sometimes,,, a family can be a overdramatic evil dude with a whiskey fetish, a lady who empathizes with AIs more than people, and a super sarcastic pyro
second “finished” fanart for @sword-and-stars great pokémon/atla fusion carry on for you. this time the aftermath of Jet’s last visit in field and a river. I liked both hair lengths again … pls enjoy
First bookbinding project a success. I think that my cat approves because he would not stay out of my photos. Five months in the making, but I couldn’t be more pleased with the results.
I started with @armoredsuperheavy’s amazing fanbinding tutorial to create a typeset of each work in @erisenyo’s Burning Bright AU published on Ao3. Then had to reread the works in the new format and edit as I went to make sure everything was formatted correctly, (combined word count somewhere around 1.3 million) that took over a month all by itself.
I picked up a copy of Introduction to Bookbinding & Custom Cases by Tom and Cindy Hollander from my local library, to look at some detailed how to images and get multiple perspectives on construction methods. Excellent book, I do recommend.
My hunt for materials included a trip to Detroit with a side stop at Blick to look at decorative papers in person. Blick and the fine people at Hollander’s ended up having everything I needed to make covers. So between my brother kindly 3d printing me a punch cradle, making a DIY sewing frame of my own invention (courtesy of scrap lumber and a trip to the Lowe’s hardware department), and three reams of late night printing, I managed to amass all my supplies.
Folding three reams of paper into signatures (the little bundles you sew together) takes about five days if you don’t want to lose your mind or your place, and longer if you discover you need to fix things because that definitely happened. Then you get to unfold them to stab holes in them which is as terrifying at first and therapeutic by the end as it sounds.
Next came weeks of sewing books together, a magical process. I learned three new knots, repeatedly stabbed myself (because all forms of creation forcibly demand blood sacrifice) , and felt like I was roleplaying a monastic librarian from the time of Gutenburg. That’s 600 years ago, 24ish generations, over 8million ancestors since then (by geometric progression, which excludes the possibility that any of my peasant ancestry is from small towns which is you know likely but I digress) and here I sat sewing pages together in a basement because story is the most sacred of human arts as it binds communities together and shapes perceptions of the self and our brethren, of outsiders allies and enemies, of the world as we know it and as it may come to be. Did I mention sewing books felt magical.
Then came the glue. So much glue. Multiple types of glue. All sticky. all stuck to me. I smeared glue with my fingers like a child.
At last it was time for the covers. Choosing combinations of the decorative papers and bookcloth and making sure I could get enough out of each material for what I needed. Precise cutting so many thanks to the architecture school professors who showed me how to properly cut chipboard. Then measuring and gluing, and more measuring, and more gluing. At last press a little groove by the spine and repeat eleven times.
Then I get to impress all my people with my latest and possibly coolest maker skill unlock, I am a book binder.
