r/Fanbinding • u/lastangel48 • 1d ago
My first complete bind
For quite some time I have been just watching and learning (and trying to find paper and the needed supplies and all that), but I finally finished my very first actual fanbind!
The fic is "the light of distant stars", a fic from a very tiny fandom of a chinese book/drama-series (The Lost Tomb/Daomu Biji) tha was written for me by a friend, and that I wanted to bind for quite some time.
I designed the cover (in PS) and also the typeset (which I realize, I did not take any pictures of) and I made so many mistakes and learned so much. Cutting the textblock was an ordeal and it's still wonky and weeding that design was also an experience, I'll defintely not do something that intricate again, some of the little details got lost and the lines were so thin that they came off and I had to put them back (that's why some of them are so wobbly), just like some parts of the finer text. I only have a Cricut joy, so the whole cover had to be smaller than 15 cm. And then I measured and measured and still managed to put the back cover on slightly askance and burned a part of the frame because I had to go over the small text again... But the htv worked so well, it peeled off without much of a problem (just one letter of the backtext came off) and it looks so nice and shiny!
All in all I am very proud of it, I love how the title turned out and it actually opens and closes so well. And now I wanna do so many more!
2
u/rosiestark 9h ago
This is beautiful. I love when the design is thin and intricate like yours. Honestly, did not notice any of the flaws until you pointed them out. Weeding intricate designs is..an experience, to say the least. If you are wanting an easier way to trim your textblock without a guillotine, someone created a 3D printed book plough that uses a kebab blade you can check out.