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In my previous post, in which I was asked to come up with my own challenge, I said that I wanted to finish this bookbinding project I had been struggling with. Well, I have some joyful news, because I did it! I've been steadily working on the books since writing that post and finished them yesterday. I'm so happy and relieved they're finally done!

This project came to be because one of my best friends handed me a pile of her favourite sheet music pieces and asked me to make a book out of them. She plays often and found it impractical to have all her sheet music on separate sheets. We decided quickly that it would be best to bind them into multiple volumes, because one big book doesn't fit onto a music stand. I've never done multiple volumes before, so I was really excited. Making three books that all have to be the same size, and look good together but also separately, was an entirely new challenge for me, but one I was very much up to.

It was easy to decide which sheet music would go into which volume. My friend had solos, duets and group pieces, so it made perfect sense to make one book for each of those categories. After we had made that decision, the design popped into my head almost immediately. I wanted to make the cover look like sheet music as well, with one set of music bars for the solos, two for the duets and three for the group pieces. That way the books would look like they belonged together, but it would also be easy to tell them apart.

The cover is made with bookcloth inlays, so the strips of black and white were all cut separately and then glued together side by side. It was very time-consuming and my hands still hurt from having to cut 30 small strips of black bookcloth, but hey, we got there in the end. Oh, and the endpages match the cover design as well, but with a reverse colour scheme. I made those with a white gelly roll pen and a ruler and I think they turned out very well!

So there you have it. I've given the books to my friend already and she's very happy with them. Hope she'll get a lot of use out of them!

Current Music: No Time to Die - Billie Eilish
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/8729.html

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of white ice crystals/snowflakes on a dark green background. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31

( Day 14: Talk about a favourite trope )

( Day 15: Create your own challenge )

Current Music: Alive! - Omnia
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/8490.html

( Day 10: Talk about someone who inspires you )

( Day 11: Recommend a resource )

( Day 12: Commit an act of kindness )

( Day 13: Create a fanwork )

Current Music: Nymphetamine by Cradle of Filth
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/8201.html

( Day 7: Prmote/Rec/Sing the praises of yourself )( Day 8: Rec at least three fanworks you didn't create )

Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/8073.html

( Challenge 5: Interact with someone new )

( Challenge 6: Make a list of things you wish existed in your fandom )

Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/7799.html

Challenge 4: In your own space, set some goals for the coming year

Personal
2017 en 2018 were difficult years, because during them I discovered that university wasn't the right place for me anymore. The Master's programme I was in was perfect for me on paper, but in reality it wasn't remotely challenging and I was bored out of my mind for the 1,5 years I was in it, until I finally dropped out. As a result, I became very depressed, which forced me to reflect on life and what I wanted from it. Figuring out what you want is hard though. It was much easier to figure out what I didn't want, and throwing those things out of my life was the theme for 2019. I got rid of a lot of things that no longer worked for me. Hobbies, clothes, books, clients, friendships. Some of it painful, some of it a relief, but I like to think that all of it was necessary. I don't think I need to get rid of anything anymore though. I feel like I've stripped my life to the bare bones already. Everything I've left, at least the things I have control over, are things I'm happy with. So in 2020 I'd like to build my life back up. I have room for new hobbies and new friendships now and I intend to actively go looking for those. To be succesful in that, my goals for 2020 are to keep an open mind and not dismiss new opportunities out of fear.

Fandom
- Writing: I've had this fanfic idea in my head for almost 5 years and in 2020 I finally want to write it, dammit. I know the concept has a lot of potential. I have loads of plans for it and I just want to get it all out of my head. I always thought I needed to be much better at writing before I could do this story justice, and that's probably true, but the reality is that I don't want to write anything else. Every other fic I've written in the past few years has been half-hearted at best, because my fingers were secretly itching to write different words. So done with the excuses. In 2020 I want to see this story on paper.

- Bookbinding: There are two books I want to make. The first one will be a collection of my favourite short fics, bound in leather and handwritten, because these fics deserve nothing less. This is going to be a ridiculously time-consuming and ambitious project, but one I'm very excited about. Unfortunately, the binding I have in mind is above my current skill level, so I won't be able to finish it until I'm more confident with leather. The calligraphy, on the other hand, I can already do. I still have a lot of planning and designing to do for this project, but I hope to get started on the calligraphy this summer.
The second book, which is a binding of a wonderful fanfic I read last year, will be much more doable. The design for this is already done; I've had it sharp and clear in my head for months. I'm going to get started on this project tomorrow and want to have it finished in April.

Current Music: Chanterai por mon corage - Estampie
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/7611.html

Challenge three: pimp your favourite comms, fests and challenges

The community I'm by far the most active in, is

snape_potter , a community for people who ship Snarry. It's quite big and pretty active. It has its own discord group and hosts two fests every year. In April/ May there's the Snarry-a-Thon and in December the Secret Snarry Swap. Both are prompt based, but for the Swap you have to follow the prompt more closely, because your work is meant to be a gift for the person who left the prompt. I have participated in both in the past and always had a great time. I find creating for the Swap easier, because you're creating for someone, which gives you the motivation to continue when you hit a road block. However, the Thon gives you a lot more freedom and I really like that too, so I'm just very happy that both fests exist and I can get the best of both worlds.

I also love

snapecase , which is completely dedicated to Snape. It's only active once a year, when it hosts its annual fest, but it's worth the wait, because most entries are a treat. The fest doesn't work with prompts, but with age categories. When you sign up, you have to specify whether you want to write about Snape as a toddler, or an elderly man, or something in between, and that's it. There are no limits to genre and rating. I enjoy seeing Snape's life explored, especially if it's a part of it we don't see in canon, so I'm always looking forwards to this fest. It's actually posting right now, in Snape's birthday month, so feel free to check it out if you're interested!

Last, I feel like I can't leave

hoggywartyxmas unmentioned, which is a community dedicated to Hogwarts' teachers. Like Snapecase, it's only active when it hosts it's annual fest, but it's also worth the wait. The vast majority of hp fanfics focus on the characters from Harry's generation, so it's wonderful to see a completely different set of characters explored for a change. It's obvious that people spend a lot of time and thought on their entries for the fest because canon doesn't give them an awful lot to work with when it comes to some of the teachers, and I appreciate that. This fest is also posting right now, so go take a look!

Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/7208.html

It's that time of year again! Oh, how time flies. Even though 2019 was intense and stressful and I'm glad for it to be over, I do have good memories of participating in the Snowflake Challenge last year. I'm looking forwards to seeing what this year will bring!

( Challenge one: introduce yourself )

( Challenge two: talk about your fannish history )

Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/6920.html

Earlier today when I was working, I had the idea to create a series on AO3 called The Snarry Bookshelf to which I could add all my fannish bookbinding projects. I liked the idea so much, that I actually put it into motion once I was back home. So now The Snarry Bookshelf officially exists, yay! The Lost World is part 1 of the series and I added Two Minds as part 2, even though I finished that one almost a year earlier.

I haven't talked much about it, but my first fannish bookbinding project was a notebook inspired by Acid and Sinicks Two Minds, which I bound as a gift for Acid back when we were still beta-reading for one another. I never posted it to AO3 before because it was solely meant as a gift for Acid, so it felt wrong to share it with everyone else. However, my excitement about this new series currently overrides my qualms about sharing it, so it's on AO3 now. I'll admit that the photos aren't very good, but I can't take new ones because the book has been on the other side of the world for about a year and a half already, so these will have to do.

It's great to have 4 works up on AO3 now. I might turn into a productive fanwork creator after all. It also feels pretty good to finally have a series up on my AO3 page. It looks quite dashing if I say so myself. I doubt it'll get a lot of attention, but that's not the point. I turned this into a series because I thought it would inspire me to make more books. A bookshelf with just two books is rather empty after all. I don't have any clear plans to make more Snarry books at the moment (I've actually just started working on a completely different and ridiculously ambitious fan project), but I do want to make more eventually. The idea that I can add any new ones to a series now is very motivating. Mission accomplished I'd say!

N.B. This series is very much a work in progress, so nothing is set in stone just yet. I'm not even sure whether The Snarry Bookshelf is the best name for it. Perhaps The Snarry Library would work much better in the long run. Or even The Harry Potter Library, if I ever decide to turn my vague plans to make my own version of the Monster Book of Monsters into reality. Or maybe I could have multiple series. Or I could... Or maybe... Or perhaps....
Anyway, would love to hear your opinion, dearest reader! And if you have any ideas or suggestions for this series, those are very welcome as well!

Current Mood: excited
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/6879.html

Dear reader,

My life has been ridiculously busy lately. Between my dayjob, househunting, and working on a few bookbinding commissions (!), there has been little time for anything else. Fortunately, however, the end is in sight. After more than half a year of searching, I have finally found a new place! I hope to be moving later this month and after that, my life should be a lot calmer. I can't wait.

( Visiting the Boekkunstbeurs )( Soapmaking update )

Current Mood: giddy
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/6584.html

It’s October, which means the time of month-long art and craft related challenges is upon us. When I was mindlessly browsing the internet, I’ve seen Inktober (for drawing with ink), Oiltober (oil painting), Kinktober (kinky fic writing) and Angstober (angsty fic writing), and those are only the ones I’ve come across. Even though all these October challenges can get a bit tiresome, I’ve decided to participate in one. Mine is called NaCraMaMo, which stands for National Craft-Making Month. The idea is to do something crafty every day throughout the month. There’s a community for this challenge in the journals, and as far as I know, that’s all there is, so it’s very small. I’ve been steadily doing crafty activities for the past 1,5 week and am enjoying it. Though I must admit that between bookbinding, which I’m doing three days a week now, and another favourite hobby of mine (cooking), which I’m experimenting with so often I might as well put my bed in the kitchen, it’s not that hard to do something craft-related every day.

Anyway, if you’re interested what I've been up to, feel free to take a look at my weekly posts in the nacramamo comm. I’m not going to be sharing more about the challenge on my own journal, because I’d like to take the opportunity to experiment with posting non-craft-related articles here, starting today.

( Visiting the Zutphen chained library )

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Samuel Barber - Agnus Dei
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/6339.html

Hi everyone,

I’ve had a very productive, crafty, weekend and would love to talk about that today. But first, thank you all so much for your kind and encouraging responses to my previous post! It was good to hear about all your experiences with similar situations and how you dealt with them. It truly warmed my heart that so many of you reached out to me and I felt a lot better equipped to face my fears afterwards, so thank you all so much!

I’m very happy to say that I’ve some good news: I had my very first bookbinding class last week and I loved it! I had the time of my life there, the class exceeded all my expectations. The bookbinding studio there is great, very spacious, with lots of hidden corners and interesting machinery to explore. My classmates seem really nice. I haven’t talked to all of them yet, but the ones I did talk to were lovely. And then there’s the teacher, who’s fantastic! He spent a few hours enthusiastically talking about bookbinding and I wasn’t feeling bored or impatient for a single second. I really liked my previous bookbinding teacher as well, but her teaching method didn’t work for me and I found it difficult to communicate that to her. I don’t have to worry about that with my new teacher, however, because he already uses a teaching method I like! I can’t tell you how much of a relief that is. Having a teacher that works for you can make a huge difference.
On top of all that, I learned a ton in the first class. I didn’t think I would because I knew we’d start at zero, but I filled quite a few pages in my notebook with new tips, tricks and insights. I haven’t completely lost the fear I mentioned in my previous post yet, but I’m really happy I took the plunge and signed up for these classes!

And now on to the craft projects :D

( Woodworking: making a book press )( Soap making )

So that was my productive weekend. A little different from my usual posts, but I hope you enjoyed reading it all the same.

Have a good week!

Current Mood: productive
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/5960.html

The weather in my corner of the world has been very strange all summer. We’re either in a heat wave with temperatures that you might expect in Southern Spain, not Northern Europe. Or it’s cold and raining so hard it seems as if the apocalypse is about to happen. I don’t think we’ve had a normal summer’s day this year. Not a single one. Climate change is very real :/
Anyway, last Saturday was an apocalyptic rain day and I had to go to the post office, so I took my umbrella and ventured out. I actually really enjoy walking in the rain with an umbrella. It always makes me feel like I’m on my own in a tent, listening to the sound of raindrops falling on my roof. Very cosy! Unfortunately, it was raining so hard that day, that I was soaking wet from the waist down after just a 20-minute walk despite the umbrella. It was ok though. I didn’t actually bring it to protect myself from the rain. No, I wanted to protect my backpack. I had very valuable cargo in there, you see. Something that really couldn’t get wet: a book.

( The book )

( The future of my bookbinding )

Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/5835.html

Hi everyone!

I’m back with another book-related post. Last weekend I visited the Deventer Boekenmarkt (the Deventer Book Market), which takes place in Deventer once a year and is apparently the largest book market in Europe. I’m willing to believe that statement, because the market is seriously huge. Half the city centre is covered in stalls and you can find almost any type of book you can imagine there - comics, children’s books, leather-bound tomes from the 18^th century, popular novels from last year, art books, even pages from Medieval manuscripts if you’re lucky. Nothing too high-end though, since the market is outdoors and most stalls only accept cash, but there’s still more than enough to choose from. This was my second time visiting, and both times I only managed to go through about half the stalls before all books started to look the same. And before I ran out of money, that too. But it's ok. The market is just amazing. Imagine being with 120.000 other book lovers, who are all friendly and enthusiastic, and having a city all to yourselves. Isn't that great? If any of you ever has the chance to go, take it. It's just such a great experience. And there are plenty of English books for sale as well, so you don't have to learn Dutch first.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share my purchases here. Mostly because I’m proud of what I bought and want to show it off. But if any of you happens to be interested in seeing what a stranger on the other side of the worlds spends her money on, that would be an added bonus.

( Purchasing policy ) ( The question of money ) ( My purchases )

And that, friends, concludes my Deventer buying spree. Another long post about books, but I hope you enjoyed reading it. Have a good day!

Current Location: Deventer Boekenmarkt
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/5608.html

Hi all!

This is just a quick post to let you know I've made an account on DeviantArt. When I was working on my most recent bookbinding post, I discovered how little space for photos DW actually has. If I write a few more articles like that here, I'll be running out of space very soon, so I realised I needed another place to host those photos. For now, dA is that place.
I've been working on my new account there for the past few days. I've posted the 'uncensored' photos of The Lost World (book version) there, meaning that they don't have my name blocked out like the ones on AO3 do, and also added a few more Snarry related bookbinding projects (sorry for the spam

themightyflynn !). It's not a lot yet, but I'll obviously be adding to my collection when I make something new. Either way, the account is there, it exists, feel free to take a look!

When I was exploring the fannish side of dA, I had the unexpected pleasure to come across another Snarry book! It's called Snarry Notebook and made in 2015 by Vanyanie, a bookbinder who makes mostly fannish books. This book is not inspired by a fic, it's just a general Snarry notebook, but it's gorgeous! It has a beautiful green leather spine, which is hand embossed, and features some really lovely Snarry fanart on the cover and end papers. Vanyanie is a great bookbinder and I'm so happy to see someone else take inspiration from the pairing for a book. Go check it out!

Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/5292.html

For anyone who doesn’t yet know: I recently bound a Snarry fanfic (The Lost World by

perverse_idyll ) into a book and submitted it as my entry for the Snarry-a-Thon, a fest for Snarry related fic and art. The idea of sharing my work with so many people made me ridiculously nervous, but it went very well. I received a lot of incredibly positive and supportive comments. Thank you all so much! I thought of this project as an experiment, and I'd say it was a succesful one. Many people seemed to like it a lot. A few of them even asked me if I could write a step by step article on how I bound the story, and my answer to that is: of course! I’m flattered that so many of you want to know more about it! So I set to writing and here it is. Perverse Idyll has asked me beforehand if I could take photos during the creation process, so I did, and will share those here as well.

Now, a lot of thought and experimentation went into this bookbinding project, so as a result, this post will be quite long, and at times even technical. Feel free to take your time reading it, or even skip some parts altogether. However, I do recommend you read ‘general info’, since that’s where I explain a few bookbinding terms I’ll be using later on. Also note that this is not meant to be a tutorial. It’s mostly a break-down of my proces, so that you can see exactly what one has to take into consideration for a project like this. If anything is unclear or you’d simply like to know more about a certain topic, don’t hesitate to ask. Otherwise, hope you enjoy!

( General info )

( Initial idea & Inspiration )

( Cover design )
( Typesetting & Page design )
( Printing; a story of frustration )

( Making the text block )
( The cover )
( Title & Wrap-up ) ( Photography & Aftercare )

( A few final words )

Current Music: The Willow Maid - Erutan
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/4866.html

Today is a happy, happy day, because I finished not one, but two bookbinding projects! I've been working on the both of them for months, so it's both strange and exciting to have them done. One of them is the slipcase that I mentioned before, and that's the one I'll talk about today. The other I simply call THE bookbinding project, because that one was intense. I can't tell you more about it than that at the moment, for reasons most of you already know, but I'll write a proper post about it later.

( The slipcase )

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/4775.html

I realised that I've spent a lot of time here talking about bookbinding, but haven't yet shared any of my work. High time to rectify that! Here are some pictures of a book I finished recently and that I'm quite proud of.

( See more )

( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/4381.html

Day 9

Commit an act of kindness.

I've done a couple. However, there's one person in this challenge who keeps saying how much they want everyone to add a Transformative Works Statement to their AO3 profile, so I did :D

Days 10 & 12

Day 10: Create a fanwork. Day 12: In your own space, create your own challenge.

I've taken these days together, because the challenge I'm setting for myself is to complete day 10 and create a fanwork. I've always been reluctant to be more personal in my online life and have therefore never mentioned bookbinding in my journal before. Now that I have, however, and received many positive comments about it, I feel so inspired to make more books! So that's what I'll do :D. My personal day 12 challenge will be to bind a fanfic, just for myself, to get some experience with binding actual stories. I'm not sure which fic I want to do yet, but if the book turns out well, I'll share some pics of it here as proof that I've completed day 10 of the Snowflake Challenge ^^

Edit June 2019: It took me three months, but I finally did it and made a book! The result can be found here. My super long post with picturs and details of the binding process is here, though you must have already seen it when you were scrolling down my entries ;)

Day 13

In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private (And remember, don't wait until you've achieved your goals to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take to get there!).

Fannish: Complete day 10/ day 12 of the Snowflake Challenge
Fannish: Figure out a good fandom/ RL ratio and stick to it. I sometimes spend way too much time on fandom, which takes away from both my offline life and my enjoyment of fandom, so I need to come up with 'a schedule' that works better for me.
Bookbinding: I want to learn how to sew endbands and preferably try at least 3 different types
Bookbinding: I want to get at least one step closer to fulfilling my dream of one day doing a full, traditional gothic binding. That might be by getting more experience in working with leather, practice more with rounding and backing, or experimenting with fake ribs.
Personal: I really need another job. I'm already working on that though and even have an interview in a few days. Fingers crossed!

Current Mood: excited
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/4251.html

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: hopeful
Crossposts: https://antuhsa.livejournal.com/3433.html

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Antuhsa's Bibliophilic Adventures

Recent Entries

February bookbinding wins

Snowflake challenge: 14 & 15

Snowflake Challenge: days 10-13

Snowflake Challenges 7 and 8

Snowflake challenge: 5, 6

Snowflake challenge - 4

Snowflake Challenge: 3

Snowflake Challenge - challenges 1 & 2

Starting the Snarry bookshelf

Visiting the Boekkunstbeurs and trying my first soaps

NaCraMaMo and the Zutphen chained library

Doing all them crafts

Rebinding an art deco book and the future of my bookbinding

Book collecting in the wild

A new account and a rec

The Lost World (book version) - The making-of

Slipcases and other bookbinding adventures. But mostly slipcases.

Medieval limp binding

Snowflake Challenge - Days 9, 10, 12 & 13

Snowflake Challenge - Day 6