Share Your Binderary 2023 Thoughts!
Feb. 1st, 2023 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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renegadepublishing
Binderary 2023 is officially here, and we'd love to hear from you! We've prepared a list of daily prompts to get you thinking about all things fanbinding this month - inspiration, materials, process - you name it, we got it.
Feel free to reply to this post with the date and an answer to the following prompts:
- What does Renegade mean to you?
- Favorite Fic
- One thing you'd like to learn more about
- Paper!
- Cloth!
- The Glue War
- Machines (Printers, Cricut, etc.)
- Favorite binding technique
- Your Best Tip/Trick
- Favorite Detail
- Spines
- Mistakes/Fails
- Process
- Storage Solutions
- Your Workspace
- Dust jackets and covers
- Published inspiration
- Illustrations
- Favorite Tool
- Favorite part of the binding process
- Inspo: The binder that inspired you!
- Inspo: The fic that inspired you!
- Author spotlight: Someone you've bound
- Author spotlight: Someone you'd like to bind
- Favorite bind by you!
- Favorite bind by someone else!
- First bind
- Latest bind
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-02 08:36 pm (UTC)If I had to boil it down to one sentence, Renegade means community. Renegade has the feeling of old school fandom that I haven't had the pleasure of feeling in a while; the sense of community and wonder. It's incredible to me that we can all be from such different walks of life - different countries, different continents, fandoms wholly on other ends of the spectrum from one another - and still share in one communal thread that links us all together.
2) Favorite Fic
Picking just one is IMPOSSIBLE! Hence my endless binding goals! If I had to pick one, though, I would shine a spotlight on more peril in thine eye by iron_spider. It's a tour de force of H/C and Irondad, and I'm in love with it.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-05 06:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-05 07:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-03 05:30 pm (UTC)There’s always more to learn with this hobby, and that’s part of the fun! I’d like to learn more about foiling; right now I have the cricut tip, but it always seems to mess up whenever I try to use it!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-04 12:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-04 04:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-04 05:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-04 04:13 pm (UTC)I suppose you could talk about any paper, but I’m going to get up on my soapbox and talk about Mohawk paper! I love the Mohawk Via 70T for my textblocks, be it natural or ivory. It’s definitely thicker than most use (105gsm or so), but the lack of bleed through and the quality make up for it imo. I won’t go about 500 pages in a single volume with it, but I don’t like terribly large books anyway; difficult to read and travel with, and by the time a fic gets up to 600 pages, you can split it into two 300 page volumes with ease, and not have either be too small.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-04 05:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-05 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-06 06:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-05 06:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-05 07:26 pm (UTC)I like it a lot! I posted a picture of an example of how art doesn't have as much bleed through on Tumblr/Discord. It definitely chonks up your books, but I personally think it's worth it.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-04 05:55 pm (UTC)I have a box with a lot of paper that I have spoiled in the process of learning how to bind. I keep it because I want to learn how to make recycled paper. This month is my summer vacation, the heat is killing us, but it is a great opportunity to recycle paper in the garden.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-05 06:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-05 07:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-06 06:34 pm (UTC)Days 1-5 Answers!
Date: 2023-02-05 06:28 pm (UTC)Renegade has, in all honesty, probably changed the course of my life! That's not hyperbole--it's had such a huge influence on my hobbies, my friendships, my academic trajectory, even my career. I was still in undergrad when I found ASH's post on fanbinding, and I was very lost as to what the next steps would be. And like so many others experienced, the pandemic only made things even murkier and more isolating. Then I found ASH's manifesto in June 2020, worked up the courage to join the Discord in July 2020, and found a community of like-minded weirdos who were just as passionate (if not even more so!) about their favorite stories, and a craft that I fall a little bit more in love with every day (well, most days. fuckin printers man XD). I wrote my honors thesis thanks to Renegade; I've made lifelong friends thanks to Renegade; I have my current job, in a field I love, thanks to Renegade. (My first Rocky Horror Picture show at Havencon 2022? All thanks to Renegade :D) This really feels like my forever fandom home-- even when I jump around from fandom to fandom, there's always a wonderful and supportive community to fall back on. In short, I really love it here, I'm so pleased with what we've done so far, and I can't wait to see where we go! ❤️
2. Favorite Fic
As everyone else who answered this, this question is IMPOSSIBLE. However, if you put a gun to my head and told me to answer right now, I'd have to say Tell Me About the Big Bang (my binding of it here!) It's one of the fics that has touched me most deeply and which has probably had the greatest influence on my writing. It was one of the first fics I'd ever bound, and I really wanted to rebind it to see how far I've come!
3. One thing you'd like to learn more about
GOD SO MANY THINGS. Backing! Headband techniques. Chisel trimming. Edge gilding. Tiny books. More advanced Cricut techniques. More cohesive and professional-looking graphic design. This hobby is really a dozen hobbies in a trench coat, and there's so much to explore.
4. Paper!
For my textblocks, I use 20 lb. cream Hammermill paper! I order it in 11"x 17" and get it cut in half for short grain, like a lot of other folks at Renegade. Recently I've started experimenting with quarto-sized Legal (8.5"x 14")and fell in love. I also want to try a bunch of the other paper that folks have suggested (looking at
5. Cloth!
DUO BOOKCLOTH MY BELOVED. God I wish I'd gotten in on the Renegade group order - but ah well. Big fan of making my own though! There are just so many options to choose from, so it really expands what you can do (again: a dozen hobbies and crafts in a trench coat)
Re: Days 1-5 Answers!
Date: 2023-02-06 07:06 pm (UTC)Oh, yes! And that's what I love from this too.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-06 07:38 pm (UTC)A dozen hobbies in a trenchcoat I can't xD that's so accurate its painful askdfjhdg
TALAS STILL HAS SOME DUO RUN RUN RUN
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-09 05:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-05 07:21 pm (UTC)My favorite cloth has honestly gotta be duo. It's a real fuckin shame it's going out of business 😭 it's so goddamn gorgeous. I know there was an effort to see if we could replicate it 👀 and if anyone can reverse engineer it, it would be Renegade.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-06 06:58 pm (UTC)What is duo?
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-06 07:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-07 12:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-06 05:28 pm (UTC)I AM A SIMPLE BITCH. I use PVA for everything (:< maybe one day I'll get fancy and try mixing up some wheat paste or methyl cellulose, but PVA is just so simple and easy for me to get my hands on year round, since we have Blick stores out here who can carry it year round (it's not gonna freeze, ever)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-06 07:03 pm (UTC)I spend the first 6 months trying to understand what wheat paste was , only to realize it was the old good "engrudo" from my childhood. My mum use to make it for me when I was a little one.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-06 07:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-07 12:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-09 05:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-07 04:39 pm (UTC)Printer, my beloved. I will never stop singing Brother’s praises 😂 I have a Brother Inkjet, which turns out really good image quality - leagues and bounds above my shitty HP printer. The dream is to one day also have a laser (I’ll probably stick with Brother - they’ve been good to me ever since college, too), so I can print text and images on the respective printers and save on ink. My printer is also an auto duplex, and I’ll never go back. YOU CAN’T MAKE ME GO BACK.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-09 02:22 am (UTC)On the other end of the machines, there is my Cricut maker. I bought it used three months ago and haven't had the head or time to learn how to use it properly to make my books. The materials and supplies are very expensive here in Chile and I'm a bit regretful of purchasing it.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-08 08:45 pm (UTC)Is it a technique? Maybe. I use SeaLemon's modified kettle stitch for all of my sewing. I tried tapes once and it just didn't agree with me. As long as it holds the book together, I'm not complaining 😂 I do want to try a springback at some point, but I'm not getting particularly fancy at the moment.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-09 02:36 am (UTC)I'm not quite sure what's the name of the stitch I use, but I do enjoy sewing signatures so much. I'd tried American binding, but I don't like it as much as I do love sewing. I would like to learn how to use a sewing frame.
I am in a “plateau” stage, I must dedicate myself to consolidate what I have learned to make it “flesh” and be able to bind without having to think so much about each step. At the moment, I have achieved that while making the text blocks. They turn out very well, everything else requires a lot of concentration from my part (Let's not talk about end papers, they turn all wrong in the last books I'd made)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-09 05:43 pm (UTC)Days 6-9 Answers!
Date: 2023-02-09 05:42 pm (UTC)LOVE me some PVA! I know that it gives you less time to do things, but I get impatient XD. Plus it's cheap and easy to find and ready to use right out of the bottle, which is great. I've tried my hand at making starch paste + PVA with very mixed (ha!) results, although I had a wonderful time with some methyl cell that Six gifted me at Havencon last year <3 So mayhaps will have to buy more of that for a future project!
7. Machines
Love my Epson ecotank! I recently bought it--for the first two years I was going to my local print shop because the quality was great and I had a discount card. Unfortunately the discount card eventually expired, so I decided to bite the bullet and get my own printer. I really love it! I didn't want to have to deal with laser and printing in color can get pricey--the cartridges are just so goddamn expensive, although I do think laser prints in higher quality. Mayhaps a future purchase, because I'd really like to experiment with foiling!
I also love my Cricut Explore 2, Charlotte! She holds up very well, although I think she's due for a blade refill soon. I've just been setting my pressure higher and higher LOL
8. Favorite binding technique
Ooh this one is interesting! I know which part of the process I enjoy the most, which is sewing! Kettle stitch my beloved. ALTHOUGH I am a sucker for the French link too--it's just so pretty! And we just had a wonderful workshop put on last week by Queercore Curriculum on their...embroidered binding/long-stitch binding (??? I don't know if there's an official name for it yet), which I LOVE. Glueless bindings are SO cool and I would love to experiment more with them.
9. Your best tip/trick
Ooh! Hmmm...I'd say: never bind while you're super tired/hungry LOL. I've made many a preventable mistake very late at night because I wanted to get something cased in or glued before bed when I probably should've waited till morning XD That being said, on the flip side I think you should never be afraid to experiment! Go hog wild!!! Use those glitter pens!! Try out that fancy silk for your endbands!! Try that new binding style! And if you fuck up, remember that's okay too! These are handmade objects and those mistakes are proud proof of that, and of your journey as a fanbinder. Stick 'em in the channel on the Discord, laugh and (maybe cry a little XD) about it, and then keep going. tldr; ya live and learn!
Days 10-19 Answers!
Date: 2023-02-19 04:48 pm (UTC)Ooh, this one's hard! I love leaving little Easter eggs in my designs. I'd say my favorite is putting my maker's mark on things! My imprint is Moonham Press (a fun mix of my usernames, chubsthehamster and chubsonthemoon), and the logo includes a little crescent moon. I'd actually been binding for about two years when I finally made the imprint--I used to think that it was...idk, kind of weird to put myself in the book? Like I was taking away from the story inside it. But then I got to thinking--well, hey, I'm the one who made this book, right? If nothing else, putting my mark on it tells someone who may pick it up one day that I was connected to this story. Some conversations with some folks at Renegade during Havencon 2022 also helped me embrace this. So these days I put my imprint logo in the typesetting, and I also put it on the cover somewhere! My favorite spots are either on the spine, between the title and author name, or on the back cover, in the bottom left corner :D
11. Spines
Spines are the bane of my existence. Haha, jk. They're mostly just tedious, since they're one of the only parts of the process that still require precise measurement (I've cut templates for everything else by now, and I use my guillotine to cut boards, so that goes super fast). For my thicker books I use Bristol board; I actually still use the same sheets I bought in 2020 when I first started binding--I didn't know how much I would really need so I think I ordered four massive sheets which will probably last me for ten years LOL. For my thinner books, I use Davy board, which is a pain to cut but gives the book a really nice board feel. And for my paperbacks, the spine is just the cover, which I make out of kraft paper for the backing + the decorative paper (usually scrapbook paper or something I've designed and printed)
12. Mistakes/Fails
Ooh BOY are there many. My most recent was my experiment with making a hardback quarto letter. I made the hinge waaaaay too small so when I tested the case the textblock was sticking out of it LOL. But I've been pretty lucky--this is only the second case I've had to remake in my time as fanbinder *KNOCKS ON WOOD*, but my printer fuck-ups when I was trying to figure out how to print on legal sized paper (since my printer doesn't duplex) probably make up for the luck I've had in the case department XD. Casing in, though--I think I've had maaaaaybe...two or three case-ins where I was completely happy with the results. A large part of this is because my guillotine doesn't cut completely straight, so my squares are never even LOL. But hey, I'm not getting paid for this, and I'm having fun, so eh.
13. Process
Ooh, interesting! My process has remained largely unchanged--I think the only thing that has really changed is now the frequency at which I print. I used to print at a print shop, so I'd make typesets in large batches--usually two to four books, sometimes more (I think the most I've done at a time is five?), and I'd make a day out of it. Now that I have my printer at home though, I can do things in smaller batches! I can also test print things, so I've been able to get a lot more experimental with my books sizes and my covers. Everything else has remained largely the same--the first book I did I typeset in MS Word, but everything after that I've all done in Affinity Publisher. I typeset > print > bind > take pictures! I really like how different each step is (like I said, twelve different hobbies in a trench coat), so there's always something different to do if I get bored. My favorite parts are probably designing covers and sewing the signatures!
14. Storage solutions
OUGH. I have one of those rollaway drawer thingies for all my tools, a dozen scrapbook paper containers, several large baskets for my vinyl and cloth, a hanging stand for my larger sheets of decorative paper, a standing desk which holds my Cricut and printer (a few of the aforementioned vinyl baskets are under this desk too), another rollaway basket thingy that holds my printing paper and my press (also under the standing desk), another desk which holds both my two guillotines and cutting mats (and under that desk are all my scrapbook paper containers and Cricut mats), and a final third desk where I keep all my sewing stuff and where I do my typesetting and other sitting-down parts of the process. And of course my shelves for all my books! This doesn't really give a sense of where everything is, but it's actually fairly organized, and for the most part I know where everything is (except for my FUCKING bone folder god that thing is always ending up in places I do not remember putting it XD)
15. Your Workspace
Ah, see my answer to 14! I'll probably upload a photo here later XD
16. Dust jackets and covers
Oooh, I've never made a dust jacket before--I don't think my printer could handle the wonky paper size that it requires, but they look really cool and I'd maybe be up for making one someday! And covers! Both my greatest love and my greatest enemy. They're super fun to design, but this is one part of the process that always feels like an uphill battle for me! There are so many skilled and talented folks in Renegade with GORGEOUS covers, and it's always a mix of being incredibly inspired and getting some design envy--but either way it's very motivating to keep me out of my comfort zone and to always keep trying new things. I use decorative paper and scrapbook paper mostly for the base material (although I've begun experimenting with designing things digitally and printing them out on Epson matte presentation paper), and then the rest is fuck it, we ball. I usually design the cover last, so I have an entire typeset and title page already when I begin, which makes things a little easier since I have an already established aesthetic to work with. My font selection is kind of determined by how small the text for the title/author name is, since my Cricut isn't great at cutting super small sizes (Times New Roman, funnily enough, is one of the only fonts that it can do at smaller sizes LOL so a lot of the text on my covers/spines are in TNR). I'm excited to keep improving and experimenting in this area!
17. Published inspiration
Ooh!! This one's fun--when I first began making my Master pages in Affinity publisher, I literally grabbed the first few books I saw on my shelf and said 'alright, this looks good' and haven't looked back since LOL. Those books were Vintage's editions of Toni Morrison's novels, Picador's Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, Vintage's edition of Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark, Fall River's omnibus editions of Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes's works, Penguin Classic's Deluxe edition of Jane Austen's novles, and a few others that I can't remember. I looked at all these books, found what they had in common (for example, a simple title page before the decorative title page, the use of a single graphic or design at the beginning of each chapter, etc.) and went with that! I don't usually take inspiration from specific books, EXCEPT for a project I'm currently working on which I'm super excited about :3 More TK here eheh
18. Illustrations
FANART MY BELOVED. I LOVE including fanart in my books, because it's such a lovely demonstration of the communal nature of these stories and it's so fun getting to collect all the pieces. For free use graphics my favorite sites are Adobe Stock images and Heritage Library. Heritage in particular has a beautiful selection of free vintage graphics packs that I've used for years now. And very occasionally, wingdings fonts will have something I really like XD
19. Favorite tool
Despite my gripes earlier about always misplacing it, I ADORE my bone folder. It's a funky lil dude and it makes all my edges nice and crisp! I can't wait for the retreat bone folder fufu :3 Also a very big fan of my guillotine, which despite its flaws makes my life a hell of a lot easier in the long run, as well as my presses, which were handmade by my dad and do their jobs very well (squiiiiiiish)
Days 20-28 Answers!
Date: 2023-03-07 06:03 pm (UTC)Oooh, this one's fun! I really like the actual construction of the book--sewing sigs is always relaxing and has been one of my fave parts since the very beginning. Recently I've started to really enjoy designing covers, especially if there are a lot of physical elements (like layering scrapbook paper or playing around with Mod Podge).
21. Inspo: The binder that inspired you!
Ohhh this one's so hard! Literally every time I check the #show-off channel in the Discord I'm struck by so many beautiful books. I'm going to cheat and name a few people here, but this list is by no means comprehensive and doesn't even begin to cover everyone I could name.
I had the absolute privilege to hold Space's copy of Away Childish Things at Havencon last year. Literally every book Space makes I fall in love with, and her designs are a HUGE inspiration for me. Everything from the typesetting to cover design to physical construction--I lose my marbles every time.
Everything Manda binds is just so beautiful. Their color choices are always inspired and their headbands make me want to cry! Their bind of Unconditional in particular had me foaming at the mouth.
The quality of everything Zhalfirin makes, likewise, always blows me away. Her books are so polished and professional, and her photos make me feel like I'm in a museum when I'm trawling her blog for inspo!
Six's tiny books are literally the coolest things ever! I'm still working my way through the Binderary vids and I can't wait to get to hers. Six plays with form in mind-bending and truly innovative ways, and her blog is wonderland of tiny and fantastical book creatures.
Kam's endbands are to DIE for. Like fr I am in awe every time!!! And Kam's cover + title page designs are a huge source of inspo for me--forever in love with this bind of theirs, with the beautiful painted cover and matching endpapers T_T
And of course!!! I (and everyone else) wouldn't be here without our beloved leader,
22. Inspo: The fic that inspired you!
My original answer was also my answer for 27 ("First bind"), but I'm gonna say something a little different here! I usually know pretty quickly whether I'm interested in binding something, but very rarely has a fic gotten me hook, line, and sinker the way Banhus's King of Infinite Space did. Like, from the first line I was like "oh god I need to hold this one." And eventually I did! :3
23. Author spotlight: Someone you've bound
AHHHHHH this one is so hard too! I've bound a good number of authors over the years, many of whom are my dear friends, and to spotlight only a single one would be impossible. So I'm just going to poke Dodici, whose killugon fic See You Upside Down is one of the best killugon reunion fics ever in my very humble hamster opinion. Hi Tessa ilysm <333
24. Author spotlight: Someone you'd like to bind
OOOOOH. Many, many fics are in my queue. I'll keep them to myself for now, since I prefer to ask for author permission via DM, but atm I have my eye on a few Good Omens authors whose work I adore!
25. Favorite bind by you!
THIS ONE IS SO HARD AJLSKDJF. I love all my babies so much and I'm proud of what I was able to accomplish and what I learned from each of them. However, if you put a gun to my head and asked me to choose right now, I'd have to go with my most recent bind of Maybe sprout wings by Moorishflower. I'm really pleased with both the construction and the curation of its contents, which includes the work of nearly a dozen people. It was my attempt at capturing the communal nature of fanfiction's creation and dispersal, and it was also my Big Project this Binderary. I'm ridiculously fond and proud of it!
26. Favorite bind by someone else!
THIS ONE IS SO HARD TOO HELP. Okay this is only one of my many many favorites, but dragging Space back out here again to say that her bind of Away Childish Things has permanently altered my brain chemistry. Like, the cutout!!! The patronuses!!!! The title page cutout???? THE KEY??? Again, I held this book in my hands IN PERSON last year and I'm still not over it. The quality of the work is absolutely bonkers crazy incredible and I think about it Often.
27. First bind
The very first fic I ever bound was On Stranger Tides by theroyalsavage. It's still one of my favorite fics ever today--the perfect blend of action/adventure, romance, humor, and fantasy. It gives me the good ol' "roaming the high seas with found family and magic and pirates" ache. It holds a very special place in my heart!
28. Latest bind
See 22! But for funsises, I'm also ridiculously fond of the binding before that, of Box's fic The Politeness of Princes, because I got to do lots of fun arts and crafty things with the cover!