#bradel binding

Extinction - VER

Full cloth Bradel binding with paper onlays

Yet another binding of this story by @sticksandsharks. Thank you for the kind permission to bind your work.

Fitting the case of a Bradel binding

When I do a Bradel binding, I usually leave the covers wider than needed and adjust them later. This has the benefit of being less likely to cut them too short and accommodating for any skew of the book block (or, as another bonus, a slight skew/unevenness of the hinges). The later is particularly helpful when rebinding old books. Those are often slumped and not quite square or even anymore. With a completly square angled case, that does not take the aging into account, you might end up with a perfect cover that still looks odd and clumsy on the book block. In such a case, making the cover skewed to fit the book block creates the illusion of a book more balanced than it actually is.

I promise this is the last book I have bound for at least a while, though I am working on some top secret typesets. I also take requests - feel free to request a typeset/bound book here. You never know. I'm planning at some point to offer some up for charity. I am whimsical and do what makes me feel happy and relaxed re: bookbinding, so no promises, but I love to see the recommendations people share!

This is my fic Tension and Tonic, which was the second fic I wrote/finished and is the last fic of mine that I have bound. I have now typeset and bound all of my fics, I think....anyway this one was last because I needed to copy edit it. I wrote it before I realized if you posted stuff to AO3 there was a chance someone would see it, and did not edit out my typos until just recently. Shortly after this fic, I discovered betas, aka the world's most lovely and perfect humans, who have saved me and others from the millions of mistakes my poor adhd riddled brain + rural country folksy accent is not capable of seeing.

This book is reasonably well-made with no profoundly horrible mistakes! Yay! I did at one point case one of them upside down, but then I checked before the glue dried, and fixed it. Look at me. Growth!!

Screenshot from the typeset of the typesetting notes:

I really like the fabrics for the outside. It is a bradel bind style spine, I think I did an oxford hollow, which it is not thick enough to really need, but whatever. I like how the bradel bind + oxford hollow construction reduce a lot of the errors and messiness I was having with casing in. I'm quite happy with that and thanks to the Renegade Discord Server for teaching me that variation!

The Scarlet Letter was my first restoration, and first traditional Bradel bind. It's been almost a year since I completed it (I really need to get better at updating this blog.)

Bookcloth is Relmafil, and the endpages are from the collection Queues de paon from Relma too. (As usual, picking endpages was the HARDEST step of all, but these ones felt perfect, like haunting flames fitting for the atmosphere of the book.)

The cover is embeded, and I wish I had made a note of the font for the A, but I wasn't as diligent with it then as I am now.

Some photos of the step-by-step beneath the cut. It was an adventure. I was EXTREMELY lucky to be supervised for this first attempt, which probably saved it from certain disaster.

Around this time last year, I made a custom guestbook for my sibling's wedding!

8x10, 50 pages of heavy paper, linen full cloth binding. The heavy paper only came in letter size leaves, which dragged me kicking and screaming into trying out perfect binding for the text block, with a square back bradel binding for the case to strengthen a spine that I was VERY nervous about failing mid-reception!

I hand-made a copy of Jack London's Before Adam for my friend's birthday. The little sabretooth is hand-embroidered, and the title is slightly inset.

Text courtesy of Project Gutenberg but formatted by me! Oh, and the oak leaf is courtesy of Openclipart.

Stub-Bound Birthday Wishes Book

I was asked to bind a stack of beautifully calligraphed birthday wishes into a book, for a lovely customer who is now a great friend.

The birthday wishes were written on a thick card stock of about 300 to 350gsm, and they were in the wrong grain direction. I wanted to make a book that could open completely so that the calligraphy can be enjoyed. Since most of the single sheet bindings do not allow for that to happen, and also considering the thick card stock and its wrong grain direction, I decided to use a stub binding technique. 

Notebook Bradel binding, half cloth binding with front rail and paper onlay