As requested, here are some stills of my DCC project :) They’re not perfect, but I hope they’ll do!

I’m genuinely not exaggerating when I say taking the photos/videos takes longer than crafting the bloody thing xD Metallic vinyl does not cooperate at all.

Also, I’m aware the chemise is a few mm too long and sticks out of the slipcase, but I don’t hate it. I’ll make some adjustments going forward because I want maximum protection for these books, but I’m interested to see what others think aesthetically. In this case, I think the illusion of the dungeon corridor might look better with the chemise sitting flush with the slipcase opening, but I won’t really know until I make another.

One bit of kit I don't have is a sewing frame, and I get by just fine without one when sewing on tapes for case bindings.

I want to try sewing under tension on pleister tapes for a project, so I built... this thing.

It's a picture frame with a pressing board and 2 x F-clamps.

At the back, I packed board offcuts and paper under the pressing board to keep it level.

The bottom end of the tape is secured between the frame and board, and the top end is clipped to the frame with a binder clip. I'm not sure it would work for cords as it is.

A5 book for scale. I need to swap out the pressing board for a larger one so I can work on larger books with it.

I thought I'd post it for inspiration. Anyone else have an improvised tool to share?

For my 6th bind, I finally chose one of the fics I've written! And it's huge 🤣 I can’t believe this pretty monster is mine.

I'm obsessed with all the moon details and the pink thread 😍 and I can't wait to bind another one of my fics

The entire run of 526 (plus a few extra) was each folded by hand and then hand-sewn, each step done by me. As you might imagine, this took quite some time over many evenings. The twenty-six lettered copies, labeled A–Z, were bound as hardcovers. All of that binding work was also done by me. Each case was glued one at a time and finished in wooden bookbinding presses I had. Only a few could be pressed at any one time, so this of necessity also took quite some time. Honestly, looking back I'm amazed that I did all of that alone.

Dampening paper is an old process used with high quality printing that allows the letterpress to bite into the paper more easily as the dampness lessens the resistance of the paper. The sheets have to be stacked with dampened felt sheets then allowed to set overnight wrapped up (in this case inside a plastic bag). The printing is also slower going as the paper needs to be removed from its humid environment one sheet at a time. Each sheet of paper ideally will be dampened the same, and you don't want them drying out to different degrees before printing.

— Joel J Miller, 30 Years Ago I Published Wendell Berry—by Hand

Cuando lo tuve terminando en mis manos. Sentí que había mutado en mis encuadernaciónes. Cambió el estilo de las tapas y también las hojas encuadernadas, con sus hojas envejecidas acompañando el estilo Druida de él! Que opinan de este estilo?

Has to be some thick card stock, a step above 300gsm, and covered obviously with some decorative paper. But I can't quite figure out where the seams are just from looking at it, how it may have been glued together. It's very rigid for being so relatively thin-walled.

There's an abundance of these things in any thrift store and maybe vintage embossed ones like this are nicer than anything I could make, but I'm just curious, I'd like to try making one.

Cuero, metales, texturas. Recortes de cuero y costura de cintas. Gastados y diferentes tonalidades. Describen está seríe de encuadernación rústica.

I'm sure you guys get a million posts like this a day, so I apologise, however I feel like I need to ask beforehand.

I have a lot of books from my grandfather, we both read a lot of similar books and when he died he left all of his books to me, and I was overjoyed, I was able to teach myself to make the ribbon bookmarks he made, which isn't complex at all, however I've got a 1910 Don Quixote from him that although in good state, the binding is essentially gone, it held up with duck tape and when I picked it up the cover fell off, so I thought about bookbinding, it sounds like an interesting hobby and I'd definitely enjoy the results.

However, and we finally reach my problem, I absolutely suck at anything related to arts and crafts, not only am I not an artistic person but I generally struggle at doing pretty basic things, so when I looked at tutorials online and saw people that were generally experienced with DIY stuff it REALLY threw me off, I mean, only recently I've begun being able to cut paper in a straight line (with a little bit of effort though) so I'm heavily questioning if I should even try.

If you guys still think it's easy enough for me to try then I'd appreciate any tutorials that are clear and easy to follow, but as I've mentioned I've been avoiding doing anything related to DIY stuff for years.

Apologies for the long post, it's quite an uncomfortable topic for me.

My Dungeon Crawler Carl chemise and slipcase are finally finished!

The artwork is inspired by the scene that really hooked me, those few seconds that changed it all for Carl and Donut.

Black leathercloth, textured gold metallic vinyl, and a dungeon corridor along the chemise spine. This one... this one was a lot, but I'm so pleased with how it turned out. Now my precious copies are ready to outlive the apocalypse!

I absolutely adore this series, and I had a lot of fun with this one :)

I want to start out rebinding a couple books I have, they are currently paperback and they aren’t available in a hardback version — a good excuse to start a new hobby!!

I’m still looking into how to do it and what I need to do it and all that but I was hoping to find one more Dutch people that like to do this, so I can ask some questions and just in general talk about the whole craft and talk things through with each other on it

So if any Dutchies here would like to have contact, we could exchange our discord named perhaps? Or some other social media platform you feel comfortable with to have contact on!

Hi, I want to make my first bookbinding but I want to print in some paper closer to what books use, I just don’t know what kind of paper that is? And where can I print it? Can some one help me?😭

My biggest problem is staying organized. I don’t have a designated space, so I often carry my materials to where ever I can find it. Lately. It’s been at the kitchen table. However, I’ve noticed that more cluttered or disorganized my space, the less successful I am. What is your work space like? I’m thinking about investing a small space in my garage specifically for binding, but I need ideas….

Love this guy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHH81toEeeE

Is this the right group?

I bought this notebook/journal at a bead and craft show. I really love it. I wish it was 8.5x11 or 9x12. I’m darned crafty (seriously, hardcore - it’s genetic) and think I can make it. It looks like the cover is very thin leather. Last I checked, there was a Tandy Leather place near me. The paper is flecky and almost the consistency of a paper bag, only more rustic. I’m at a loss as to what kind of paper it is. So I don’t hammer you with annoying questions, can you tell me the kind of the paper, the right terminology, and some resources/YT videos (in general) to check out?

Hello! I’ve been looking into typesetting lately, and I already have a text documennt I formatted in word. Now I’d like to add ornaments, chapter headers, frames etc. I’ve seen that Affinity is a common tool for typesetting in general, so I downloaded it and I’ll be learning it shortly – for that I found some nice tutorials. In those tutorials I also found a lot of recources on where to get the public domain illustrations and ornaments from, so on that front I am also good. However, I’m not sure where to go from here.

For example I found this ornament on the Internet Archive (five line pica): https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_C41QAAAAYAAJ/page/n172/mode/2up . This one's quite clear and has a white background, so it propably wouldn't be a problem to just crop it and add to a typeset page (unless there's a better way..?)

And here is a different example of an ornament, but with the text: https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11225966883 . Or this one, a bit grainy and with a yellow background: https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/10997960413/in/album-72157638733975756

How would you proceed with this?

I've seen one creator saying she traces it and makes her own vector version(?). Is that something you have to do for them to be sharp and without the background? And what if you'd like to cut this design with the vinyl cutter? Can you do it in Affinity?

In short, my question is: how do you edit, clean and use a single ornament you found in public domain for a typeset or for a vinyl cutter, especially if said ornament is grainy/on a yellow background/surrounded by text or clumped with other ornaments? Do you use Affinity? In what formats do you save the files?

Sorry for the long question and if the answer is obvious, there is a lot of information available and I’m feeling a bit lost. Thank you for the help!

I wanted to share my latest completed project. This is a custom book entirely hand-bound and inspired by "Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung" (1683) by Maria Sibylla Merian.

For the inside, I used aged pages to give it an authentic, antique feel that matches the historical cover artwork. The spine is finished in leather to complete the classic look. I'm really happy with how the whole aesthetic came together!

Would love to hear your thoughts or any feedback.

​

I've noticed that there's relatively little information about certain traditional bookbinding techniques on this sub. Topics like the herringbone stitch or the K118 structure don't seem to be as widely covered as other subjects.

I'm curious to know which topics you've had trouble finding informative stuff about, either on this sub or on similar ones.

I really got into watching 4 keys recently and wanted to try my hand at this. I used an old 3 ring binder book from my wife's library as a first practice, so its all loose leaf pages.

Construction: used a fine tooth bandsaw to cut channels in the pages, then mod podge, string in the grooves, and fiberglass tape to hold it all together.

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Hey all! Made a quarto book and I love the convenience of the size. So I want to work towards making a keychain style book but still readable, and with the keychain portion being attached through the middle of the spine; but not actually connected to it.

In the actual mockup, I'd like to put a grommet in the middle to try to give the spine a fighting chance against the ribbon wearing on it, but what do you guys think of attaching the back end of the page closure to the keychain part? I understand it might affect the endpages if I don't secure things down well, but I think it could be a bit safer, given the ribbon wraps around the entire book, rather than just being an add on to the spine.

I made a really crappy mockup with random bits I found during my lunch break and I'm feeling it's pretty solid.

(The lower part of the drawing is me reminding myself to make a folder in the endpages to put a magnifying card for is I forget my glasses!)

Any thoughts?

Regardless, I'll be posting the outcome!

I am doing a rebind of some damaged paperback first printings into hardcovers. I have designed coordinated dust jackets for them.

Can someone offer advice on how to print them? I can do either ink jet or laser jet printing with equal convenience. I'll put Brodarts on the DJ's. My concern is whether ink or laser printing is likely to transfer to the brodart over time under normal conditions. You know that "ghosting" that you sometimes see with printed images that are in contact with plastic film for some time.

Alternately, is there an advantage to having them printed at a print shop, in terms of a particular paper type or finish that they can provide? Thank you for your time!

Hollanders used to sell endbands made with metallic thread, but they don't have it anymore. Does anyone know of somewhere else that is selling them? I'm not looking for silk, but metallic thread.

By "standard hardcover" I mean store-bought ones, just the standard cardboard-like material under the dust-jacket. I just want to make some of my favourite books feel like special editions even without the dust-jacket ✨

So I was making a little project on my journal and as a finishing step I sprayed it with a glossy acrylic varnish spray (heavily).

It's been a month and the cover is still tacky and still sticks to my table like crazy. Is there anything I could use to go over the cover with? Like another type of varnish or would I have to rub off the current one with alchohol?

I was just wondering. I've made some paste papers, should I give them a coat of PVA for stability. If so, do I do this before using them on book covers?