in 10 pt caption weight

Headings, titles, chapter titles, drop caps: Hand lettered uncial calligraphy, scanned

Illustrations and References:

Frames on colophon, copyright, author's notes and title page: Hand drawn, with inspiration taken from the vellucent bindings of Cedric Chivers

Frames that illustrate each chapter start: Alphonse Mucha from Cloches de Noël et de Pâques

Cover illustrations: Referenced from a photograph of an European beech tree found on iNaturalist.org

Maps of Imladris: Hand drafted with inspiration from the maps of Barbara Strachey, and Daniel Reeve

Map of Eriador: Traced from a map by Karen Wynn Fonstad, with edits made to coordinate with the geography of the fic

Frames on maps: Referenced from a drawing by Alphonse Mucha that @zhalfirin found for me

Special Thank Yous:

To the tightback council of problem-solvers in the Renegade server: Zhalfirin, Eka, @spockandawe who helped figure out many issues with the structure and technique

To the marbling experts in the Renegade server: Marissa, Aether, AGlance, Jenny, Catz, Badgertide, Rhi, and everyone else who helped me figure out beginnner marbling

To Spock for finding the K118 structure and introducing it to the server!

I got these two books at the thrift store last week. I've read Leviathan Wakes, but Seasons of Wonder is new to me. (Apparently it's an anthology of spec-fic holiday stories.) I decided to start with Season of Wonder, and ripped the cover off.

I glued the end papers on (I picked a generic grey-marbled paper) and then realized that the boards I was going to use as a press didn't actually exist. (Or rather they were not what I thought they were.) So I grabbed some old shelves from the basement, cleaned off the cobwebs, and tried to make a press... only to find that the boards plus the text block were too wide for the hand clamps I bought. (sigh) So I just stacked the shelves on top and left it to dry.