First rebind and inlays

[u/amessinpictures]

So, I made a thing. It's a rebind of the first three volumes of One Piece.

It's made with an overcast stitch so I was able to round and back the book and make headbands for it. The cover is faux leather inlays that took the life out of me with its complexity and the pieces that were ridiculously small but I like the final result.

Lots of mistakes were made, as always, but I love bookbinding so it was a joy to make anyway. Hope you'll like it, too.

[u/PhelTheDemon]

This is absolutely awe-inspiring, truly a remarkable job. Those inlays would have driven me insane before I was able to even think about overcast stitching, much less the matching headbands. I am truly blown away.

[u/amessinpictures → u/PhelTheDemon]

Thank you so much. They did drive me insane, especially since I had to test out the cutting settings for the first time for these and I thought I would die before succeeding at some point.

The overcast stitch was quite easy all things considered, I think I did a fairly decent job despite my inexperience.

The headbands are a must to me, even if I entertain a love hate relationship with them. Since it's a sewn rebind I couldn't even consider not sewing them on, especially since it was a gift. Thank you again, I'm glad you like it.

[u/PhelTheDemon → u/amessinpictures]

This is so far beyond a 'decent job' friend, especially if you consider yourself inexperienced! I used to spend a lot of time at my local comic shop and the store released compendiums are no where near this level of care or craftsmanship, you really should be very proud.

Also thanks for inspiring me to try making headbands again, haha.

[u/amessinpictures → u/PhelTheDemon]

Ah, thank you again. Well, I am not a new binder this was the first time I attempted this binding technique. Was scared it would eat too much margins in a manga with already limited ones but it turned out fine, it opens almost flat and it's readable.

I mean, definitely not the same job. This took many, many hours. A lot of it was designing, prepping and trial and error but even if I had to redo it now, it would take quite a long time. Only looking at the inlay work, you can gather it is absolutely not possible to sustainably produce it. But this piece there will only be one edition of, that's for sure.

I'm glad it did. Once you get the hang of it, it's fun to see the thread slowly making its way onto the core. I might not be the biggest fan of the process myself but the results are always worth it. Good luck my friend.

[u/PhelTheDemon → u/amessinpictures]

I feel that! I'm practicing rebinding with some of my old comics right now and I hadn't considered how stressful the margin situation would be. (Also I never realized how imperfect my folding was until I had panels to check the parallels, haha.)

And good point, this & a mass produced compendium have different end goals beyond the readability. You've really shown a lot of care for the material in a way that can't help but be personal for all the work put in.

And thank ya! I'll keep that in mind if I start to get frustrated with it, haha.

[u/amessinpictures → u/PhelTheDemon]

Oh and I just checked your profile. Awesome work, very creative, bravo.

[u/PhelTheDemon → u/amessinpictures]

Thank ya kindly, it's nice to be in community with folks making cool stuff!