Ficbinding: Cut Him Out in Little Stars
Jul. 2nd, 2023 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ehydeThis book has made it to its recipient, so now I can share!
The fic "Cut Him Out in Little Stars" by ChaoticAndrogynous, in which Wei Wuxian is reborn as a comet, is possibly my favorite fic I've read in the past year. I started typesetting it almost immediately after reading it last summer, but various other projects happened and I didn't finish the binding until now.
Although this fic isn't a scifi au in the classic sense, it is still very much in space (do you enjoy having feelings about the vastness of space and also time? read this fic) and I went with a space theme for the binding. I have held onto this cover paper since I started bookbinding and saw someone else us it on a different book--it's from a Michael's paper pack--and I was waiting for the perfect fic and this was it. The paper pack came with two sheets of this pattern and I...promptly cut one of them an inch too short *facepalm*. So the two copies of this book (one for the author, one for myself) have different covers.
The endpapers are "Moon" handmade paper from Hook Pottery Paper, and the cool thing about this paper is that it's not a printed pattern--it's made with different colors of paper fiber. It was also a dream to work with, one of the most cooperative case-ins I've done, so I may end up using paper from this maker even for solid colors.
The title font is "Tycho's Elegy" which is based on the handwriting of Tycho Brahe (not the historical astronomer who shows up in the fic, but thematically adjacent and also it's pretty). I found some old astronomy illustrations online and modified them for the title page and the chapter header. In the book, Wei Wuxian's comet appears purple from earth, hence the purple ribbon and purple in the endbands; I also sewed the book with purple thread (the comet appears every 23 years; the stitching, every 24 pages. Close enough?).
The cover paper already had a foiled gold design. I added the title with a foil quill (via silhouette machine) but the foil quill didn't take well to my bookcloth (it's a homemade bookcloth from a linen/cotten/sparkle fabric), so I ended up just making the spine title from htv. I foiled the page edges with a holographic star patterned foil, and you can see a video of me doing the foil edges here.
This is my (I think) twentieth bookbinding project, and thirty-somethingth individual book, since I started bookbinding two years ago. Maybe I'll make a stats post/retrospective later!
The fic "Cut Him Out in Little Stars" by ChaoticAndrogynous, in which Wei Wuxian is reborn as a comet, is possibly my favorite fic I've read in the past year. I started typesetting it almost immediately after reading it last summer, but various other projects happened and I didn't finish the binding until now.
Although this fic isn't a scifi au in the classic sense, it is still very much in space (do you enjoy having feelings about the vastness of space and also time? read this fic) and I went with a space theme for the binding. I have held onto this cover paper since I started bookbinding and saw someone else us it on a different book--it's from a Michael's paper pack--and I was waiting for the perfect fic and this was it. The paper pack came with two sheets of this pattern and I...promptly cut one of them an inch too short *facepalm*. So the two copies of this book (one for the author, one for myself) have different covers.
The endpapers are "Moon" handmade paper from Hook Pottery Paper, and the cool thing about this paper is that it's not a printed pattern--it's made with different colors of paper fiber. It was also a dream to work with, one of the most cooperative case-ins I've done, so I may end up using paper from this maker even for solid colors.
The title font is "Tycho's Elegy" which is based on the handwriting of Tycho Brahe (not the historical astronomer who shows up in the fic, but thematically adjacent and also it's pretty). I found some old astronomy illustrations online and modified them for the title page and the chapter header. In the book, Wei Wuxian's comet appears purple from earth, hence the purple ribbon and purple in the endbands; I also sewed the book with purple thread (the comet appears every 23 years; the stitching, every 24 pages. Close enough?).
The cover paper already had a foiled gold design. I added the title with a foil quill (via silhouette machine) but the foil quill didn't take well to my bookcloth (it's a homemade bookcloth from a linen/cotten/sparkle fabric), so I ended up just making the spine title from htv. I foiled the page edges with a holographic star patterned foil, and you can see a video of me doing the foil edges here.
This is my (I think) twentieth bookbinding project, and thirty-somethingth individual book, since I started bookbinding two years ago. Maybe I'll make a stats post/retrospective later!
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Date: 2023-07-03 04:59 pm (UTC)Also, the foil on the edges is a great idea! Perhaps I'll try that at one point; I'd have to work with a hot iron, though, I don't have all that cricut stuff and as of now, refus to buy it all. XD
I've pondered trying to do such a title page design where the picture goes over both pages, but since I work with LibreOffice, I'm not sure it will work out in the end, that the pages will "fit" together, you know? Still, something to try at some point...
I also thought what a beautiful font, but I might have asked you about it before? Perhaps in a WiP post? Because I already had that font saved. XD
This fic is definitely one I'll bind at one point, too. It's been recced so many times and I've skimmed parts, there just seems to be sth about it that's so special and beautiful.
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